February 2023

TheFenwickReview

The Fenwick Review

VolumeXXX,IssueIII,February2023

Mission Statement

As the College of the Holy Cross’ independent journal of opinion, TheFenwickReviewstrives to promote intellectual freedom and progress on campus. The staff of TheFenwickReviewtakes pride in defending traditional Catholic principles and conservative ideas, and endeavors to articulate thoughtful alternatives to the dominant campus ethos. Our staff values Holy Cross very much, and desires to make it the best it can be by strenghtening and renewing the College’s Catholic identity, as well as by working with the College to encourage constructive dialogue and an open forum to foster new ideas.

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Holy Cross & The Church

Multi-Faith “Prayer”: Hijacking Faith for Politics

Anthony Cash ‘23

A Tribute to Pope Benedict XVI

Griffin Blood ‘26

The Little Prince of Great Peace

Liam Murphy ‘25

Politics & Culture

Hell-ywood: The Role of Entertainment in Social Erosion

Evan

‘23

Disclaimer:

This journal is published by students of the College of the Holy Cross several times per semester. The College of the Holy Cross is not responsible for its content. Articles do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editorial Staff.

Co-Editors-in-Chief

Anthony Cash, ‘23

Evan Poellinger, ‘23

Letter from the Editors

Deputy Editor

Anna Moran, ‘24

Correspondence Director

Will Kessler, ‘23

Social Media

Teresa Esquivel, ‘23

Graphic Designer

Briana Oser, ‘25

Staff Writers

Kevin Akalski, ‘23

Joe Barbieri, ‘23

Stacey Kaliabakos, ‘23

Louie Alexandris, ‘24

Andrew Shipley, ‘24

Sam Silvestro, ‘24

Joseph Nepomuceno, ‘25

Griffin Blood. ‘26

Aiden Konold, ‘26

Brendan Robinson, ‘26

Tucker Scott, ‘26

Faculty Advisor

David Schaefer, Professor of Political Science

DearReader,

ThankyouforpickingupthenewesteditionofTheFenwick Review!Asweembarkonthenew2023Springsemester,there areseveralexcitingupdatesforourpublication.

Firstofall,TheFenwickReviewhopestobringtwoexciting newspeakerstocampusthissemester:onefromalocalman whoistacklingtheOpioidEpidemicandanotherfroma renownedjournalist. Wehopethatthesetwospeakerswill fostercivilizeddialoguearoundtwoissuesthathaveaffected somanyofus.

Secondly,ournewsletter(TheCrusader’sBrief)isupand running,releasingtooursubscribers,alumni,anddonors monthly. Ifyouwishtosignup,pleasescantheQRcodeon Page2. Thisnewslettercontainsshortarticles,aCampus Craziessection,andmore!

Whiletherearemanychangesthissemester,onethingnever changes:ourcommittmenttotime-triedprinciplesand constructiveandinclusivedialogue. Fromthepoliticalantics oftheHolyCrossAdministration,toapopculturepromoting Satanism,weseektochallengethedominantnarrativeon campusandabroad. Wehopethatyouapproacheacharticle withanopenmind,willingtobechallengedbytheideas presentedineachone.

Godbless, EvanPoellinger&AnthonyCash,Co-Editors-in-Chief

FenwickHall,ca.1888.PublicDomain

HOLY CROSS & THE CHURCH

pp. 6-11

Multi-Faith “Prayer:” Hijacking Faith for Politics

Anthony Cash ‘23,Co-Editor-in-Chief

On January 24, 2023, the Chaplain’s Office resumed its annual Multi-Faith Prayer Service to represent the many faith traditions on and around campus. Many were excited for this tradition to resume, particularly those like me who practice religions different from Holy Cross’s Catholicism. What many envisioned as an opportunity for people of all faiths to come together in individual and collective prayer unfortunately turned out to be quite different than one would expect of a “prayer service.” There were some good things about the service, but overall, it hijacked the expectations of students to preach a partisan message and belittled the traditions of many students on campus.

The most problematic element of this “service” was the fact that very little emphasis was placed on prayer, reflection, or religious unity. It was instead focused on the heated political debate on climate change. Each speaker, the most extreme of which was Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau, insinuated that each of their faiths required action by everyone to pursue partisan solutions to climate change without regard to the costs or feasibility of their proposed solutions. Rather than preaching a uniting message to bind us together as a community, these speakers, especially President Rougeau, decided to present a message that divides Americans along partisan lines and present it as a supposedly unifying message.

The issue of climate change is far from a unifying

issue. The political debates around climate change range from those who literally believe air conditioning should be banned (clearly, they’ve never been to the South) to those who outright deny that climate change happens (which is factually inaccurate). However, most people fall somewhere in the middle and differ mainly on how to balance short-term necessities like a functioning economy and cheap, reliable energy with long-term goals such as energy diversification and carbon neutrality. These differences usually fall along partisan lines between Republican and Democrat, distinctions that should be absent from our faith communities.

