Posted by John on October 28, 1999 at 15:29:14:
To all affiliates:
I would like to take advantage of this forum to share with you some thoughts that I have concerning the state of our house. Hopefully some of you will read this; I choose the forum so as to not clutter your mailboxes.
As far as I can tell, Howard House has yet to find its appropriate place in the Bowdoin community. Our events, while fun, creative, and non-alcoholic, only attract affiliates with the rare exceptions such as last year's Singled Out. I appreciate the hard work that the House Leaders and first-year reps do in providing these events. However, I think it is imperative both to the success of chem-free living and the House System that Howard somehow attract and involve the entire Bowdoin community. I believe this can be done and here is my idea of how:
In addition to what is already being done, I would like to see Howard pick up the role of (for lack of better words) the intellectual house. Quinby did an excelent job in getting professors Glaude and Coviello to debate at their house last week. That debate sparked my current train of thought. Both professors called for passionate, invigorating intellectual discussion to take place on campus outside of the classroom. I believe we can offer such a forum.
Approximately one year from now will be the first time I, and probably most of you, have the opprotunity to vote for the President of the United States. Just the thought of this gives me an awesome feeling of power and responsibility to be an informed voter. Last night Bill Bradley and Al Gore debated in Hanover, NH and tonight the top Republicans (with one notable exception) will debate. The debates are nationally televised and will be followed by at least six more (involving Bradley and Gore) over the next three months. Does this scream opprotunity to anyone else???
I envision a packed room full of both students and faculty actively watching the debates. A discussion afterwards, perhaps lead by a Glaude or Franco or Sehon. I envision passionate, invigorating intellectual discussion, a roomfull of informed voters, and (last but not least) non-affiliates at a Howard event.
I would like to know your thoughts on this. Reply to me or post your own message here for all to read. I would like to get something together for the next round of debates.
Thanks for your time,
John Thorndike
P.S. Steve and I tried this last night and ended up yelling at each other about campaign finance reform for nearly two hours.