WATCH Magazine - Spring 2020

watch PORTER-GAUD SCHOOL

Volume X, Issue II Spring 2020

Artwork by Lily Hambric

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A Note From the Editors As Winston Churchill once said, “Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.” Of course, when one considers Churchill’s circumstances, historical gravity, and penchant for irony, this quote seems exceptionally tongue-in-cheek. Indeed, it can seem almost perverse why anyone in life—particularly in Churchill’s era— would ever prefer a “measureless and perpetual uncertainty” to a feeling of personal and collective safety and security.

In our current time, albeit not as calamitous as that of the Second World War, we too are faced with an uncertain time in the story of humanity. In an era already strained by political polarization, an American election cycle, and (I speak on behalf of myself and my fellow seniors) the turbulent aftermath of the college process, COVID-19 has disrupted every corner of our world, from our financial institutions and healthcare systems, to our social communities and nuclear families. Our global experiment—in which the forces of politics, pop culture, social media, technology, and automation collided with one another—somehow became even more deranged with the arrival of the Coronavirus.

Within our own Porter-Gaud community, a rejuvenating, social springtime was turned into a mass quarantine and a test of our national healthcare resources. What would have been a seasonal culmination of our school year fell flat on its face.

Particularly for seniors, whose last weeks at PorterGaud will be spent alone, in their own houses, watching shows that are certain to lower one’s IQ— these several months are an anticlimax of serious proportions. For most students and faculty, social interaction has been shoehorned through a blurry Zoom screen. Teachers’ insight, students’ questions, periodic jokes and laughter—the hallmarks of a healthy school environment have been sieved through muffled microphones, shaky webcams, and periodic technical difficulties. Our predicament as a school community, albeit so favorable compared to that of many people 2

less fortunate than ourselves, is regrettable nonetheless.

As a senior on the brink of graduation, I have found the current time to be especially thought-provoking. I came to Porter-Gaud as a freshman, and I remember vividly my first day of school. I remember exactly how I felt as I nervously traversed the hallways of a new and unfamiliar campus, as I met new classmates and new teachers; I remember reviewing the course syllabus for each class; I remember, throughout the day, turning in my respective summer work—an annotated copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God, a geometry packet, and a short essay on Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha; I remember meeting Mr. Smith, my English teacher and future advisor, who explained to us students that the word “note” is a part of the word “annotate,” as he made clear that annotations should be thoughtful comments rather than mere scribbles and underlines; I remember Mrs. Jones reassuring a frightened freshman geometry class that the packet we were assigned over the prior months would be graded liberally and that we would review its questions as needed; I remember Señora Hyde greeting our class, the last period of the day, with a level of exuberance that I believed she could not sustain for the entire year. Indeed, I had a lot to learn.

But I cannot remember my last day, even though it was only a few months ago. I cannot remember that day simply because I was not aware that it was my last day.

We are largely unaware of the last time we will ever do anything. Philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, in a podcast entitled “The Last Time,” once said the following: “Long before you die, you will cease to have certain experiences—experiences that you surely take for granted now. If you’re a parent, when is the last time you will pick up your child, or tuck her into bed, or read her a story? [...] Each time you do something, pleasant or unpleasant, that is one less time you will do it. And there will come a time when you will do something a final time, and you will rarely know when that is. [...] Everything represents a finite opportunity

to savor your life. On some level, everything is precious. And if it doesn’t seem that way, I think you’ll find that paying more attention can make it seem that way.”

This podcast was released a couple years ago, long before COVID-19. In this period of quarantine, when most of our options for social interaction and engagement with the outside world are limited, we would be remiss not to reflect on just how much we take certain moments for granted. Whether it’s going to school, or going to work, or going to a public place surrounded by people—so many moments of our lives are wasted by being lost in thought, by being tragically unaware of just how precious certain experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, really are.

For all of the destruction that COVID-19 has caused, let it at least serve as a reminder of just how quickly things can change—just how easy it can be for moments in our lives to go unnoticed or underappreciated. Indeed, it is our current predicament, this time of “measureless and perpetual uncertainty” to refer back to Churchill, that truly reminds us just how much we ought to savor our “ordinary” lives, when no such global emergencies are unfolding. In some counterintuitive sense, it is only when we understand how fragile something is that we truly value it. Likewise, it is only when we pay attention—when we realize the uncertainty and unpredictability of our human condition—that we begin to notice the “drama of human life,” the meaning to be discovered in our experiences.

reference or discuss the Coronavirus due to more recent revisions, we hope that this magazine will offer a small break from the surplus of coverage and reporting of this global phenomenon. We hope that these ideas and these articles, in which students invested a great deal of time and energy, receive the attention they merit, in spite of such chaotic circumstances that will hopefully (at least in part) subside in the relatively near future.

In times of strife, in times of uncertainty, language— and the ideas that language can convey—can often be the final strand by which we are all united, the last mechanism of solidarity in which we can all participate. It is in this spirit that—in addition to wishing everyone safety and good health—we are happy to present the Spring 2020 edition of watch to the Porter-Gaud community. ~ Ballard Morton May 2020

Photo by Jen Lorenz

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The watch magazine has for many years been a staple of student talent at Porter-Gaud. Through careful and rigorous stages of writing, revising, designing, and publishing, Porter-Gaud students have produced an edition of watch, or one of its forbearers like The Porter-Grits newspaper, every fall and spring for decades. Articles have spanned subjects and disciplines—everything from politics and pop culture to school and local news. We are thrilled to continue that tradition in these uncertain times.

The following articles were largely written and revised prior to COVID-19. Although some articles may 3

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Magazine Staff Managing Editors Ballard Morton (12th) Lindsey Prus (12th) Publishers Pleasant Ballenger (11th) Esther Adelson (11th) Jack Steyer (11th) Writers Hanah Bergman (11th) Ananya Chag (10th) Avery Crymes (11th) Katherine Geils (11th) Emmy Keogh (10th) Louisa Kuhn (12th) Sophie Levenson (10th) Connor Marion (12th) Reilly Morrow (12th) Peter Beck (11th) Burke Thompson (11th) Ellie Walter (12th) Faculty Advisors Mr. Childs Smith Mr. Jonathan Chang

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The watch would like to give special thanks to those who helped out with this issue: Maxwell Mowry, Sue Chanson, Wesley Moore, Brad Gilman, Ned Moore, Abigail Droge, Alex Werrell, DuBose Egleston, Becca Weil, Karen Kimberly, Jen Rader, Deborah Reinhold, Jen Lorenz, Brink Norton, Beverly Oswald, Tom Westerman, Lily Hambric, Lili Stock, The Draco Group.

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Table Of Contents 6

Senioritus Meets Coronavirus: The Moment It All Changed

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To Plan, To Fail: Why a Failed Plan Isn’t All that Bad

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The Admissions Labyrinth: Navigating the Route to College

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Chasing Comfort or Choosing Complacency? Flipping the Script

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Failure is Not an Option: Justice & Forgiveness in the Cancel Culture

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We Did Start the Fire: A Brief Analysis of the US-Iran Relationship

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A Cry for the Establishment: A Call for the Conventional Leader

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Code Red: A Possible Reality

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A Factory of Human Suffering: The Truth Behind Mass Incarceration

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Cursed: My Experience with a Psychic

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Where the Skies Are Blue: Utopias, Suffering & Hope

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Lucky Charms: Science Shows Those Pre-Game Rituals Do Help

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Musical Matters of Taste: Our Preferences Shouldn’t Divide Us

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Faculty Farewell: Jen Rader, Deborah Reinhold & Beverly Oswald

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A Closing Letter To the Class of 2020

Louisa Kuhn

Ananya Chag

Burke Thompson Avery Crymes

Ballard Morton Connor Marion Peter Beck

Hannah Bergman Ballard Morton Reilly Morrow

Sophie Levenson Emmy Keogh

Katherine Geils

The watch staff Lindsey Prus

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Senioritis Meets Coronavirus

The Moment It All Changed For The Class of 2020

By Louisa Kuhn The alarm goes off— it’s 6:45. You press snooze and roll back into a deep sleep.

Before you know it, your mom comes in screaming. It’s already 8 o’clock and you’re late for school!

Still, with zero motivation, you slump out of bed and carelessly throw on a pair of sweatpants— you’re too lazy to wash your uniforms. At 8:47, finally awake, you make it out the door and drive with the music blasting.