Despite the divisive nature of the policy debate on climate, President Rougeau decided to equate being a person of faith and joining Eco-Action, an organization that constantly (admittedly not always) pushes a partisan agenda on climate without putting the ‘Democrat’ label on it. President Rougeau falsely claimed that all major religious

“While all other faiths read their Scripture or equivalent, there was no Christian text read.”

organizations prioritize the specific climate policies promoted by the Left, stating that this is an issue that unites us. While many religions believe that it is man’s responsibility to be good stewards of the earth, that principle does not lead all people of faith to the same climate policy conclusions as President Rougeau and the Democratic Party. Furthermore, President Rougeau implied that those who do not share his views on climate change policy are selfish and irresponsible.

Another issue of the service is that it denigrated the Christian faith. While it represented Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, and Hindu faiths by inviting faith leaders to read their scripture (and expound on environmental issues from their perspective), there was no such representation of Christians. While all other faiths read their scripture or equivalent, there was no Christian text read (besides the shared Old Testament text shared by Christians and Jews). The only Christian representation was in the form of a song that does not even mention God or Jesus, while Islam’s Allah and Hinduism’s various deities were not only named, but glorified. Instead, the “Christian” song was dedicated to “Mother Earth,” a deity unknown to Christian doctrines. The Hindu minister talked about and glorified her goddess, the Muslim minister read from the Quran and glorified Allah, yet Jesus Christ was never even named. On top of this, the other faiths were represented by ministers of their faiths while Christianity (in which there are several faith traditions) had a college president — not a priest, preacher, or pastor.

After the service, we enjoyed a very nice meal, to the Chaplain Office’s credit. During the meal, I spoke to some of my Catholic colleagues on what they felt about the service. One junior told me that the podium from which the speakers presented their scriptures and messages is only to be used for reading the Bible in their tradition. She explained that “not even announcements or the priest’s message can be read from that podium.” The fact that Islamic and Hindu deities were exalted from that same podium (false gods in a Christian context) and that each speaker used it to promote a partisan agenda were extremely offensive to the Catholic students

I interviewed. One sophomore told me that the service was highly unorganized, and students did not even know they had a role in the service until a few minutes before the event began.

Overall, this event was disappointing, as I was hoping to unite with those of different faiths to pray for each other. Instead, the event seemed like a McFarland Center talk on politics with a creepy bell between each speaker. As Alexis de Tocqueville advises, clergy should stay out of politics, for once a political movement inevitably fades, so will the religion that bound itself to that political movement. Faith communities should transcend partisan differences and seek to reach souls, not push a partisan agenda in the name of faith. Next year, I hope the MultiFaith Prayer Service stays true to its name and that the Honorable President does not hijack faith for his political agenda.

A Tribute to Pope Benedict XVI

On December 31st, 2022, at the age of 95, Joseph Ratzinger, better known to the world as pope Benedict XVI, and later as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, reached the last hour of his earthly life. Letting out his last breath, he reportedly said the words “Signore, ti amo” (“Lord, I love you”) before passing into eternal life with the Father. Like any man occupying the heights of power, he was not without controversy. He was loved by many and hated by many others. Still, in light of this, I view his life worthy of remembrance and recognition.

Prior to ascending to the papacy, Ratzinger had made a name for himself as an ardent defender of Catholic orthodoxy. Weathering the tempest in the Catholic Church in the late 20th century, Ratzinger had served as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) between 1982 and 2005. He defended the faith by reaffirming Church teachings in numerous declarations and documents. During his tenure as prefect, Pope St. John Paul II selected Ratzinger to oversee the formation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This great corpus helps to articulate the orthodox Catholic faith in concrete terms for everyone to understand.

He was more than a theologian though; he was also a pastor who sought to make God’s love evident to everyone. In one of his first homilies as pope, Benedict proclaimed without hesitation, “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” His first encyclical,

Griffin Blood ‘26, StaffWriter

Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), expounded the Christian notion of love and showed how the Church can be an instrument of God’s love in the world through charity. In his second encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), which touched on contemporary social issues, Benedict reiterated that God’s love must be paired with God’s Truth. He wrote in the encyclical’s introduction “To defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction,

and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity.” For Benedict, defending Truth was showing love.

