Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 11 - November 19, 1987

              HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
MIRRORy The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 11 Our Second Decade Thursday, November 19, 1987 The Image of Fairfield
Young discusses Caribbean Democracy
By Lynn Ann Casey
Staff Writer
"I am speaking about a subject very
close to my heart," said Dr. Alma H. Young
in her speech on Caribbean politics in,the
Oak Room on Tuesday night. As part of
Fairfield University's Visiting Black Schol-ars
Scries, Dr. Young presented her topic
entitled "The Caribbean at a Cross-Roads:
Authoritarianism or Democracy".
Dr. Young is a full professor and
associate chancellor for academic affairs at
the University of New Orleans. She has an
undergraduate degree from Radcliffe, a
master's degree form Columbia's School of
Journalism, and a doctorate from the Massa-chusetts
Insititue of Technology in political
science with a specialization in Caribbean
policy. Not only has she studied the Car-ribean
extensively, she visits there every
summer.
The first quaestion she addressed
was "whether the English-speaking Carib-bean
is moving toward Central American-ism."
She spoke ofCentral America to show
what the Caribbean would end up with. Dr.
Young said that the "oppressive regimes of
Central America...led to violence and civil
war." Because of this and economic
crises, she thinks "any hope of social reform
has been stymied."
On the other hand, she feels that the
English-speaking Caribbean is different
from the situation in Central America. This
is because "democratic institutions and
Dr. Alma H. Young, (photo by O'Connor)
models were a norm." At this point, Dr.
Young began to talk about the people. She
says they are "coerced into submission" by
the government and the military. She is
afraid of the alarming growth rate of milita-ristic
forces.
Dr. Young says that "the English-speaking
Caribbean is learning that political
independence without economic independ-ence
is elusive." The lack of change is
leading to "widespread alienation" of the
people. She says they are not "active
participants in the government but they bear
the brunt of unfair policy decisions." They
are voicing discontent but "the elite are
using anything to retain order." The people
merely want an improved quality of life.
"When will their voice ...be fully
heard?" Well, Dr. Young feels that "the
future depends on the people". They must
depend on "history and their will to survive
to help overcome adversities." "In short,"
she continued, "the English-speaking Car-ibbean
must become more democratic."
"I think the key is education of the
people." Dr. Young feels that they must be
prepared through an extensive study of his-tory
to "make their own value judgements
and their own deliberate choices." Finally,
she wants the people of the English-speak-ing
Caribbean to understand that "a just and
humane society is worth the effort and they
should be content with nothing less."
Symposium traces history of chdrch and state
By Claudine Kiffer
Staff Writer
This year marks the 200th anniver-sary
of the writing of the United States
Constitution. In an attempt to commemo-rate
this event and to bring increased aware-ness
of our Constitution to our campus,
Fairfield University sponsored a Sympo-sium
on the Bicentennial of the United
Slates Constitution. This symposium was in
the form of six different presentations,
spread over the two-day period of Novem-ber
10 and 11. The events were held in the
Oak Room.
The main theme of the symposium
was the ongoing question of the separation
of church and state. The first presentation on
Tuesday was given by Dr. Robert
Winthrow, Professor of Sociology at Prin-ceton
University. Following this speech
was a panel discussion featuring Fairfield
University facutly members; Lawrence
Kazura, Professor of History, Dr. Donald
Greenburg, Professor of Politics, and Pro-fessor
Arthur Anderson from the Sociology
Department.
The next event was a brown-bag
luncheon seminar on "Landmark Cases that
Shaped the Constitution." The speaker was
Martha J. H. Elliott, producer and author of
a PBS scries on the Constitution. Three
different controversial subjects—prayer in
schools, religions prohibiting blood transfu-
Dr. Robert Winthrow from Princeton University and Dr. Donald Greenburg from
Fairfield conduct a forum on the Constitution, (photo by Whitehouse)
sions, and evolution versus creationism—
were freely discussed. This was an informal
session, and many conflicting opinions
were aired in a forum that was at times quite
heated.
The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman,
Attorney General from the State of Con-necticut,
gave the final presentation on
Tuesday's agenda. It was titled, "Religion
in the Public Sphere: Key Constitutional
Cases," and dealt with famously controver-sial
issues.
The opening event on Wednesday
was a showing of the film Inherit The Wind,
starring Spencer Tracy and Frcdric March.
This 1960 movie was especially relevant to
the topics being discussed because it deals
with the Scopes Monkey Trials. The film
was about the teaching of evolution in
schools.
The next session of the symposium
was about religion and politics in the 1980's.
Two lectures were given by Dr. Jay Demer-ath
and Dr. Wade Clark Roof, Professors of
Sociology at the University of Massachu-setts
at Amherst.
Concluding the two-day symposium
was a presentation entitled, "The Religion
Clauses: The American Experience." The
honorable John T. Noonan of the United
States Court of Appeals gave this conclud-ing
lecture.
Fairfield 2000
tackles county
problems
By Chris Michailoff
News Editor
Fairfield County 2000, a group
formed by the Connecticut Committee of
the Regional Plan Association, will hold an
open conference on November 21 from 9:00
a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Fairfield University
Campus Center.
Fairfield County 2000 involved 800
of the county's top government, corporate,
and civic leaders in a process over the past
year to explore county problems and to
recommend possible solutions to them, as
the county moves into the 21 st century. The
Fairfield 2000 report was produced over the
past year by 800 people in eight Task Forces
under the supervision of the Steering Com-mittee.
The report will be discussed in a
public forum, this weekend.
The Task Forces were launched by
the Connecticut Committee of the Regional
Plan Association, as part of Fairfield 2000.
The 29-person Steering Committee, which
includes the eightTask Force chairmen, pre-pared
an overall report after careful consid-eration
of theTask Force recommendations.
C. Peter Mc Colough, chairman Of the
Xerox Corporation, heads the Steering
Committee.
This project is initiated by the Re-gional
Plan Association which looks at the
tri-state metropolitan area, and sponsers
several 2000 projects. This association is a
nonprofit citizen organization that has been
involved in regional development.
Fr. Aloysius P. Kelly, S.J., the Uni-versity
President was selected as a member
of the Steering Committee. Fr. Thomas
Savage, S.J., the Assistant Academic Vice
President, was the chairman of the Task
Force for Community Values. Fr. Savage
stated that his task force "examined the
underlying values that the community wants
to maintain."
After an audio-visual presentation to
summarize Fairfield County 2000's report,
participants will be divided into small
groups to discuss the report's 30 policy
recommendations. Each group will have a
series of questions posed at it, with the aim
for providing the Committee with various
answers
Fairfield University was chosen as
the site ofthe conference since it had worked
with the Committee. The University is able
to provide the facilities to accomodate this
meeting. Fr. Savage affirms that, "We're
favorably received as a school which wants
to make an active contribution to our sur-rounding
area."
The intent of the recommendations
made by the Task Forces is to make the
Fairfield County "an agreeable place to live
in; and to preserve the quality of life while
ensuring it remains equitable and just." Fr.
Savage said, 'To the extent that Fairfield
County becomes a desirable place to live, so
the University will profit also."