Once at school, you approach the front desk, where you sign the late-in sheet for the third time that week.

Now, the second class has begun and though “present,” you already find yourself asleep in the first 15 minutes of math.

This repetitive cycle that perpetuates almost every morning is what appears to be a chronic case of senioritis.

Senioritis is the “sickness” that almost every senior seems to catch at the beginning of second semester.

Urban Dictionary lists the symptoms: “laziness, a lack of motivation, excessive absences in school, putting off assignments.” The list goes on.

By the end of the year, students in every grade begin to feel some of these symptoms, but we seniors are hit in a whole other way. We presume a sense of accomplishment, knowing we will graduate and go on to a university that accepted us. As a near graduate, you can almost feel as if school work doesn’t even apply to you any more. Why take the test when you’re already accepted into college and it won’t even help you anymore? you might start to wonder. Why even come to school? These are a few of the questions that flutter through the mind of a senior starting as early as January.

But beginning this January, the entire planet’s Class of 2020 started to become affected by a completely different disease that changed our senior year and all our lives for good, COVID-19. Just as we were all beginning to feel the effects of senioritis, a real pandemic, the first in a century, changed all our lives entirely. All around the world, businesses have shut down, unemployment has sky-rocketed, we’ve soared past a million confirmed cases, and close to 100,000 in the U.S. alone have died.

Now, the “illness” that had consumed us seniors previously appears so trivial, This... is school? Class in quarantine in the face of a real virus now

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settled across the globe. The ordinary events in our daily lives and typical routines abruptly came to an end when the deadly Coronavirus took control.

At the onset, some may have viewed it as a weird blessing to get out of school after feeling so completely checked out, but through this senior’s eyes, I see it as a curse. Trapped in quarantine, I’m realizing the best semester of high school never really happened. There was no prom, no spring sports, no end-ofthe-year senior traditions, and maybe even no graduation. The uncertainty has been the worst part. For weeks, the question that every senior was dying to know constantly circled our brains: Would we be going back to school at all?

Soon enough, we discovered our entire on-campus life was officially over. Now that the uncertainty was gone, we had to instead cope with the fact that we might never wear our Porter-Gaud uniforms again.

I think everyone at Porter-Gaud can relate when I say I actually miss coming to school every day instead of being trapped at home for weeks. Being stuck in quarantine consists of endless family dinners, constant Zoom classes, almost too many movies, and worst of all, being isolated from all your friends. Netflix and family bonding may have seemed like a nice way to spend your time, but after so much together time, even the same shows and same family dinner conversations tend to become uneventful. Seeing everyone’s faces on Zoom just isn’t the same as the typical classes we were all used to in the past. The craziest part of the pandemic may be the fact that the whole world’s Class of 2020, whether in college or high school, can relate to the same “senior feelings” of wanting to have a normal last semester. We don’t realize how much we take for granted and actually enjoy the time at school with our closest friends until we no longer can.

When I started this article, the word “coronavirus” hadn’t even been heard by most of us. Instead, I was writing about what it feels like to be a typical senior in her last semester. However, flash-forward a month

Our new normal or so, and I’m in bed at home watching way too many shows on Netflix. My article’s focus quickly transitioned from the unmotivated student who longed for a break to someone who actually wants to return to the same routine from before. Someone who wants to finish the best semester of high school. Someone who wants to come together as a graduating class and celebrate all we have accomplished.

So, to future seniors, don’t get wrapped up in the lazy feelings of senioritis. Instead, cherish the time you have left to enjoy high school, because, as we’ve all learned, it can be gone in an instant. The Coronavirus has affected everyone in this school and around the world, so we need to remember to enjoy every moment while we can, no matter what the situation. It’s crazy to think that only weeks ago we were annoyed about writing an English paper or studying for that math test, when now it doesn’t seem all that bad. If we’ve learned anything from the never-ending weeks spent at home, it’s to cherish life’s true priorities and always appreciate the people around you.

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To Plan, To Fail: Why a Failed Plan isn’t the End of the World

Monday A plan. A schedule. Whatever you want to call it, people like to have the future mapped out.

For me, I’ve always believed that when there’s something I want to do, whether it’s hanging out with friends, attending an event, or going somewhere in general, I have to know all the little details. The date, time, location, everything. This is probably because planning provides assurance and gives our lives stability, which is necessary for one’s well-being and confidence.

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However, planning also has its repercussions: it doesn’t account for what happens in the moment.

The best things often happen unexpectedly, accidentally.

Take Semi-formal for example.

People I know, including myself at times, get so concerned and hung up on little details: the dinner, the dress, the date. By doing this, the big picture is often lost. Instead of having fun with friends or a significant other, Semi is guaranteed to become stressful. However, it’s just another night in our high school experience, except with a street dancer dressed like Superman and a ceaseless parade of short, black dresses. Are you shaking your head in outright disagreement? Don’t deny it; it’s true. You know by the time January rolls around, there’s a level of pressure, whether it’s obvious to you or under the surface. Yes, we want to look back on it as a good experience, but in ten or so years--scratch

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By Ananya Chag

that, five years or less-- a two-hourlong high school dance won’t matter.

I’m sure Prom is the same way, I can’t really give a perspective on that as a sophomore, but I’m sure many people have experienced the same type of unnecessary pressure. Call it a pessimistic outlook if you wish, but let me assure you, it’s also a plain dose of reality.

The fact is that things never turn out the way we plan them. We assume everything will work out just the way we want, and circumstances that might affect our best-laid plans just don’t cross our minds. It’s not necessarily our fault; in the grand scheme of things, we cannot compensate for every external factor that influences the space around us. I didn’t plan to have my dress for Semi arrive late, I didn’t plan for my hairstyle to keep coming loose, I didn’t plan to lose my phone. In order to avoid letdowns, we must be aware of our limits because it’s inevitable that we will stress ourselves out and set unrealistic expectations.

But who and what are we actually doing this for?

Planning is not even a personal issue; society in general is always thinking up and setting unreachable bars, which actually sets us up for disappointment instead of the satisfaction we are expecting to feel. We think that by planning, we will inevitably be successful. Think about looming college preparations. College has always been the big bad wolf in the back of our minds. We’ve been encouraged to have an idea of where we want to go to college or to know what career path we want to take since kindergarten. This

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makes it so hard to not think about college whenever given assessments, as so much emphasis has been placed on it all our lives. The truth is that most of us don’t have an idea of what we want to do, and if we do, it’ll most likely change in the years to come.

But college! College has always been the inevitable outcome of our futures.

With these expectations, it’s difficult to live in the present instead of the future. However, we need to live in the present, otherwise, we miss something truly extraordinary right in front of us.

Think about it. How many times have you expected something to happen, and it just didn’t?

too seriously. We are incapable of predicting the next misfortune to come around the corner.

The woes of planning are especially relevant to the current state of the world. Just a few short months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting the US now in May was not even a concern. When I first started this article in January, I didn’t even know it existed, even though it’s been an issue outside of the US since December. Being a few weeks into social-distancing, I think I can speak for a lot of people that we have learned valuable lessons that could not have been taught without this experience.

Yes, we should not take school for granted, but the lesson further goes to show that planning is often misleading.

Because of the pandemic, whatever Spring Break plans we had were canceled, Prom was too, there might be interference with summer plans, the college admission process might be messed up, and life in general has been turned upside down. It absolutely sucks, but this experience also provides us with the highest level of reality possible. It tells us to not take planning

But what we need during these hard times is to look at the positives. It’s a time for self-reflection.

In addition to its shortcomings, planning doesn’t make memories.

For myself, I can say some of my best memories have happened serendipitously. In those moments, I was never aware that I would be looking back on them as the greatest nights/days of my life. I most certainly did not account for the setbacks and unexpected occurrences along the way.

Just a few months ago, I had planned to go to a restaurant with friends, but the place ended up being too full. We ended up going to a restaurant we had all never gone to before, and now, it’s one of my favorite places to eat at. Maybe the surprise factor plays a part; if one knows everything that’s going to happen next, life becomes a routine, a chore almost, not enjoyable whatsoever. After all, isn’t that what a normal school day is? Always having a set time of day for each class, each assembly, when you’re allowed to eat lunch even. Boring.