Benedict’s life was also deeply liturgical. Somewhat paradoxically, he was born on Holy Saturday, the day us Catholics commemorate Christ dead in the tomb, and he died during the Christmas season, while we celebrate the birth of Christ. He sought to bring the beauty of the Church’s liturgy to everyone. As pope, his Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum declared that all priests of the Latin Rite had the right to say the Traditional Latin Mass, according to the 1962

“He was more than a theologian; he was also a pastor who sought to make God’s love evident to everyone.”

missal of pope John XXIII, which he declared had never been abrogated. In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy he lamented that “Anyone who nowadays advocates the continuing existence of this liturgy [the traditional mass] or takes part in it is treated like a leper; all tolerance ends here.” Benedict simply wanted to let those who loved the old liturgy know that they had a place in the Church.

I think it appropriate that the Holy Cross community remembers Benedict XVI as a fellow crusader. For what was he if not a crusader for truth and love? The life, writings, and deeds of Pope Benedict give witness to the incardination and the love God gave the world through his Son, Jesus Christ.

“ W e are notsome c lausa dna

The Little Prince of Great Peace

“Forachildhasbeenborntous,asongiventous; authorityrestsuponhisshoulders;andHeisnamed Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,PrinceofPeace.” -Isaiah 9:6

Every convert to Catholicism had a few things that took a while to fully make sense. For me, one of these was devotion to the Child Jesus. The image, common to the cradle Catholic (and sometimes in a cradle himself), was completely foreign to me outside of the Christmas Season. As I wrestled with, and surrendered to, Marian veneration, the Papacy, and transubstantiation, I continued to dismiss the yearlong devotion to the Christ Child as a Catholic quirk, a vestige of the Middle Ages.

Consider the Child of Prague. You will find Him on grandmothers’ mantles, in basement chapel corners, and among the porcelain dolls at Goodwill. A figure of the Child Jesus in full regalia, often wearing a crown larger than his own head. His popularity raises the question: why? Why pray to the child Jesus when you could simply pray to the adult one? No one supposes that Jesus sits at the Right Hand of the Father in toddler form. Is this depiction not also historically inaccurate? Christ was surely venerated as a king from birth, but the notion that He crawled around Egypt dressed as the king of hearts is dubious at best. What, then, does the Child of Prague, and devotion to the Child Jesus more broadly, have to offer modern Catholics?

Liam Murphy ‘25, Guest Writer

The Child Jesus surely reminds us of Christ’s humanity, and the innocent appearance of a child demands innocence from us, but this devotion also reveals social truths. When we dress the Child

Jesus like a monarch, we remind ourselves that the driving force of a rightly ordered society is service to the weak. Christ tells Saint Paul that “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is why He identifies Himself with the socially weak, the poor, in Matthew 25, and why Saint Paul says He took “the form of a slave” when He became

man. It is no coincidence that He took this form as a child first. Children are the weakest among us. Throughout the Old Testament, God and the Hebrew authors lament the practice of child sacrifice as the particularly defiling sin of the gentile nations. In our own nation, we have killed over 63 million children in the womb since 1973. Then and now, this sin defiles entire societies because it is a complete inversion of what society is for. It is the victimization of the weaker to serve the stronger.. When Christ is born, He is vulnerable to this danger immediately, as shown when King Herod orders His death. The social message of the Child Jesus, then, is clear. If we want to build a nation that serves Christ, it must serve the weak.

The Child Jesus also demands responsibility and virtue by reminding us of our role in creation more broadly. The Catholic agrees with the environmentalist (and the Catholic environmentalist rejoices at the fact) that we create the world our children receive. In Genesis, God tasks Adam, the master and steward of creation, with tilling and keeping the ground and naming the animals. In doing so, Adam participates in God’s creative act; he helps create the world that Eve, and all generations after, will receive. All human work fits into this formula. Like Adam, we receive the world from above, we shape it, then we give it to those below. It is our responsibility to shape the world in a way pleasing to God. This principle is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching, as it is the origin of human power and responsibility. It is what Saint Paul means when he writes, “those authorities that exist have been instituted by God (Romans 13:2), and what Jesus means when He says to Pilate, “you would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).

The Prophet Isaiah’s “peaceful kingdom” is the model of this. He writes, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them… The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.” (Isaiah 11:6, 8). The peace between the weak and strong animals in this kingdom is perfected by the presence of the child. He, the weakest, need not fear danger, because the animals’ power is directed to his service. This is the essence of social peace, hence the peacemakers are called “children of God” (Matthew 5:9). When we let the Christ Child lead us, He leads us to this peace.

As this principle applies to the islands of trash that our children will inherit, and the social order they will be born into, it also applies to the world, or worldview, of each individual child. A child who does not know right from wrong, or truth from falsehood, receives the world as we give it to him. No one can escape this responsibility. Children are like sponges. All you do around a child will create his world. If you sin, his world is sinful. If you lie, his world is false. Sin and falsehood will become to the child like water to a fish. The child, then, serves the unique, Christlike role of receiving our world. In light of this, the figure of the Christ Child is ironically eschatological. In the end, when Christ receives the world that we have helped to create, He will be filling this “childish” role. Therefore, in “Alpha and Omega” fashion, the Child Jesus serves as a potent reminder of not only the Incarnation, but also the Second Coming. He reminds us that we are, in fact, creating the world we inhabit, physically and socially, and that we will be held accountable for how we have done so.

