Prejudice Response Task Force:

The Community Prejudice Response Task Force is a group of staff, faculty, and students which was formed in the fall of 2006 to deal with issues of discrimination affecting the Brandeis community.

As its mission statement says, the CPR taskforce aims to promote the Universitys commitments to mutual respect and social justice, while taking necessary steps should those commitments be compromised. Our mission is to serve the Brandeis student body in addressing acts of bias, intentional or accidental, by offering resources for students seeking advice, while assuring their safety and well-being on campus.

Write On: Writers silently speak

Ok, admit it, youre as upset as most other people that Greys Anatomy just may not air for some time after January. So why is this? What would prevent this popular show and countless others from airing?

Well, unless youve been living under a rock or relying on your TiVo to show you everything lately, Im sure youve heard of the writers strike thats going on. The Writers Guild of America recently decided to strike after having just about enough with those oh-so-powerful Hollywood producers.

Why I refuse to drink

During my first semester at Brandeis, I took Introduction to Political Theory with Professor Abramson. Among other wonderful works the entire class was required to read the Platonic dialogue the Crito. In this work, Socrates is in jail and is sentenced to be executed. His friend Crito says that he has bribed the jailer, and Socrates can make his escape. Socrates then replies that he will stay for his execution. He explains that he does not have the right to go against the laws of the state, and he is ready to accept his punishment. This piece struck me in a profound way. What right do I have to determine which laws are good and which are unjust? How do I have the audacity to assume that I am brighter than our politicians and have the ability to break laws? From that point forward, I resolved never to break a law again. This has most notably manifested itself in my unwillingness to consume alcoholic beverages. Though we are at college, for the past two years, I have perhaps once broken this solemn vow. Id like to rationalize this position and perhaps change perceptions about a popularly accepted activity.

SODA’s stance on guns

Chrissy Callahan recently had an editorial in The Hoot about the public safety officers at Brandeis University (“Give the police a chance,” Nov. 9). This is the only way I can characterize the piece;

it did not seem to really address the issue of arming said officers. She proved her points very well, but they did not seem to respond to the criticisms of Students Opposing the Decision to Arm (SODA) and others. As a member of SODA, I would like to address Callahans article and the framing of the argument in general.

Book of Matthew: Special Edition: Guns

Welcome to a special edition of the Book of Matthew. As promised, I would like to take the time to reflect on letters and articles written on an issue that has divided our school. Im talking about guns.

We all know that this world is not perfect. Violence occurs everyday, and a large portion of it is gun violence. Unfortunately, this violence has caused our society to view all guns as evil implements of death. While it is true that gun crimes are terrible tragedies, murder in cold blood is not the sole purpose of guns. Guns can be used a powerful deterrent to stop tragic crimes, without even being fired. Yes, there are people who should never be allowed to hold guns, but there are also people who should never go to work without them.

Our friend the dictator

Pakistan has a brutal history of military dictatorships, but when General Pervez Musharraf instituted a state of emergency a little less than two weeks ago, Pakistanis got to experience something unprecedented in their political history. For the first time, heavily armed Pakistan police besieged the countrys courts. Musharrafs megalomaniacal move was designed to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling that his reelection last month was illegitimate.

Impeach abstain for Off-Campus Senator

As the position of Racial Minority senator has been scrutinized and could possibly be removed for its violation of Title VI, other positions that are completely valid have gone unrepresented. Most specifically, I am referencing this years senator for off-campus students, who goes by the name abstain. While students on campus have been pestering the administration about noise, arming the cops with guns, and other issues that occur on the Brandeis campus, our brothers and sisters who live in the real world in Waltham currently have no representation.

Decades after Davis, racism still a problem

While abroad I have devoted the time that I usually spent in the US watching TV towards reading in the semi-comfortable setting of my home here in Dakar. While escapism is partly behind this renewed interest of mine, the sparse library at my school has provided a few gems, and the paperback version of Angela Davis autobiography provided me with the weekend entertainment that badly dubbed Brazilian soap operas could sadly never completely supplant.

The unbearable whiteness of being

Hey blackie, whats up?

This greeting (Che, negro;

como andas?) was as common a phrase as I heard during my semester in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The fact that Im as white as Conan OBrien or that there are almost no black people in Argentina didnt change things one bit. Negro was simply a term of greeting or endearment, as harmless as dude or man. For women, obviously, the feminine version negra was used, with the diminutive negrita if one wanted to be affectionate.

Letter to the editor: Response to Nov. 9th letter

Dear Editor,

Wow, Mr. Hogan did an absolutely tremendous job of missing the point of my article (Letter to the Editor, Nov. 9). Im not even mad, thats amazing. Lets just break this down piece by piece and try to make sense of his response.