By wpengine March 8, 2004
Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace prize, addressed a capacity crowd in Kennedy’s David L. Call Auditorium on Friday. Williams delivered the keynote address, “The Individual’s Impact on Social and Political Change,” for the Cornell Commitment Convocation. Three themes that ran throughout the entire ceremony, which Williams addressed, were leadership, service and commitment to social change. “Our speaker has recognized the need for change, and she has applied her talents and passions on the global level,” said Jesse Corburn ’03, a Cornell Tradition alumnus who introduced Williams. “Ms. Williams received the Nobel Peace prize in 1997 for her work and dedication to eliminate anti-personnel landmines. She is currently serving as the campaign ambassador for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the ICBL, which she helped to create. She continues to teach the world to strive for social change. She is an activist for human rights, a writer, a reader and a true leader.” Williams used her time at the podium to give a description of her background and to analyze the most effective methods of creating change on both social and political levels. “For more than 20 years I have been an activist on issues related to human rights, socio-economic justice and war and peace,” she said. According to Williams, her work has been driven by personal dedication and high standards to achieve change in a particular cause. “I believe that each and every one of us, no matter what our role in life, can be an agent of positive change in this ever-increasingly small planet. I believe that each of us, no matter what we do, must be motivated to do our best by the highest ethical and moral standards,” Williams said. Such determination has helped Williams to overcome obstacles, which she has encountered throughout her career as an activist and especially in her work with the ICBL, she said. “Every single government that I met with in the first days of the campaign mumbled, after I explained what we were trying to do, words like ‘utopia,’ ‘dreamer,’ ‘it will never happen.’ But at my core, I believed in the rightness and righteousness of our effort to eliminate this indiscriminate killer. I did not hear those words as insurmountable obstacles, but as problems to be dealt with as the campaign grew, and as we worked toward our goal of a mine-free world,” she recalled. The defining accomplishment of the ICBL came in Sept.1997, when an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines was signed during the diplomatic conference held in Oslo, Norway. The treaty was the result of the campaign’s cooperative effort with governments, United Nations bodies, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Today, 150 countries support the treaty, while 44 countries remain unsigned — including the United States, Iraq, Cuba and North Korea, among others. Regarding her achievements, Williams said, “I believe to this day that what made us successful, in large part, was commitment, follow-up, and follow-through. From our very humble beginning, we grew to be a campaign that now encompasses about 1,300 non-governmental organizations working in 85 or 90 countries around the world.” The campaign has continued its work since the 1997 treaty, however, in an effort to extend the agreement to those nations which remain unsigned. “I think people expected we would see victory in the treaty and walk away. Another thing I’ve learned about service and commitment for real change is that you stick with the job you started until it’s done,” Williams said. Like the governments Williams encountered early in the campaign, many people view her efforts as striving towards utopia, an ideal Williams outright renounces. “I totally reject the idea of the utopia. I don’t believe that building a better world or hoping for a peaceful world comes about through utopian dream. Building a better world, building change, is the absolute result of hard work every single day to make the world be the way you want it to be. It does not happen because you sit back and visualize world peace. It happens because you get up and take action to create the world in which you want to live.” Such principles have shaped Williams’ ideology, which has provided the foundation for her work towards change. “The core beliefs that have motivated me for much of my life — I believe that the world definitely can and will be a better place. I believe that we can leave it a better place than how we find it today. I believe that each and every one of us has the capacity, in his or her own way, to make significant contributions for the global good. I believe that passion and emotion for change, without taking steps to make that change happen, are largely irrelevant,” she said. In