“The social message of the Child Jesus is clear. If we want to build a nation that serves Christ, it must serve the weak.”

Culture & Politics

pp. 14-24

Hell-ywood: The Role of Entertainment in Social Erosion

Evan Poellinger ‘23, Co-Editor-in-Chief

On February 5, 2023, singer and songwriter Sam Smith decided to take the mask off the entertainment industry by dressing up as Satan and performing alongside dancers wielding BDSM gear as props with red lights and flames to match. The performance quickly drew ire from individuals who derided it as “Satanic” and reminiscent of the “End of Days.” Others took note of the song’s praise of Balenciaga, the now notorious fashion brand which drew fire for an ad campaign featuring children holding teddy bears dressed in sexualized clothing and bondage gear. While Smith may have breached a boundary by outing the entity which many in entertainment truly serve — while degrading already abysmal standards of entertainment in the process — the unfortunate truth is that the entertainment industry has been undermining social integrity in America almost since its inception.

Such was the subversive nature of modern entertainment that one of the first actions taken by concerned entertainment insiders and members of the public was to attempt the setting of internal and external guidelines for the industry. Driven by a number of high profile scandals, the Motion Picture Code was put into effect in 1930 in order to more effectively regulate the content of motion pictures. The code, drafted by Jesuit Fr. Daniel Lord and Catholic layman Martin Quigley, contained a general set of guidelines prohibiting depictions

of explicit sexuality and social deviance, while encouraging the depiction of correct morals and respect for law and order. In addition to the enforcement of the code, the National Legion of Decency — a Catholic organization dedicated to identifying and protesting morally questionable pictures — encouraged moviegoers to avoid pictures which it deemed inappropriate. While neither the Motion Picture Code nor the Legion of Decency were entirely perfect in their assessment of motion picture morality, they provided a critical moral bulwark in the realm of popular entertainment.

With the disappearance of the National Legion of Decency and the elimination of the Motion Picture Code, film and television have been left to

“...criminal conduct is glamorized, and serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have become icons of recent true crime films and television series.”

push the boundaries of moral decency with nearimpunity. Restrictions of on-screen intimacy and immoral conduct have given way to nudity and sex scenes that are borderline pornographic in nature. Furthermore, criminal conduct is glamorized, and serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have become icons of recent true crime films and television series. Meanwhile, the music industry has undergone an equal level of moral and compositional degradation. A 2008 study conducted by Heriot-Watt University found that popular music has become less melodically complex over time, which has translated into diminished creativity by listeners. Meanwhile, pop lyrics have become as ribald as they are stale, with Cardi B’s “WAP” and Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” graphically encouraging promiscuity and other base behaviors. Sixty years ago, Elvis Presley drew a storm of controversy for his allegedly provocative onstage hip swiveling and footwork. At present, Megan Thee Stallion performed in a skintight bodysuit and put on an extended twerking display on national television without so much as an eyebrow raised in the public sphere.

The degradation of social mores onscreen and on the air is proving to have very real consequences for American society. Perhaps the best known example of the impact of entertainment on American moral perceptions is the “Will and Grace Effect.” The eponymous show was one of the first to portray homosexuals in a prominent role, an intentional choice by its writers who were seeking to normalize homosexuality among the American public. The show was massively successful in this regard, with American support for gay marriage dramatically increasing during the show’s runtime, with thenVice President Joe Biden stating that he was one of the show’s many pro-gay converts.

It may be tempting for individuals on the right to dismiss the corruption and social rot in the entertainment industry as par for the course, or merely a matter of parental control over screens. Yet, the ubiquity of both debased shows and music renders such a dismissal hollow. Unless

the entertainment industry undergoes a true transformation, exposure to morally degrading content is an inevitability, and social and moral deviancy will continue to become normalized. Of course, a return to the Motion Picture Code is near impossible, as the entrenchment of cultural degradation has been so profound in Hollywood that a re-adoption of the code would almost certainly never come to fruition. The solution, therefore, must come from the consumer. Conservatives should endeavor to view more media propagated by like-minded actors, musicians, and companies, while simultaneously reducing their consumption of media from groups that oppose their moral interests. In lieu of an overarching Legion of Decency, Catholics and conservatives can work together on a smaller scale with individuals from their communities to coordinate their efforts toward changing entertainment. By taking these initial steps, conservatives can begin the process of reforming the entertainment industry.

Sam Smith at the 2023 Grammys, performing his hit “Unholy.”

