Mirror - Vol. 19, No. 09 - November 17, 1994

              The
FairfieldMRR©R Volume 19, No.9 Thursday, November 17, 1994 Happy Thanksgiving!
June Jordan speaks on language and politics
Caitlin Whelan
News Editor
June Jordan spoke on
"The Politics of Language: The
Poet as Activist,," before an
audience of students, faculty, and
administration on Thursday,
November 10.
Dr. Sally O'Driscoll,
Assistant Professor of English,
introduced Jordan as a key part of
the effort to "face the challenge
from those who would use racism,
sexism, and homophobia to divide
us."
Jordan is Professor of
African American Studies and
Women's Studies at the University
of California at Berkeley. She was
the recipient of the Rockefeller
Grant in 1969.
Jordan began by looking
at the political system and how the
current offices emerged due to the
1992 election. Questioning the
use of the term majority, Jordan
acknowledged that "mostly young,
mostly elderly, mostly progressive,
mostly women, and mostly
African-Americans, Asian-
Americans, Native Americans, and
Spanish-Speaking Americans put
Clinton into office."
"These are the members
of the newly emerging majority,"
Jordan said. "I am not a member
of a minority."
Jordan spoke on the
political debates regarding the
proposed restrictions on
immigration in the United States.
"All the current uproar
about immigration is very
strange," Jordan said, continuing,
"Mostly everyone in the United
States came here as an immigrant,
of Native American descent, or of
African American descent. We
are constituted of many diverse
elements, but you don't break
down each one by one. You are
looking at the components of the
American people."
"Most people are
women, most are white, most
don't speak English. By the year
2000, our country will come into
sync with the rest of the world,"
Jordan added.
Jordan next questioned
the issue of illegal aliens, tying it
into the English Only Laws in
California, which favors the
speaking ofEnglish above all other
languages. She also spoke on
Proposition 137 and Proposition
187, further restrictions dealing
with immigration in the United
States.
"All of these things are
very closely connected, and very
frightening," Jordan said.
Jordan expanded on the
education system in California,
which is suffering from a large
number of immigrants without
citizenship trying illegally to have
the education they are deprived of
in their own countries. The
California education system legally
requires some teachers to report
students they believe may be illegal
immigrants in order to control the
population in the schools.
"Within the next ten
years, we will be spending two and
a half times more money on the
prison system than on education in
California," Jordan said.
Jordan later broke down
excerpts of the racist message that
was written on a bathroom stall in
Gonzaga Hall on October 20.
The message talks about
minorities, Jordan said. "What
minorities? Most people on the
planet are Asian." Further, she
said, 'As for taking back what
was once ours, America has
always been heterogeneous.
Living in a democratic state
involves equal entitlement."
The message itself,
Jordan said,''(' mstitutes political
language, and if you accept this,
you are participating in that
mindset. Language is really
critical."
"There is a failure of
leadership in our country," Jordan
said. "A failure ofthe government
to talk to us and tell us who we
really are, and how we really
are."
"We must become
intellectually defensible," Jordan
said, "We must know a basic
distribution of what kinds of
people are in the world. We must
be morally defensible, and we
must be psychologically
defensible."
"We are capable of all
kinds of insanity, because when
you don't know something you
start imagining, and focusing on
the basis of fear rather than fact,"
Jordan said, adding, "Fear will
subside as reality increases."
Pass-It-On Retreat remembers Lori Pinette
Kristen Finello
Contributing Writer
"Her enthusiasm in
sharing her faith and feelings
neverceasedtoamazeme." "She
left everybody who had a chance
to know her with the challenge to
be better people." These were
some ofthe sentiments expressed
about Lori Pinette, a 1993
Fairfield graduate who died in a
plane crash on July 2, 1994.
Lori graduated from
Fairfield with a B.A. in
Psychology and was pursuing a
Master's Degree in Social Work
at the University of South
Carolina. She was also a former
leader of the Pass-It-On Retreat,
an annual student-led retreat
weekend.
This year's Pass-It-On
Retreat took place from
November 11-13. Senior Joe
Dailey, who along with Lori was
one of the first retreat leaders,
attended the retreat to pay tribute
to Lori. During a brief candle-lighting
ceremony Joe recounted
his first meeting with Lori, during
a Pass-It-On Retreat 3 years ago.
Joe also shared some of his
feelings about Lori and her tragic
death.
"When I got the news
about what happened this
summer I felt a great personal
loss, but what really devastated
me was the fact that it seemed
that a lot of people were losing
out whether they knew it or not.
She had a lot more love to give,"
Dailey said.
In addition, a letter
written by Lori's mother was
read. In her letter, Mrs. Pinette
shared with the retreatants Lori' s
favorite quote, "Dream for
tomorrow, but live for today."
On Sunday, November
13, a tree was planted in
remembrance of Lori and in
celebration of her life and the
countless lives she touched. The
tree was grown and donated by
Dr. Edward Dew, Professor of
Politics. During the tree-planting
ceremony retreatants had the
opportunity to pay their respects
to Lori by each placing a handful
of soil, taken from the Fairfield
University campus, at the base
of Lori's tree. The emotional
ceremony was concluded by Joe
Dailey replacing the remainder
of the soil.
The young maple tree
stands on the grounds of the
retreat house as a symbol of
Lori's life and her untiring
devotion to the Fairfield
University community.
Retreat leaders Andrea Petrone '95 and Greg Taddeo '97 Photo:
help plant Lori's tree as Joe Daiely looks on. Flood
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