closing, Williams encouraged the members of the audience to recognize that they are each part of the global network of people, and that the contributions each person makes are built on the contributions of those that came before them. “Finally, I would end in saying that each and every one you, who is part of the Cornell Tradition and the Commitment, has the capacity to embrace your own passion and put it into action to help create a better world for us all,” she said. Prior to Williams’ talk, student described the three programs that comprise the Cornell Commitment. Sheena Lee ’05 spoke about The Cornell Tradition, Andrew Reisenberg ’05 described the Cornell Presidential Research Scholars program and Allison Miller ’04 detailed the Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars program. Following the introductory portion of the convocation, Todd Hilgendorff ’02 presented the Debra S. Newman Cornell Tradition Community Recognition Award to Noel Desch. “For the past three years Mr. Desch has volunteered hundreds of hours to complete a regional solution for water waste treatment. He worked with six municipalities in Tompkins County to protect Cayuga Lake and encourage economic development for low and moderate housing and business growth,” Hilgendorff said. Desch will select a charity to receive the $1,000 that accompanies the award. After the presentation of the Newman award, Corburn ’03 described his current work with the Teach for America Corps. and reflected on his experience as a Cornell Tradition student. “The secret that brings us all here tonight is that nobody in this room is satisfied with the way the world works right now — that everybody in this room is in a constant search for inspiration, for open doors, for ways that we can each impact other and create change,” he said.Archived article by Tony Apuzzo
By wpengine March 8, 2004
The Roman Empire. Napoleonic France. The 121st editorial board. Saturday, March 6 marked the fall of yet another empire of Western civilization. The election was chaotic — sports editors cried for secession, the business department littered Goldwin Smith’s Auditorium D with shrapnel and napalm, the news department suffered tremendous losses in their ranks and the columnists hid in the corner discussing anal sex. Such a collapse has not been witnessed since the destruction of Sodom! After the tear gas cleared and the body count was tallied, a new regime — the 122nd editorial board — emerged. The new editor-in-chief, Andy Guess ’05, got his position solely through yelling, improvising his entire speech and sleeping his way to the top of the Daily Sun (which means he slept with one person and an inkjet printer). Despite a horrible insinuation that he may be a necrophiliac and despite directing many films detailing the lives of dead rabbits, Guess promises to act as a responsible spokesperson … or at least wear a tie when his pet bunnies are masturbating on his leg. Shalini Saxena ’05, the new business manager, will continue the business department’s legacy of contributing dry bagels and bankruptcy to staff meetings. Maybe this business manager will ensure that volatile mixtures of radiator fluid and human feces don’t drip from the ceiling at all hours of the night. The managing editor must be calm, amiable and understanding. Unfortunately, Freda Ready ’05 is an assertive, ball-busting man-hater, and she has a perplexing penchant for putting her sexual paraphernalia all over the front page. Although Associate Editor Erica Stein ’05 has a passably friendly exterior, she’s committed more crimes under the guise of progress than Mao and Pol Pot combined. She makes most of the staff feel bad just for existing and will therefore make an excellent elementary school teacher. This should come as no surprise as she’s from New Jersey. While most of us had crushes on Katie Holmes and Brad Pitt, Erica had a crush on that emblem of decaying heroin-death-superstardom, Keith Richards. Taking over the role of Frenchman is Jean-Paul LaClair ’06. If you couldn’t tell, he’s French, which means he gives cigarettes to babies and often calls our newspapers “merde Americaine!” while doing his duties as advertising manager. Perhaps the most overqualified sports editor in Sun history, Owen Bochner ’05 returns to lead the sports department. Owen brings impeccable posture and a finely groomed appearance to an entire office traditionally filled with individuals who find Third-World fashion trendy. However, we are worried that his jeans may be cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain. Katy Bishop ’06, the design editor, is nice to the point where it seems like she has ulterior motives. The Sun has done a background check on her storied past and has discovered that she paid her rent by engaging in highly illegal wrestling bouts