The Dangers of TikTok

Stacey Kaliabakos ‘23,StaffWriter

In April 2020, a few of my friends finally convinced me to download TikTok. It is characteristic of me to be woefully behind on social trends — an example being that I did not download Instagram until my junior year of high school. Since I was already so disconnected from my friends due to the COVID-induced lockdowns at the time, I relented and downloaded the app — and what a mistake that was! I instantly found myself being bombarded with videos of all kinds: recipes, dance trends, comedy shorts, and many other types of content. One addicting thing about TikTok is the strategically-catered variety of content it offers. The app’s algorithm learns what you like scarily quickly and subsequently recommends similar videos in order to keep you interested. I, along with many other Americans who downloaded the app during the Pandemic, became TikTok addicts. Eventually, however, the whirlwind that was TikTok became too much for me, and I deleted the app over a year ago. At first, it was difficult to not have the option to distract myself from the day’s activities by going on TikTok since I had grown so accustomed to it. However, at this point in my life, I have now become so alienated from the world of TikTok that I forget it exists unless someone mentions it to me. So that begs the question: “Why am I writing this article?”

In mid-December, 2022, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States,

citing serious concerns about TikTok’s ties to China. Even though TikTok itself operates within the U.S., its parent company, ByteDance, is required by Chinese law to make data from TikTok available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Therefore, many American lawmakers are fearful that the private information of American citizens is being abused by the CCP due to TikTok’s ties to ByteDance. Additionally, Senator Josh Hawley (RMO) introduced and helped pass a ban on TikTok on government devices. This bill was unanimously passed in the Senate, but still needs to pass the House of Representatives. However, the fact that it was unanimously passed in the Senate is telling; why would lawmakers so vehemently want to ban TikTok on government devices but not provide the same type of security to regular citizens?

To be clear, banning TikTok is not a new endeavor. Some may remember that, back in 2020, the Trump administration also sought to ban TikTok in the United States. President Trump actually signed an executive order that banned TikTok from the app store that mentioned the concerns about TikTok’s apparent lack of privacy and the CCP connection. The executive order was immediately challenged for a multitude of reasons, one being that people were willing to give ByteDance and the CCP the benefit of the doubt. This assertion ignores the fact that the data belonging to regular American citizens were not private at all. One may actually

find that the data belonging to regular American citizens were not private at all. One may actually find explicit evidence of this in TikTok’s own terms of service, which reads in part, “We automatically collect certain information from you when you use the Platform, including internet or other network activity information such as your IP address, geolocation-related data, unique device identifiers, browsing and search history (including content you have viewed in the Platform), and Cookies.” Despite this concerning admission of questionable privacy ethics, the Biden administration reversed the ban on TikTok in June 2021, with President Biden saying that he would resolve the problem in a “different way.” However, he has not taken any action on the issue during the course of his presidency, which is why Congress is taking the problem into their own hands.

On top of the concerns about privacy, TikTok is dangerous for mental health reasons. A study was published in mid-December 2022 that exposed how TikTok intentionally recommends content that supports self-harm and eating disorders to young viewers, in the study, researchers set up TikTok accounts where they posed as 13-year-old users

interested in content about body image and mental health. Within 2.6 minutes after joining the app, TikTok’s algorithm recommended them suicidal content, and eating disorder content was recommended within just 8 minutes. Additionally, over the course of this study, researchers found 56 TikTok hashtags hosting eating disorder videos that collectively had over 13.2 billion views. The CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed, said, “TikTok is able to recognize user vulnerability and seeks to exploit it. It’s part of what makes TikTok’s algorithms so insidious; the app is constantly testing the psychology of our children and adapting to keep them online.”

Ultimately, it is undeniable that TikTok encourages degeneracy and is bad for the mental health of our citizens, but that is not reason enough to ban an app. However, it is paramount for the Federal government to get involved in the issue due to the national security threat that the app poses to us as citizens and to the United States as a country. Therefore, if you do not have a New Year’s resolution yet, here is a challenge: if you have TikTok, delete it as soon as possible, and if you do not have it, never fall to its temptations.

A License to Kill

There has been a growing movement pushing for the legalization and societal acceptance of assisted suicide that does not restrict itself to national boundaries. This phenomenon of euthanasia based on consent degrades human dignity by making life’s value wholly subjective. There is no logical limit to assisted suicide when it is allowed, as has been seen in practice in several countries. There is only one answer to this sinister threat that is tearing apart our respect for human existence, to radically value and defend all human life unconditionally.

Joseph Nepomuceno

physician-assisted suicide was legalized for patients (or victims) with terminal diagnoses through the Medical Assistance in Dying program (MAiD). Soon after, this law was expanded to include all Canadians with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition.” The next step in this logical progression has occurred but is temporarily delayed due to popular outcry. Originally intended for 2023 but coming into effect next year, it will make mentally ill people with no other medical conditions be assisted in committing suicide, essentially creating suicide on demand.