Plans often fail, but that’s better than living life monotonously. If I got up and ate the same cereal every morning, wouldn’t I get sick of it? It’s really the unexpected in life that matters. Life is a rollercoaster, full of unanticipated twists and turns. So next time you open your planner or attempt to schedule something, I urge you to be flexible. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

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The Admissions Labrinth: Navigating the Route to College

By Burke Thompson

As I sit down under the tree on Christmas morning, I immediately begin to tear open a promising present.

Perfectly rectangular. Good weight. Obviously not clothes, unless some cruel trick has been played.

Maybe an Xbox. I tear open the wrapping paper, surely about to unveil my new console... Wait. An Xbox doesn’t have pages.

Seventh grade me had just received the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2015 from my grandparents, and, while I promptly lost it before the new year, I still remember the book as my first experience with higher-level education (aside from watching Clemson football games). Though I may not own the original to this day, it has been replaced by the 2019 edition as my college search truly begins, heading into the second semester of my junior year.

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these answers appear all well and good and may give some satisfaction, the rabbit hole truly begins when the applicant attempts to understand and undertake these guidelines. Important follow-up questions have hundreds of possible answers; for example, what does it mean to do well in school?

Does it mean I have to have straight A’s? Does it mean I have to take all APs? Is it better for me to make a 93 in an honors class or an 84 in an AP class? When asked this question during visits or during Porter-Gaud college nights, many college reps will – understandably – squirm and reply “Admissions offices appreciate when you challenge yourself” and will move on to the next question.

Unhelpful answers like these are unavoidable due to the massive variety of applicants and course offerings from schools, but they still cause even more follow up questions and student confusion.

And yet, after hours of combing Internally, we ask ourselves, through the book, innumerable “Well, what does it mean to challenge myself?” college websites, and other resources, I still feel as if Does it mean we have to waste away our lives, I know nothing about the requirements of the college poring over books precariously perched on dimly process whatsoever. As students of Porter-Gaud and lit desks, trashing our social lives, ignoring our children of the digital age, we have amazing access families, and losing sleep in pursuit of challenging to all kinds of statistics, informational meetings, ourselves? Or does it simply mean we need to visits, and third-party tools. These data, however continue to take a language through our senior helpful they may be to admissions experts, do little year? As students, we have no resolution for these to answer questions of how to get into a particular questions and are often stranded in the dark as we institution or to alleviate stress, and students rarely decide our courses and possibly our academic fates. receive straight answers to personal questions.

Similarly, the SAT and ACT also add to the Well, let’s start with question number one. How do confusion. I distinctly remember two contradictory I get into college? The universal reply seems to be statements offered by visiting college administrators; pretty simple: a successful applicant must do well in in sophomore year, a representative from Boston school, do well on standardized tests, write decent College assured the crowd that no college would admissions essays, and stay out of trouble. Though reject an application based on scores alone, whereas

in junior year, a representative from Clemson University revealed that scores would, in fact, be used to filter applicants. Additionally, the process of studying for these vital assessments is just as nebulous as college standards for scores, and with hundreds of third-party organizations advertising their study materials for test-takers, students — like myself — may feel paralyzed and intimidated by the sheer number of third-party organizations and options.

intellectual diversity. For many students, however, these small sacrifices could mean the difference between admission or rejection. Granted, quotas may not be a leading cause of student rejection, but the threat of rejection based on criteria wholly out of student control is certainly frightening. In practice, the policy of filling quotas could mean colleges reject highly qualified students in the administration’s pursuit of a more advertisable student body composition.

Searching the admissions scatterplots from the PG-provided Naviance reveals that almost every university admits some students with test scores and GPAs significantly below their reported averages, leaving students to wonder why these students were admitted while those who outscore them were rejected outright. One possible explanation could be that those admitted had outstanding extracurriculars, but how could colleges possibly discern the value of these activities? Are a student’s extracurricular merits weighted based on the weekly time commitment? The type of activity? Their prowess in the activity? Accolades? Participation?

Somehow, colleges have to weigh all of these factors together and compare them to the activities of others while also weighing them against entire academic transcripts. Because of this variety, we cannot blame the lack of clarity on either the unhelpful-but-wellintending college representatives or students like myself who just want to know if colleges will even notice my non-athletic extracurriculars.

The only consolation for students may be the universality of the admissions confusion. No matter your GPA, SAT score, required essays, recommendations, extracurriculars, athletic ability, linguistic ability, or any other piece of your resume that seeks to define you as a student, everyone feels helpless at the hands of the college admissions process. Though some may claim to know the inner workings of the applications process, we have to take their advice with a grain of salt – no one can truly know everything about the admissions process, especially not your nosy aunt claiming to know the fast track into Harvard.

And then there are the quotas. Not affirmative action quotas, but the lists of specific niches the university needs new students to fill. As the least controllable factor of the admissions process, quotas exist seemingly to spite those well-qualified students who made the unfortunate decision of selecting Spanish as their language of choice instead of Chinese in the sixth grade. As related to me by a University of Chicago admissions official, every college admissions team must satisfy several different goals for that year’s class. Whether the college needs drummers for the school band, strong performers for their student-run shows, or simply more Chinese majors and fewer Spanish students, the admissions offices will fill these quotas, making small sacrifices wherever necessary to bolster the university’s

Though it may seem impossibly complicated at times, the task of applying to college is as daunting as it is achievable. We may not be able to figure out what each and every college wants to see in our applications, but we can rest easy knowing that the college you apply to does not define you as a person. Just because some institution decided that your resume didn’t fit the exact archetype they were hoping to admit doesn’t mean your life is over. Just like high school, college promises to be what you make of it – motivated students tend to take more potentially beneficial opportunities than complacent students, no matter the university they attend.

Though I always tend to take admissions advice with a cynical grain of salt, one small tip has stuck with me since freshman year – no matter where you attend, you’ll make memories that’ll last a lifetime.

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chasing comfORt oR choOsing coMplaceNcy? Flipping the ScRipt On Stability Avery Crymes

It’s no secret how addicted we can be to the obsessive demands of a goal-based society. Trapped in a world where every step, every action, and every move is prompted by the pursuit of another more impressive or exciting goal, we do everything in our power to reach the same positions in life as our peers plan to meet. Or as society pressures us to meet. Or as our parents want us to meet. Or as their societies pressured them. Birth.

Childhood. Daydreams. Education. Gradual decline of daydreams. Graduations. Employment. Career.

Marriage. Children. Visiting grandchildren. Death.

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But what if that wasn’t the case? What if, just once, someone who had spent their whole life surrounded by success stories of a silent society broke the mold? Tervis tumblers, ceramic jewelry dishes, and inspirational posters alike all beg us to take the plunge and “go for it,” “chase our dreams,” or “shoot for the moon.” Because even if we miss, we’ll land among the stars...or whatever.

Artwork by Lili Stock

Hmm...we think. It could be fun. Something new... something different. Exciting even! So why aren’t these buzzes of potential adventure and thrill not attracting more people?

Simply because we’re told to ignore them. “Be realistic,” we’re told when we wax poetic about our plans to travel and save the world with a dream, a map, and a dog.

Eventually, the relentless pounding of societal, familial, and social pressures drown the outlandish yearnings of us radicals and daydreamers. We put away our maps, change our goals from climbing Mount Everest to simply making ends meet, and slip blissfully into a comfortable enough state of existence. We start to wonder if losing our sense of discomfort was a blessing in disguise. Wait, we think, I actually enjoy this. I come home to a comfortable house, talk to a spouse who loves me, and laugh and play with my kids. And I still have a dog! What was I thinking all those years ago? Why would anyone ever yearn for more?

Comfort is an underrated joy.

If we were still governed by the principles that led our neolithic ancestors, stability and comfort would be the only goals; do what needs to be done to survive the hours between sunrises. This would be the smartest, the wisest, and the most logical path to take.

But when have human hearts ever listened to smart?

Deep within your psyche, within your neighbor’s psyche, within the psyche of the woman who told you to smile when you took your driver’s license photo, hides an abandoned sense of wanderlust that simply got tired of fighting. It got tired of pushing back against a society of naysayers, tired of attempting to defend itself against self-deprecation and outside sources of doubt, and it simply forfeited its worth to another seemingly more important sense: stability.

You’ve spent perhaps your entire life being told to reach a solid economic and social level and to prioritize work over play. The fact that this state of mind defines the majority of people obviously affects the bias; it’s difficult to resist stability with labels reading “comfortable!”, “convenient!” or “cozy!” slapped on every surface of our lives. Having a nice house and a stable job has risen above as the pinnacle of domestic achievement. “What are you going to do to have a comfortable life?” they ask.