against mentally damaged children in a psych ward. And indeed, her designs are often less suitable for a newspaper and more appropriate for Rorschach tests. In a newsroom whose notion of technology is “an abacus and some daguerreotypes for the front page,” Matthew Lee ’06 sticks out like a sore thumb with his wild visions of “computers” and “Internets.” As the new web editor, Lee has unknowingly walked into the position of web whipping boy for all the editors who still write their articles on parchment and clay tabernacles. Christine Papio ’05, the incumbent photo editor, still has her job because nobody else wanted it, garnering the title of “Worst Position on Staff.” Almost as eclectic as her photography is her sense of fashion. Christine is not afraid to combine pinstripes with sparkling leopard spots. As she puts it, “I’m unique. Damn it!” Alex Linhardt ’06, the new editor-in-chief of DAZE, claims he hasn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since Reagan was president and he was in the womb. He edits pages 7 and 10, but he lets the ‘shrooms edit page 9. New to entertainment editing, Alex tells us anyone can feel like an editor — all you need to do is get a bunch of homeless lepers to urinate all over you while you cry. Coming from a fascinating past of copy editing in the news department, Amber Parker ’06 expressed her utter contempt for human language and retreated to the even-more-interesting business department as the circulation manager. She claims this move was prompted by “an interest in finance, Keynesian multipliers and extortion.” Eric Finkelstein ’06, commonly referred to as The Truth, received a collective eyeroll upon announcing his candidacy for news editor. His ploy did not work, and he is now deceased. Which shows just how easy it is to become a news editor nowadays. News Editor Brian Kaviar ’05, the Nordic conqueror of the copy desk, has proven he’s an efficient and responsible organizer many times in his collegiate career — he has no idea what his major is, what college he’s in, what year he is, who his advisor is and whether his parents are alive or dead right now. Jeff Sickelco ’05 is so nondescript that the most significant moment of his life has been anonymously sitting through Student Assembly meetings. Now he’s finally a news editor. Jeff, please do something. Anything. Use profanity. Light a fire. Watch TV. Anything! When you think of the words “cute,” “adorable” and “friendly,” you think of Erica Temel ’06, also a news editor. Erica holds the unique position of being the only person at The Sun who elicits massive quantities of guilt from anyone who tries to insult her. Also, she murdered the last person who did that. Adam Sinovsky ’05, the associate design editor, has the highest tolerance for tequila of any Sun staffer and is the greatest thing to come out of Mahopac since Ryan McClay ’03. He’s also a double major in engineering, which means he is illiterate and hasn’t had a date, at least a bipedal one, in four years. Appropriately, Owen leads the least-qualified group of assistant sports editors in a long history of incompetent sports editors. Everett J. Hullverson ’05, Chris Mascaro ’06 and young Kyle “I’m Man-Beautiful” Sheahen ’07 compose the mighty triumvirate. All hailing from the Greek system, they enjoy elephant walks, binge vomiting and “philanthropy events.” While there are concerns that they were depleted of oxygen in the birth canal, there are three of them after all, so they can’t screw up that bad. Fun facts: — E.J. once removed his beanie cap when forced to in the ninth grade by his German instructor at an all-boys prep school. — Chris has never said a mean thing about anyone, ever, except members of the Colgate hockey team. (Losers.) — Kyle is the youngest member of the 122nd editorial board. He’s hoping to fulfill his gym requirement through the many hours he will soon put into working at The Sun. Good luck with that one, Kyle. Championing the title of Softest Testicles on Staff, Zach “I’m Only Third Best” Jones ’06 brings ineptitude and supermodel cheekbones to the position of DAZE associate editor. He was not originally selected for this position and was given an assistant to his already assistant position, facts that reflect the general confidence in his abilities. Zach, owing to his lack of enthusiasm and personality, has no friends and hates his life. If you see him, please call EARS and the suicide prevention program. Chris Mitchell ’05, in a move that defies all logical reasoning, abandoned the news department to work for business as marketing director. Despite his many new commitments, Mitchell still finds time to indulge in his favorite hobby — getting into weekly car wrecks with townies. And finally, Meagan Smith ’07, the assistant advertising manager, exists. That is all w