The most prominent example of this growing culture of death can be seen in Canada. In 2015, the Canadian Supreme Court overturned legal precedent by declaring that there exists a human right to assisted suicide in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Following this ruling,

This torrent of laws legitimizing and allowing euthanasia in Canada has destroyed, harmed, and threatened the lives of many Canadians. Every day twenty-seven Canadians commit suicide with the approval and support of a physician. One example of the effect of these new laws is the case of Alan Nichols. Nichols was placed on suicide watch at

“Every day twentyseven Canadians commit suicide with the approval and support of a physician.”

‘26,StaffWriter

his local hospital by concerned relatives, but while in the hospital he was assisted by physicians in his own suicide by citing “hearing loss” after refusing to wear his cochlear implant. Randy Obenauer, a seventy-four-year-old man, apparently would cry while cleaning his catheter. After his friends tried to obtain assistance for him, authorities asked if he was interested in the MAiD program instead. Several veterans seeking assistance from the Canadian Veteran Affairs program were offered MAiD as an alternative to psychological and medical help. Canadian society has become unfortunately very comfortable with suicide, but it does not end with Canada.

Many countries in Europe have legalized assisted suicide. Germany has gone the farthest, with a 2020 German Supreme Court case establishing that every autonomous individual had the right to suicide and governmental assistance in that suicide. Otherwise, in Germany’s view, the fundamental human right to choose would be deprived from its citizenry. In the United States, eleven states allow physicianassisted suicide. Oregon has been the pioneering state in this regard, recently making it legal even for out-of-state residents to obstain suicide services. The Massachusetts legislature currently has a bill legalizing assisted suicide that Governor Maura Healy seems inclined to sign if passed. As grim as this story is, many will question why the state should force someone to live, especially those who are terminally ill.

Many countries in Europe have legalized assisted suicide. Germany has gone the farthest, with a 2020 German Supreme Court case establishing that every autonomous individual had the right to suicide and governmental assistance in that suicide. Otherwise, in Germany’s view, the fundamental human right to choose would be deprived from its citizenry. In the United States, eleven states allow physicianassisted suicide. Oregon has been the pioneering state in this regard, recently making it legal even for out-of-state residents to obtain suicide services. The Massachusetts legislature currently has a bill legalizing assisted suicide that Governor Maura Healey seems inclined to sign if passed. As grim as this story is, many will question why the state should force someone to live, especially those who are terminally ill. Canadian society has become unfortunately very comfortable with suicide, but it does not end with Canada.

Many people support the legalization of euthanasia for those who are terminally ill, with recent polling at 72% in favor in the United States. But this justification for suicide is flawed and damaging to human dignity. The value of human life is not dependent on a medical diagnosis. Someone who is diagnosed with a terminal illness is not somehow less deserving of rights than someone who is healthy. The objective delineation between the terminally ill and the healthy is in the end arbitrary, as the human condition is ultimately terminal. Rather, the reason many sympathize with the terminally ill is the pain, both emotionally and physically, caused by such a devastating medical condition.

Extreme pain, emotional and physical, can make life seem undesirable and a burden for those afflicted with it. It becomes a struggle to do even the most basic tasks, and the chronic suffering can wear people down. Even the strongest amongst us would struggle with conditions such

“...pain does not diminish the value of human life.”

as depression or cancer. But once again, pain does not diminish the value of human life. Just because one loses the will to live, does not mean that living is unimportant. To prove this, I must ask an uncomfortable question that too many reading this are unfortunately familiar with. If your friend, who was in great suffering, came to you and confessed they were suicidal or actively intended to commit suicide, what would you do? Most people would try to comfort and support their friend in every way they can and do their best to ensure their friend gets help. Almost nobody would attempt to assist their friend in this horrible act. Some may consider that friend unable to consent properly due to their mental anguish, but how is their anguish significantly different from that experienced by the terminally ill? A lack of hope and belief in life is what drives people to this dark path, and we should do everything we can to prevent them from falling down it.

Regardless of religious belief or lack thereof, we all

know deep inside that life is a gift to be preserved. We know this in the same way that we know the rays of a dawning sun are beautiful and the sounds of a bird singing are musical. It has become easy to forget this simple fact while living in the modern world. We can seem so small and insignificant when compared to the billions of humans that cover this planet. Our identity is often devalued to just our GPA and what we contribute to GDP. Our lives can seem to become just hours of unremitting work and endless scrolling through social media. But life continues, and we must continue to live it as long as we are allowed to. There is a battle to be fought for human life without exception in the halls of power, behind podiums, and on television. But first, it has to be fought within each of ourselves and our relationship with others. Our current crisis of euthanasia is only enabled by a society that has grown callous to the amazing mystery and beauty of human existence. We must remember and believe in this universal truth, that life is worth living.