But let me ask you something else. Have you ever heard comfort referred to as complacency?

You probably haven’t. A “comfortable” lifestyle lends itself to the bliss and contentment of the majority; it requires very little explanation. However, if you

Have you become so wrapped up in the motions of not dying that you’ve forgotten how to live?

choose to make the mental switch from calling a lifestyle “comfortable” to labeling it “complacent,” it becomes much harder to justify. And that brings you to a few very important, and sometimes uncomfortable questions. Are you living a life of complacency?

Have you become so wrapped up in the motions of not dying that you’ve forgotten how to live?

But when have human hearts ever listened to smart?

Albeit unfortunate, the uncomfortable response that your mind may have conjured just now marks a turning point. This is the beginning...but what comes next?

Being able to recognize your own complacency and act upon it is a peculiar talent. It doesn’t require hours of practice and it can’t be pulled out of your back pocket like a party trick. It’s fairly easy. Simply take a minute to reawaken your daydreams. To try and accomplish the wild, the bizarre, or the impossible.

To try and approach life without a back-up plan and to ignore the possibility of failure. Maggie Penman and NPR podcast “The Hidden Brain” host Shankar Vedantam approached the concept of going forth sans safety net in an episode of said podcast. For this whole “extend and fulfill your life” thing to work, it needs to be an all-in affair.

To put it simply, I’m asking you to live to live, not live to survive. Please, for the sake of your future elderly and potentially unable-to-leave-your-comfort-zonewith-the-ease-with-which-you-could-do-so-today self, choose to break the cycle. Embrace the discomfort.

Because if you’re still having regrets, now is the time to be honest with yourself. Which outcome scares you more? Trying and failing, or remembering that you never tried at all?

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“Failure is not an Option”

Justice & Forgiveness in the Age of Cancel Culture Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian historian, philosopher, and novelist. In 1945, the seventeenyear-old was arrested and sentenced to just under a decade of hard labor and internal exile—for the crime of criticizing Joseph Stalin in his private letters. Solzhenitsyn wrote vividly and extensively about his horrific experiences in the gulags, as well as Soviet authoritarianism more generally, and later won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature. In one of his most renowned works, The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn writes: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart— and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”

It has become cliché to write or speak about our current politics as being “toxic” or “polarizing.”

Calls for moderation, compromise, and levelheaded discourse have been frequent, albeit largely unsuccessful. What is, furthermore, most disturbing to me is not that our politics have become “divisive.”

Politics have always been divisive, and political division (unlike political unity) is often illustrative of liberalism, free thought, democracy, the values that we hold dear. Instead, it seems that our division has transcended the political sphere and has trickled into the cultural, psychological, and moral fabrics of our

By Ballard Morton

society. Ideological tribalism and demagoguery have in many cases hijacked our most fundamental capacities for reason, empathy, sympathy, skepticism, and—perhaps above all—justice. What began as progressivism, as good intentions, has surreptitiously morphed into something altogether destructive— namely an epidemic of our most primal and animalistic impulses, manifested in the court of public opinion.

“Cancel culture” is a term that is easy enough to define superficially yet exceedingly difficult to disentangle and explore. Cancel culture, or “call-out culture,” is the tendency for people to cancel, disinvite, fire, admonish, or publically shame individuals for their past— regrettable—comments or behavior. A prominent example was when Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the 2019 Academy Awards for homophobic Tweets that were nearly a decade old, or when Harvard rescinded its offer of admission from school-shooting survivor and conservative activist Kyle Kashuv for his use of the N-word two years prior. Cancel culture has included many celebrities and Hollywood personalities who were swallowed up in the #MeToo movement, such as Aziz Ansari and Louis C.K., who were said to have been unfairly lumped together with more overtly malicious and depraved figures such as Harvey Weinstein. Cancel culture comprises political figures, like Ralph Northam, who received substantial backlash and calls for resignation for his 1984 yearbook photo that depicted him in blackface.

Cancel culture has become a system of frontier justice—where Twitter plays judge, jury, and executioner. It has allowed, even encouraged, the ferocious demagogues of the Internet to dictate exactly who should be publicly chastised, and whose career ought to be damaged, if not entirely and irrevocably destroyed.

Who is to make sense of all of this? After all, it is almost undeniable that certain members of our society deserve to have their careers destroyed if they engaged in the absolute worst and most unredeemable forms of behavior. On the other hand, we all make mistakes. We

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order to live in a society that manages our fundamental interests, we must wield a mechanism for judgement that is consistent, nuanced, and precise—that allows for a wide spectrum, rather than a binary, of possible moral determinations.

So, how is this diagnostic framework built? It is built on questions, on our ability to be investigative and inquisitive whenever a “cancel culture” situation arises.

Our questions must be direct and must apply to some moral variable or consideration that is relevant in the context of what is being evaluated.

all say things and do things that we regret, that we seek to correct, for which we are willing to apologize and express our remorse. How does one navigate this moral ecosystem?

Whenever you hear about a celebrity who once wrote something derogatory, or a public figure who engaged in objectionable behavior, ask yourself each of the following questions before arriving at any moral conclusion or “sentence.” Try to answer each question with a thoughtful, nuanced answer, rather than merely a basic “yes” or “no.”

The crux of this issue is actually rather simple. When it comes to evaluating words, actions, and patterns of behavior, we ought to have two fundamental interests when it comes to our society:

— Is there evidence to support the claim that this person said X or did Y?

1) We want to live in a society in which harmful and prejudicial words, actions, and patterns of behavior are discouraged and de-incentivised;

Are the sources that are reporting this allegation credible?

—

2) We want to live in a society that rewards and incentivises, rather than punishes, people for growing— for becoming less disposed to harmful and prejudicial words, actions, and patterns of behavior.

If this person said something bad (X)…

-Did this person say X originally or was he/she quoting someone else?

-Did this person know the extent to which X was harmful language?

Managing these two interests is no trivial task. After all, the line between de-incentivising bad behavior and -Did this person say X in a clear attempt to be ironic, incentivising good behavior, growth, and rehabilitation is extremely thin. In fact, the only way that such interests facetious, and/or humorous? may be properly balanced is through a kind of formula, -Did this person say X with the clear intention of a framework, that we as a society adopt in order to being harmful? correctly evaluate these kinds of situations—situations in which well-known figures are discovered to have once -Did this person say X off the cuff or was it prepared? engaged in regrettable language or behavior.

For the sake of conceptual clarity, let us divide this framework into two sections: the diagnostic stage and the treatment stage.

The diagnostic stage is the process of determining just how “bad” someone’s words or actions really were. In

-Did this person say X in private or in public?

-Did this person say X in a time, place, or cultural context that was more amenable to saying X? -Did this person say X once or multiple times?

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-Did this person say X under the influence of drugs or alcohol?

— If this person did something bad (Y)…

-Did this person intend to do Y or was it accidental?

-Did this person know the extent to which Y was harmful behavior?

-How many victims were harmed as a consequence of Y and how badly?

-Did this person do Y on his/her own accord, or did someone encourage or coerce him/her?

-Did this person do Y in a time, place, or cultural context that was more amenable to doing Y? -Did this person do Y once or multiple times?

-Did this person do Y under the influence of drugs or alcohol?

— -How old was this person when he/she said X or did Y? -How long ago was it since this person said X or did Y? -Has this person demonstrated growth since he/she said X or did Y? -Has this person apologized for saying X or doing Y? — -Have I ever said X or done Y?

-Would I hastily forgive a family member or close friend for saying X or doing Y? -Am I predisposed to judging this person for saying X or doing Y simply because I do not like them personally?

-Am I predisposed to judging this person for saying X or doing Y simply because I disagree with him/her politically?

— Precisely answering all of these questions in the wake of an allegation may seem tedious. I think you would be surprised, however, if you realized just how different the responses actually are when you evaluate different figures who were called out in the #MeToo movement, for example. By systematically working through these questions, we will be able to work with better precision and caution in making the kinds of consequential decisions that seriously affect people’s careers, reputations, and legacies.

That, at least in part, covers the diagnostic stage.

But what about the “treatment” stage? How should people respond? What is the appropriate response when someone is discovered to have said or have done something regrettable in the past?

This one is perhaps trickier, for it is far more circumstantial. It truly depends on the current status of whoever’s reputation is being called into question, as well as the severity of his or her transgressions.