Pro-Life and Disability Rights Activists participate in a die-in protest against Canada’s Euthenasia Law.

Justice’s Signature Ballad

AShortStorybyLouieAlexandris,‘23

The sun had started to dawn in the East. Its youthful rays spread across the wide swath of the barren plains and dusty dunes. The streams of light baked the ground underfoot into fine silica that seemed to flow every which way, with the gentle breeze of the winds. Out of the sands, sun-baked stones seemed to pierce from underneath the surface creating the rugged terrain laid bare before the world. The wasteland of dust seemed endless in its appearance from one horizon to another. The ground gave off emanations of heat only visible in the distance. In the scorched landscape, only the dust and hard rock existed; alone in a soundless world of their own. For this wasteland of evermore expansion, with its looming sun and its everlasting gaze; will continue long after the feuds of man and their ambitions have faded into the dust.

Out of the confines of the dust arose a lone rider on the back of a weary mare. The solitary man steered the mare nonchalantly forward, staring off into the expanse, looking for something. The rays of the sun seemed to sear the man’s skin a deep red, but this did not bother his search. He scanned the horizon constantly; vigilant of anything that would justify his venture into this wasteland, while his frail mare lugged him continually forward. The wind scooped up pockets of loose silica and tossed the dust up into the man’s face. He could feel it; those

loose particles floating around him and landing softly upon the skin. A humbling of the spirit; a return of man to the place for which he once sprung. The breeze carried a coarse grit that would scrap man of his worldly vestiges, and at once reveal what eternally lay at his heart. Those deep tendrils of that original sin pierce deep into the once pure heart, leaving only a fallible deluded creature spawned in sin to surely one day die. The revelatory nature of man’s eternal destiny; the unconscious march toward his birthplace that follows all men. An ever-present cradle and grave preordained in man’s destiny.

The mark of his authority lay upon his hip, along with his Colt Single Action revolver that hung in his holster on his dominant side. The mark, carried by many a man in his profession, had taken him across the territories in pursuit of those boundless individuals yet tamed by the ever-present march of civilization. The weapon; a ubiquitous tool for those wandering the territories. Though the bore of this revolver had not seen more than a hundred slugs go down its narrow passage, nor did the weapon’s finish see any real wear. Almost untested, the forged metal lines had not seen the true possibility of wear that comes with an experienced ranger.

The eternal wanderer himself reeked a foul odor of

dried sweat from the arduous journey. His greasy hair maintained a matted condition with several knots, and the beard upon his face had grown wild. His linen clothes had darkened from the sweat and dust. Gone were the pomp and proper, and in its place, man had revealed himself to the emptiness of the open plane. The baseness of man on display.

He had descended into the empty planes on the promise of profit. A bounty of somewhat high acclaim and every more worldly currency. He had appeared out of the desert, what felt like years ago at this point, to be greeted by a sign inscribed with the title “Goodsprings.” A modest plot of land with a few interspersed rickety wooden shacks. The pine siding on each of the buildings had started peeling itself off the frames of the houses, as the shafts of the nail shanks had slowly been eroded by rust. The dust had coated the windows in a thin film; obscuring the interior of each building from the rider as he passed.

The hollow echo of silence bounded across the township. He roamed in silence until he came upon the town’s steeple and heard the faint murmuring of hymns. He stood at the base of the steps of the white Chapel. He did not dare to step inside the pure building, for he feared he would be struck down by some ethereal force for his tainted heart..

As he waited for the session to end, he took long drags on a rustic cigarette he had just lit. The smoke bellowed out and ash slowly bleed from the tip, while leaning against a baluster at the bottom of the stairs. The hymns stopped, the doors opened, and a flood poured out from the conclave. The passing people side-eyed him but did not bother to speak to the foreign one. As they shuffled out, the wanderer proceeded to call out to the amorphous blob, asking for the town’s sheriff. A disheveled wrinkled old timer separated from the mass to meet face-to-face with the wanderer.

“What can I do for you?” he croaked with slight apprehension.

“Have you seen this Man?” He held out a folded poster with a lightly sketched picture of a man. The

sketch of another wanderer, just as devoid as the last. The ghostly image of a face, skin clinging to the bone, of eyes sunken into the skull. A gaunt illustration of somewhat questionable validity, to only yield the basest of assumptions from these exaggerated features.

“I ain’t ever seen a man like this,” he had stopped for a second. “A few nights ago though, someone whipped the shit out of old Austin over a hand of blackjack. He rode off into the night before anyone had the balls to try to catch him.”

“Do you know which way he went?” the loner bellowed out under the taste of smoke.

The old timer waved for the blunt youth to follow. As the two walked slowly across town, he leveraged a question into the silence, “What’s your name?”

“What does it matter?” he blurted out with a slight smile.

“I guess it doesn’t matter much, but it would make things go easier…let’s stop at my house for a drink, you look thirsty.” They had stopped in front of a two-story shack with a precarious hanging balcony. The lacquer paint had eroded, exposing the veins of the wooden siding. The sheriff ran behind the building to a lowly well with the loner’s leather water bladder. He had returned with two filled bladders, along with a hunk of hard tack. He broke the giant piece of hard tack in half and handed him one piece along with his water bladder.

“Thank you…I’m sorry. I guess when you’re on the road forever, you forget the normalities. The name is Judas.” He grasped the leather bladder with one weathered hand and poured the cloudy water onto his face. A baptism in hospitality, for which the dust of the desert evermore wiped from man, but never fully erased. The looming event hung above his head, every present and never forgotten. The dust awaits all, born out of the first sin, and he could not forget his place concerning the needed action of justice and the end where true judgment is cast.

“It’s all right, living in this world makes a person think twice about everything. I mean who the hell

left you with a name like Judas?” He smiled at the thought, as they both chewed on their pieces of hardtack.

“I think my parents believed I was destined for infamy or some sort of fame,” he chuckled as the aged man smiled. The sheriff waited a second then responded, “What did this fella do anyway?”

“John Martin? He tried robbing a bank back in Oklahoma, but things didn’t go to plan. He ended up shooting dead two bank tellers when they got in his way. He walked away with nothing.”

“Christ, something is wrong with people,” the sheriff remarked honestly. The statement hung in the air for the time being. They sat for a few minutes taking swigs from their leather water bladders when a young deputy approached and exchanged a few quiet words with the Sheriff. The sheriff proceeded to point the loner back on a road into the desert, and with that, he departed into the scorched wasteland.

Over time, the remembrance of water heightened thirst and the continual wandering become a purposeless stumble. As the heart gave way to doubt, Judas spotted a solitary shack over the horizon. The denigrated shack was made from scraps of spare lumber and faced outward to the downtrodden road. It leaned slightly with the warp of the wooden frame as the wood’s moisture had been deprived by the desert. The sunken windows, covered in a residual layer of dust, made a lifeless structure of the solitary building.

Judas plodded down the road to the front of the shack and dismounted his mare by the narrow path up to the house. Once he had dismounted, he peered down into a shallow ditch by the entrance to the path. There lay two lifeless bodies in the cradle of each other’s arms; One of an older man wearing coveralls with a white undershirt and the other, a young brunette woman in a cloth dress. A bullet for each of them; that was their prize for living. The loner could not feel anything; only the hardening of

his heart, for which he could only look on in slight disturbance at the display. They died in each other’s arms, only to be consumed by the dust.

He trod closer to the house, as the dust-filled door was thrown open and a familiar bald man walked out. The sketch of the pale white man was somewhat accurate, as Judas had started to observe his many distinctive features. The eyes reflected a hollowness; a feature that Judas could not take his own eyes away from. A human without reservation, like a dog with rabies.

“Whatcha want boy?” he grumbled under his unkempt beard. He wore his revolver openly on the front of his torso for convenient reach, but he did not seem phased by the randomness of the encounter.

“Are you John Martin?” Judas spoke as the man inched his hand closer to his weapon. With danger present, Judas moved his hand onto the handle of his revolver but he did not draw. “ I want to bring you in alive.” He added into the silence of the confrontation, as they stared at each other over the drumming of the heart.

The hollow echo of silence bounded across the township. He roamed in silence until he came upon the town’s steeple and heard the faint murmuring of hymns. He stood at the base of the steps of the white Chapel. He did not dare to step inside the pure building, for he feared he would be struck down by some ethereal force for his tainted heart..

“Ain’t going. Why keep on living if you can’t do what you want,” he mumbled slightly. For a moment, there were two poised against each other, and then there was one. Two shots rang out from both guns, but only one shot rang true. Judas, seeing that his adversary lay upon the wooden boards, shakingly lowered his weapon, and reholstered it. He stumbled over to the corpse to find a piece of lead lodged below his right eye socket, devastating the structure of his face. After seeing his creation, Judas could not but sit on the steps to the doorway.

Nausea slowly crept into his knees and his arms continually sat heavily upon his knees. He could only sit and think about what he left home for. He finally lifted himself to drag the body of the villain to his horse. As Judas strapped him to the but of his

horse, he peered into the ditch once more. He knew then why he left home. Once more, he retreated back into the desert as his nerves slowly begin to settle and his eyes became a little dimmer.

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