The basic formula for calculating an appropriate response or “treatment” can be described as such: 1) The worse the offense, the higher the standard should be for an apology and a demonstrated track record of growth; 2) If a person is sufficiently apologetic, remorseful, and “rehabilitated” relative to his or her transgressions, then he or she should not be punished. If a person is insufficiently apologetic, remorseful, and “rehabilitated” relative to his or her transgressions, then he or she should be punished to the same degree that they lack remorse and a demonstrated track record of growth since the incident.

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I understand this language is rather cloudy. To illustrate this further, let’s dive into some real-life examples.

Hart Tweeted this himself and was not quoting anyone else

Kevin Hart is among the most famous and successful American comedians in recent memory. In 2009, he posted the following two Tweets:

-Did this person know the extent to which X was harmful language?

Hart most likely made the Tweet as a comedic remark, rather than intentionally and deliberating saying something he knew would upset people -Did this person say X in a clear attempt to be ironic, facetious, and/or humorous?

Most likely; Hart is a comedian, and Twitter in 2009 and 2011 was likely more amenable to comedic provocation and humor than in 2019 or 2020 when Twitter has become a public forum, and a place for “serious” discourse among political figures and public intellectuals; given the light-hearted nature of most of his Tweets, it is unlikely that this accurately represents his sincere beliefs about homosexuality

In 2010, Hart made jokes about preventing his son from being gay in his comedy special. Later on, in January of 2011, he Tweeted the following:

Now, having read these Tweets, let’s go through our checklist of questions and answer them.

-Did this person say X with the clear intention of being harmful?

Hart was most likely not trying to be harmful; once again, he is a comedian who has made a career in saying provocative things, not in seriously vocalizing his deeply-held beliefs and predispositions; it is unlikely these remarks were an exception -Did this person say X off the cuff or was it prepared?

Although Hart took the time and preparation to write out his remarks on Twitter before posting them, it is unlikely he spent very much time thinking about the potential consequences of his remarks; the Tweet is more likely a spontaneous joke rather than a premeditated statement

— Is there evidence to support the claim that this person said X or did Y? Yes; the Tweets are confirmed to be real and many reputable news sites reported on it Are the sources that are reporting this allegation credible?

Yes; the NYT, the Post, the WSJ, and many other credible news organizations have reported on it — If this person said something bad (X)…

-Did this person say X originally or was he/she quoting someone else?

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-Did this person say X in private or in public?

Hart said this publicly on Twitter -Did this person say X in a time, place, or cultural context that was more amenable to saying X? 2009 and 2011 did not have the same stringent PC standards for Tweets and for comedy more generally -Did this person say X once or multiple times?

Hart posted three Tweets in particular that received backlash; he also received backlash for making some provocative jokes in his comedy special about homosexuality -Did this person say X under the influence of drugs or alcohol?

Unknown; it’s possible — How old was this person when he/she said X or did Y? Hart was about 30 years old when this occured

-Am I predisposed to judging this person for saying X or doing Y simply because I do not like them personally? [for you to answer] -Am I predisposed to judging this person for saying X or doing Y simply because I disagree with him/her politically? [for you to answer] — Having answered these questions, we are able to more effectively evaluate what the response should have been to Hart’s being selected to host the Oscars. I personally believe that—given Hart’s status as a comedian, the nature of the Tweets in question, the amount of time that has passed, and the remorse that he has since vocalized in the form of several apologies—Hart

How long ago was it since this person said X or did Y? It was about 8 years from the time he posted the Tweets to the time he was invited to host the Oscars Has this person demonstrated growth since he/she said X or did Y? Hart has been a popular comedian, actor, and celebrity for years, and though his provocative style of comedy persists, it is unlikely that it is intended to do harm, or otherwise results in harm Has this person apologized for saying X or doing Y? Hart initially refused to apologize due to his frustrations with how the story was being covered and the extent to which he had already made apologies and expressed his regret up that point; a few days later, on December 7th of 2018, when he officially stepped down from hosting, he said the following: “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past … I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart.”

— Have I ever said X or done Y? [for you to answer] Would I hastily forgive a family member or close friend for saying X or doing Y? [for you to answer] 20

should not have been pressured to step down from hosting the Oscars. His remarks, albeit tasteless and shallow, simply do not have the moral gravity to warrant his disinvitation 8 years later, especially considering the apologies he has made since.

Go through the same checklist of questions with other polarizing figures such as those exposed in the #MeToo movement. You’ll soon realize that at one end of the spectrum, you have Kevin Hart, and the relatively innocuous comedians and provocateurs who have made some unscrupulous remarks throughout their lives. Further down on the spectrum, you may have Aziz Ansari or Louis C.K. who engaged in some questionable behavior, and deserve a certain degree of pushback and public scrutiny but do not

“There are numerous factors to consider in such ethical evaluations, such as the severity of certain forms of speech and behavior, the frequency of ” someone’s transgression, and the intent of the person in question.

of certain forms of speech and behavior, the frequency of someone’s transgression, and the intent of the person in question.

In short, we must ask questions and refine our moral continuum. Only then will we as a society properly navigate this ethical ecosystem, and only then will we be able to set a responsible precedent for responding to instances of harmful speech and behavior. Our current, dualistic, draconian system of frontier justice is simply not the mechanism we want in place to determine whose reputation should be spared, and whose should be dismantled. Let us adopt a more skeptical, forgiving, enlightened approach—a spectrum, rather than a binary—that does not hesitate to punish seriously poor speech and behavior, but also provides sufficient room for forgiveness and empathy. As Solzhenitsyn said, every individual possesses a capacity for good and evil, as well as the ability to grow and to improve. It’s time that we realize this within ourselves, and treat our society, public figures, and fellow citizens accordingly.

deserve to have their careers, reputations, and legacies seriously damaged or indefinitely uprooted. Further down the spectrum you may find the Matt Lauers of the world—those who intentionally and maliciously abused their power and repeatedly harassed and exploited (and, at worst, assaulted) subordinates and colleagues and very likely deserve to have their careers ended and to face criminal charges, depending on the specific nature and circumstances of the transgression(s). Still further down the spectrum we encounter those such as Harvey Weinstein—figures whose abuse of power and repeated violence—sexual or otherwise—warrant an immediately tarnished reputation and legacy as well as substantial legal and criminal consequences.

Here is the general point: there is a spectrum of bad words and bad behavior. The aforementioned examples are just a slight piece of the moral continuum with which we ought to evaluate our public figures. The difference between someone like, for instance, Aziz Ansari (who received pushback for being somewhat sexually assertive on a single date in 2017) and Matt Lauer (who repeatedly harassed, coerced, and sexually exploited female subordinates) is so substantial, that to utter their names in the same sentence is irresponsible, if not reprehensible. There are numerous factors to consider in such ethical evaluations, such as the severity 21

We Did Start the Fire.

A brief analysis of the contentious US-Iran relationship.

By Connor Marion

Artwork by Lily Hambric

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On January 3, 2020, the world feared the beginning of a third world war. No, not the battle against a deadly pandemic that has since spread rampant across the entirety of the world. Even though it feels like years ago, this date represented the beginning of what could have been a war between the US and Iran. The United States had ordered and carried out the assassination of Iran’s top military general—Qasem Soleimani.

General Soleimani was considered to be next in line to the current Iranian supreme leader and was vital to the strategic military planning of the regime. Iran responded promptly, launching twenty missiles at two large military bases. This attack resulted in multiple American casualties but, thankfully, zero deaths.

While many believe Iran to be a violent and baseless aggressor, it is important to revisit previous conflicts that reveal that maybe the US is wrong for continuing to interfere in internal Iranian affairs.

Starting in 1953, the relationship between the US and Iran began to grow increasingly tense. In a collaborative effort between the United Kingdom and the United States, the CIA conducted a covert operation that sought to overthrow the democratically elected supreme leader of Iran at the time. As a result, the US propelled a new, harsher leader into leadership who created an even more aggressive and vile regime that created even more fear and suffering for the people of Iran.

Tensions continued to build between the countries until it ultimately reached a culminating breaking point. Following what Iranians consider to be multiple US aggravations, protests in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, erupted into violence. On November 4, 1979, Iranian anti-American demonstrations turned violent in front of the United States Embassy. Iranian students then captured and held fifty-two American diplomats hostage for 444 days, a climactic event that gave birth to the birth of exacerbated anti-American and antiIranian—anti-Muslim—xenophobia, respectively.

Since then, the US has tried to repair these relations. In 2000, Madam Secretary Albright announced that “she

was lifting the ban on Iranian imports,” thus beginning the long road to rectifying the already damaged Iranian-US diplomatic relationship. For a year, this relationship looked hopeful—then 9/11 happened.

In a colossal rush to judgement, President George W. Bush declared war on Iraq and began to pursue who he believed to be the root of terror—Saddam Hussein. This American involvement began to alienate the majority of the Middle East population against America, and the war crippled living conditions throughout the region.

Towards the end of President Bush’s term and the beginning of President Obama’s, negotiations took place that sought to relieve US economic sanctions in exchange for a moratorium on Iran’s uranium enrichment. This agreement represented a transition again towards a better tomorrow, a tomorrow when Middle Eastern xenophobia would dissipate and when American foreign involvement would no longer be necessary.

Then President Trump took office. Iranian-US history is, to say the least, complex. The US will never be able to completely regain the trust of the Iranian people, but we could at least rebuild a diplomatic relationship that could usher in Middle Eastern stability and a withdrawal of American troops. In order to achieve this stability, America will need diplomacy and not violence. The US needs to prioritize the negotiation of treaties instead of the dissolution of them. The current path of war-mongering didactic ideology that promotes violence in order to arouse patriotism is just not going to work.

In a time where uncertainty looms day to day, and COVID-19 remains the only thing on every American’s mind, we cannot neglect to reevaluate this important event and remember that we must begin to rebuild our influential role as a global superpower, or else we will exchange peace and prosperity for humanity-ending violence.

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A Cry for the Establishment Chaotic times call for conventional leaders

By Peter W. Beck Imagine a coliseum and a convention center – two places within a football field of one another. Imagine each room filled to the brim with boisterous supporters clad in catchy merchandise as they eagerly push closer to the center of the room. In the center of the room there is a stage with a podium that awaits a worthy orator whose mission is to ensnare its audience’s cult-like loyalty. Pressure builds as fervent supporters cannot contain their excitement as they chant the name of their idol and supposed savior; anxiety and impatience swells the cries of the crowd until it reaches its pinnacle as the exalted one walks across stage to the podium.

What I’ve described are two separate events that happened over fifty hours apart only a few months ago. Two presidential campaign rallies of men who couldn’t be further alike in policy or ideology but are nearly uniform in their hate-inciting rhetoric and rabid fanbases. These men: President Donald J. Trump and Senator Bernard Sanders.

The persistent headache of Donald Trump is a problem conceived far before former President Obama announced his reelection bid. I am unable to solve the Trump problem of our country and the Republican party; I believe that it is Republicans who have to undo the havoc wreaked on their party by Donald Trump, it is not the place of a Democrat. The Republican party is historically the Republican party that represents conservative values and champions limited regulations – it is up to them if they wish to realign themselves.

It is my place – as a young Democrat – to speak my concerns for the direction of my party heading into a national election. I know what you’re thinking: “Peter, why would you as a Democrat attack a member of your own party?” First, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat; he is too far left for the Democratic party and votes as an independent in the Senate. Second, it is only out

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of desperation and a sense of urgency that I am identifying Bernie Sanders as a plague the Democratic party cannot afford to ignore. Finally, Bernie Sanders is not identical to Donald Trump, but he is the Democratic party’s version of Donald Trump. I do not make this comparison lightly – the resemblances between the two are uncanny.

The loudest cheers that came from supporters at the Sanders and Trump rallies, respectively, came when both railed against the establishment. In the age of post-Obama, large swaths of angry Americans who have felt marginalized by the modern political process have channeled their frustration into new kinds of candidates for public office: candidates who call themselves “political outsiders” who are here to create substantial change and “challenge the establishment.” Candidates who embody the rejection of the established political process can be best exemplified by Sanders and Trump; both Sanders and Trump tout their triumphs from the outside by proclaiming themselves as political outsiders here to fight for the common man. Furthermore, both are excellent in utilizing this tactic to bolster their support bases by finding Americans who feel alienated and dejected from politics. As a result, their most avid supporters are the people who are the most angry about American politics.

Although you’d expect Sanders and Trump supporters to be polar opposites, they hold overwhelmingly more similarities than differences. If you mixed the two together, they would be indistinguishable from one another if it weren’t for their respective “Feel the Bern” and “Keep America Great” gear. Both of these support bases boast nearly identical causes to support their candidates. As a result, many of these supporters are driven by Trump and Sanders’ reckless rhetoric to go to extreme lengths. These supporters have placed their hope in Trump and Sanders as messiah-like figures who are ultimate compasses for right and wrong. This means that anyone who opposes Trump or Sanders is wrong.

(Personally, I was attacked on social media after I asked Senator Sanders a pointed question on Russian election interference at a CNN town hall.)

Broadly, we’ve seen politicians nationwide attacked by both Trump and Sanders supporters who have deemed candidates as lacking the degree of extreme that Trump and Sanders are willing to go to for change.

What Trump and Sanders both fail to recognize, however, is that their rhetoric against the political establishment is to the detriment of our republic. In the middle of a global pandemic, we need tested and robust leadership now more than ever. Our republic has worked – for better or worse – since 1789 and, although progress has been slow, it has always been made. The rhetoric that Trump and Sanders have harped on is delegitimizing the country’s government and effectiveness to rule. There will continue to be a shift in Americans who lose faith in this country’s government because of the continued persistence from these so called “outsiders” who are taking advantage of people’s ire and frustration for their own political benefit. Yes, the United States government is certainly fallible, but it is not in need of the complete overhaul that both Trump and Sanders are directly or indirectly proposing.

We forge into dangerous territory if we blindly follow people that insist their way is superior to the current workable system.

This kind of divisiveness is tearing our country apart.

Political campaigns shouldn’t embolden themselves with a superiority complex that their supporters feel justified in enforcing. Political campaigns shouldn’t reject people who fail to agree with them on everything but still hold a common goal. I can’t help but think that the increasing polarization and rampant attacks by these supporters can be attributed to the rhetoric of the Sanders and Trump campaigns; both are strongly opposed to each other, but they are weaponizing the same methods. Attacking people who don’t agree with you accomplishes firing up campaigns in the short term, but in the long run it only widens the gap that Americans are being caught in the middle of.

I had written the bulk of this article in the immediate days following the South Carolina primary on February 29th. Former Vice President Biden’s rapid ascension to the forefront of the Democratic field seemed highly unlikely, and the widespread effects of COVID-19 on our society seemed unfathomable. However, we’re here now, and a myriad of well-warranted questions have emerged on COVID-19 and the Trump administration’s handling – and some would say mishandling– of the largest crisis so far in the twenty-first century.

Although you would expect an argument to shift after such drastic changes in our country’s direction, my thoughts are emboldened. This is a time in which we should welcome – not reject – establishment politicians because they’re the people who have the leadership capabilities and the experience to rescue us from this disaster. To Senator Sanders’ credit, he has recently made a concerted effort to unite his wing of the Democratic party under former Vice President Biden.

Senator Sanders understands that this is not the time to demand stringent change but to unite the American people under the banner of a moderate, practical candidate who can restore the normal functions of our government. We have to ignore our inner demons and form a coalition of Americans from all arrays of the political and societal spectrum against a president who’s led this country far too close to its breaking point.

I don’t know if the Democratic party can defeat Donald Trump. I do know that we can’t beat an extreme ideologogue by shying away from a true fight or crying because our candidate didn’t win the nomination. If we want to defeat Donald Trump, we have to find a middle ground on which we can pull together the country and not just the opposite ends of the spectrum.

The only way that America can heal from our current health and economic crisis and close its divide is if we ignore the extremes in front of us; we have to unite and vote in droves for the moderate and established candidate who will bring this country together. Only under a member of the establishment will we be able to heal this country, restore our government to a sense of normalcy, and beat Donald Trump. If not, we risk killing this country as we know it.

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CODE

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RED A Possible Reality

By Hanah Bergman Squished shoulder to shoulder. An indescribable urge to cry but nothing will come out. Overcome with numbness but also terror.

You feel yourself turn your head, in what seems like slow motion. You look at your fellow students, some close friends, some not, along these off-white walls that you spent all your high school years within. As you huddle in a dark corner with kids you grew up with, the situation seems surreal. Student artwork pinned up on the walls. Picture frames on your teacher’s desk from the vacation her family took last summer. Dusty tennis balls on the bottom of chair legs that your friends used to throw around to annoy her.

The pledge etched onto a plaque above the clock. The clock.

It’s only been two hours.

It’s only been two hours since you were arguing with your parents about weekend plans; they hounded you to stay home—Why don’t we have family night and watch Friends like we used to?—while you pleaded to go out. It’s only been two hours since you were cramming for a Physics test, the one with the formulas you couldn’t memorize for the life of you. It’s only been two hours since your life wasn’t at risk of being snatched from you. It’s only been two hours.

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No one thinks this scenario will happen to them; It’ll never be your city or your school. It’s always a story in the news, not a story of your life.

—————— A scenario that has seemed unfathomable to many students has become a grim reality for others around the United States. From 2013 to April of 2020, there have been 583 gunfire incidents on school grounds, including 215 deaths, and 420 injuries, according to EverytownResearch.org. These numbers do not even consist of incidents in which a gun was brought to school but not fired, each one of them a frightening potential for tragedy.

if we were to be involved in such a situation. In conjunction with Porter-Gaud’s official protocol of a Code Red lockdown, the Draco Group’s tips for how to protect yourself from a shooter could potentially save lives.

When under a general threat; remember the protocols we’ve practiced:

On December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary fell victim to a 20-year-old shooter, resulting in the horrifying death of 20 six-and seven-year-old children and 6 staff members. Six-and seven-year-olds.

Just last year on May 7, a sixteen- and eighteen-yearold who attended STEM School Highlands Ranch shot up their own school, ending in one casualty and eight injuries. In this particular school shooting, one brave 18-year-old student, Kendrick Castillo, selflessly sacrificed himself to save his fellow classmates by lunging at the attacker. Kendrick, among others with similar stories, will forever be remembered as a hero.

Even survivors who are not physically injured but still exposed to these violent affairs involving guns are proven to be traumatically affected. These students have shown to be at higher risk of abusing drugs and alcohol, committing crimes, falling into depression and anxiety, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and struggling in school. Survivors of school shootings quickly come to know extreme mental damage and challenges; they are forced to endure the agony of seeing peers’ lives cut short, their second home quickly transformed from a school into a gory crime scene.

—————— What do you do?

Back in February, I had the opportunity to meet with The Draco Group, an international security consulting and training firm engaged by Porter-Gaud that specializes in recognizing, mitigating, and defending against threats. The Draco Group demonstrated several different procedures for how to confront a gunman

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Turn off lights: This includes projectors, TV’s, audio/ video units, room lights, etc. to achieve an appearance of vacancy to the shooter.

Lock doors/windows: If the school is under a Code Red lockdown, faculty and staff should lock classroom and office doors; however if for some reason this is not the case, take it upon yourself to lock the door of the room you are inside. Make sure windows, especially if you are located on the ground floor, are shut and locked with the window blinds closed.

“No” to fire alarms: Do not exit the classroom or building for a fire alarm, as this could be a tactic to lure students to flood the hallways.

Remain quiet: Do not speak or make noises and keep electronics muted if you can, but do not turn off electronics, as additional information could be emailed/sent to you.

When under a specific threat, that is, if a gunman tries to enter the room, know what to do: “Attack the attacker:” If there is a clear attempt to harm made by an active shooter, there is a need to disarm the individual. If one or more people go after the shooter, this will shift the psychology of

the situation, as the attacker will not be expecting an attack, giving would-be victims an advantage.

Although let’s hope none of us will ever be faced with said scenario, knowing some defense tactics, even in the back of your mind, could be vital.

“Bear hug and drag:” Consider your body in this scenario as an effective tool, especially as dead weight.

If an individual hugs the shooter’s forearms out of the gun’s aim itself, it will pull him down to the floor.

Another person should immediately hug the shooter’s legs. From there, have someone immediately kick, hit, or grab the weapon out of the shooter’s possession and keep it out of his possession.

“The head follows the body:” If engaged in physical contact, push the shooter’s head (up, down, to the side), and see that his body will follow; the shooter, looking away, compromises his strength and shifts his aim. Think of reins on a horse: if you tug the horses’ head to the side, even slightly, the horse will head in the nudged direction. The human body acts similarly.

Likewise, consider the type of weapon involved and how its makeup could assist you.

becomes because a single quick step to the side can render a body out of the shooter’s sudden aim.

If confronting a rifle: Since the butt of a rifle is typically held against the shoulder, grabbing the barrel of the rifle and jerking it downward will take away the shooter’s lethal aim. If able, twist the rifle to face the gun towards the shooter; since many rifles have a trigger guard (a ring around the trigger for the shooter’s finger), the shooter’s finger may engage the trigger when it twists and he may do harm to himself.

“There are no timeouts in real life”: When the weapon is obtained from the shooter, keep it out of his possession. Unlike in movies, where the scene ends at the shooter losing possession of his weapon, real life will not be so generous; ensuring that the weapon remains out of the attacker’s reach and hands is just as important. On the same note, if you get out of the line of fire, stay out of the line of fire.

Porter-Gaud employees are required to take training courses to prepare for these events and are thus entrusted with the responsibility to fulfil their duty in protecting their students and themselves. However, and unfortunately, if the moment comes, we all may be confronted with a heavy decision in order to save as many lives as possible. When faced with the situation every student deems unimaginable, use these tips to protect yourself and your fellow students and teachers.

It is heart-wrenching that anyone, especially young individuals, need to worry about such a situation; however, I think we could all agree that this is a potentially realistic scenario. Although in such a situation survival instincts will kick in, knowing recommended procedures and tips could potentially save lives.

If confronting a pistol: If a shooter enters the classroom with a pistol, from your crouched position alongside the entrance door’s wall immediately run and grab the gun out of the shooter’s hands and keep running to ensure that the gun stays out of his possession. Also, think of how your proximity becomes an advantage: inside a closed room, the farther away a person is from the gunman, the more that person stays in the line of fire; the closer a person is to the gunman, the more limited that line of fire

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A Factory of Human Suffering The Horrific Truth Behind Mass Incarceration

By Ballard Morton Nearly every aspect of American society has been influenced—if not entirely revolutionized—by our passage into modernity. Among other things, our technology has grown smarter, our consumer goods have become cheaper, and our healthcare and medicine have been engineered to save more lives and to ensure greater quality of life. It is almost impossible to name a feature of our American civilization that has gone entirely untouched by our several decades of scientific, technological, economic, social, and political progress. Our criminal justice and prison systems, however, are exceptions of cosmic proportions. In an era otherwise defined by modernity, American justice is a relic of our primitive past.

The majority of those reading will very likely never have to face the direct consequences of mass incarceration. Thus, criminal justice and prison reform may seem altogether unimportant, or at the very least, a distraction from more pressing political issues such as healthcare and climate change. Nevertheless, mass incarceration is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and it merits political solutions and deliberation accordingly. To this end, I believe that the American criminal justice and prison systems are exceedingly harmful and counterproductive institutions.

They are systems for which we pay great costs and reap no benefits in return.

In this article, I will be addressing three main issues that, in my view, contribute most to mass incarceration: 1) Overcriminalization & Sentencing 2) Prosecutorial Tactics & Incentives 3) The Conditions & Punitive Nature of Jails & Prisons Overcriminalization & Sentencing Currently in the United States, roughly 1 in 3 American adults has a criminal record, and approximately 2.1 million Americans are incarcerated in local, state, and federal jails and prisons. 2.1 million. That’s about 1 in every 100 American adults, or the population of Houston, Texas, America’s 4th most populous city. This rate of incarceration is higher than that of any country in the world. Although one may reasonably suspect that this is a justifiable cost to pay for public safety, mass incarceration is in fact detrimental to public safety and does very little

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to actively promote the security of American citizens.

One of the reasons for America’s outrageously high rate of incarceration is the problem of overcriminalization as well as the lengths of inmates’ sentences. This is particularly true of drug offenses. Approximately 350,000 people are incarcerated in a local, state, or federal jail or prison for a drug offense. Between 1980 and 2017, the number of Americans incarcerated in local jails for drug offenses jumped from approximately 20,000 to 185,000. In federal prisons, it jumped from 5,000 to 92,000. In 2009, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found that high-level traffickers and importers accounted for only 11% of those federally incarcerated for a drug offense.

Furthermore, the problem is not only the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses, but also the time they are spending behind bars. The average time drug offenders in the U.S. spend behind bars in state prisons jumped from 1.6 years to 2.2 years between 1980 and 2009. For federal drug offenses, the average time jumped from approximately 2 to 5 years on average between 1988 and 2012. Mandatory minimums (minimum sentences required for certain, generally benign offenses) and “threestrikes” laws are no doubt blameworthy for these trends in drug sentencing. With regard to crime more generally, a University of Nottingham study found that, although the U.S. comprises only 4% of the global prison population, the U.S. is responsible for approximately one-third of the world’s total life sentences.

In considering these data, a skeptic may intuitively believe the following: 1) repeated drug use is bad for people, and strict drug laws are required to deter people from abusing substances; 2) strict drug laws reduce rates of violent crime and thus promote public safety.

As to the first point, no correlation between the harmful effects of drug use and drug laws has been proven to exist.

In fact, to the contrary, a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center shares the following: “Pew compared state drug imprisonment rates with three important measures of drug problems— self-reported drug use (excluding marijuana), drug arrest, and overdose

death—and found no statistically significant relationship between drug imprisonment and these indicators. In other words, higher rates of drug imprisonment did not translate into lower rates of drug use, arrests, or overdose deaths.”

To the question of whether or not drug laws reduce violent crime and promote public safety, one need look no further than our own state of South Carolina. In 2010, South Carolina passed the Omnibus Crime Reduction and Sentencing Reform Act, designed to decrease the state prison population and improve state parole and probation. A November 2018 report confirms that South Carolina’s prison population decreased by 14 percent and that parole and probation success rates went up substantially. Five years after the legislation was passed, the violent crime rate in South Carolina had gone down by 16%, and the state’s rate of incarceration dropped from 11th to 20th highest in the U.S. As NYU law professor Rachel Elise Barkow states in her book Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration: “We have seen state after state reduce sentence lengths without an increase in crime rates or recidivism. [...]

California is a particularly striking example; from 2006 to 2012, it cut its prison population by 23%, and violent crime fell by 21%. [...] Indeed, states that lowered their incarceration rates have seen a greater drop in their crime rates than states where imprisonment rates have increased. West Virginia, for example, increased its incarceration rate more than any other state but experienced a 6% increase in crime.”

There are indeed better ways to curtail drug use than to incarcerate those with addiction. In 2001, Portugal decriminalized all narcotics and implemented statesponsored rehabilitation for drug addicts, rather than incarcerating them. In the 90s, Portugal’s population was exceedingly heroin-addicted and downtrodden; the 2001 decriminalization law changed everything, as described

in an NPR article by Lauren Frayer: “Under the 2001 decriminalization law, authored by Goulão, [...] anyone caught with less than a 10-day supply of any drug — including heroin — gets mandatory medical treatment. No judge, no courtroom, no jail.

Instead they end up in a sparsely furnished, discreet, unmarked office in downtown Lisbon, for counseling with government sociologists, who decide whether to refer them to drug treatment centers. ‘It’s cheaper to treat people than to incarcerate them,’ says sociologist Nuno Capaz. ‘If I come across someone who wants my help, I’m in a much better position to provide it than a judge would ever be. Simple as that.’ Capaz’s team of 10 counselors handles all of Lisbon’s roughly 2,500 drug cases a year. It may sound like a lot, but it’s actually a 75 percent drop from the 1990s. Portugal’s drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the European Union average.”

If I were tasked with solving America’s drug problem, I would take a similar approach. The state could legalize all drugs, making them available for recreational use and purchase, and impose a 5 to 15 percent consumption tax (depending on the intensity of the drug) that would be used to fund state-sponsored rehabilitation for anyone suffering with addiction. This policy would cut the United States prison population in half, would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, would increase twoparent households, would reduce poverty, would make drug use and consumption safer, would shrink the black market (and thus reduce violent crime), and would above all reduce needless human suffering.

For the sake of brevity, I have decided to focus exclusively on the overcriminalization and excessive sentencing associated with drugs. However, there are countless examples in the American criminal justice system of laws and legal precedents that contribute to these issues.

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Prosecutorial Tactics & Incentives The toxic cycle of mass incarceration is propped up largely on the unconstitutional tactics and incentives employed by prosecutors. For the purposes of this article, I will be addressing only two of them: pre-trial detention and plea bargaining.

Let’s begin with pre-trial detention. Pre-trial detention is the process by which individuals accused of a crime are detained before a trial has taken place—and thus before they are even proven (or not proven) to have done anything wrong. A Vox article referring to a recent study of pre-trial detention states that “the number of people being detained before trial increased by a whopping 433 percent between 1970 and 2015” and that “of the 740,000 people currently sitting in jails around the country, about two-thirds of them have not been convicted of a crime.”

This can largely be attributed to an inability to post bail; in other words, the vast majority of those affected by pretrial detention are in poverty. A December 2018 report from The Hamilton Project states that those unable to post bail are likely to spend anywhere from 50 to 200 days in pre-trial detention. The report goes on to say: “Even for durations that are relatively short—for example, 54 days for those accused of a driving-related felony—pretrial detention represents a nearly twomonth period during which individuals are separated from their families and financial hardships are exacerbated.”

Once again, these are punishments that people endure before they are even brought to trial and thus proven innocent or guilty. Prosecutors generally take advantage of pre-trial detention in order to leverage yet another unconstitutional tactic that contributes to mass incarceration: plea bargaining.

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Plea bargaining is when a defendant agrees to confess to a certain crime in exchange for a more lenient sentence.

95% of U.S. criminal cases never go to trial, and instead result in a plea bargain—a judicial transaction that may seem benign in theory but is frequently exploited and weaponized. Prosecutors are inclined to use plea bargaining, as it is more dependable, consistent, and cost-effective than repeatedly taking cases to trial and leaving the outcome up to legal precedent or the discretion of a judge or jury. In an article entitled “The Devil’s Bargain: How Plea Agreements, Never Contemplated by the Framers, Undermine Justice,” Cato Institute scholar Tim Lynch writes the following: “People who have never been prosecuted may think there is no way they would plead guilty to a crime they did not commit. But when the government has a ‘witness’ who is willing to lie, and your own attorney urges you to accept one year in prison rather than risk a ten‐​year sentence, the decision becomes harder.”

Lynch proceeds to quote former chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts William Young: “The focus of our entire criminal justice system has shifted away from trials and juries and adjudication to a massive system of sentence bargaining that is heavily rigged against the accused.”

Plea bargaining becomes an even more exploitative practice when taken in the context of pre-trial detention.

People are significantly more likely to confess to a crime they did not commit when they have been detained (and will continue to be detained) pre-trial.

The Conditions & Punitive Nature of Jails & Prisons As we have seen, many of those incarcerated are imprisoned because they committed a relatively benign drug offense or were forced to accept a plea bargain after facing pre-trial detention. However, let us set this aside temporarily. Let’s assume for the time being that everyone who is incarcerated is in prison because they committed a violent, malicious offense. Even with this flawed predisposition, Americans should still be concerned about the state of jails and prisons in this country. At least 95% of those currently incarcerated will one day be back in the outside world. As Americans, we have an interest in ensuring that those 95% of prisoners will be less inclined to commit crimes than when they entered. However, this is not the case: the U.S. has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the world.

American prisons are filthy and overcrowded. They focus primarily on punishment and retribution rather than rehabilitation. Tens of thousands of men are raped in state jails and federal prisons annually. Prisoners receive very little guidance as to how to act in the outside world, how to reintegrate into society upon their release, and how to perform basic, necessary tasks that are crucial for civilian life: dieting, fostering healthy sleep patterns, maintaining wellness, seeking employment and educational opportunities, developing literacy and social skills, and much more. How are we to expect prisoners to be any more functional upon their release if not provided proper rehabilitation?

No discussion of prison rehabilitation would be complete without discussing Norway. An American would be likely to mistake a Norwegian prison for a three-star hotel. Norwegian prisons are among the most rehabilitative and restorative in the world.

Halden Prison, among Norway’s most humane correctional facilities, is a minimum-security campus with a gym, a courtyard, a music room, a library, as well as common spaces and private bedrooms. The prison provides ample open space, numerous windows and views of the outside world, and outdoor greenery and landscaping. Inmates receive vocational training and are given opportunities to prepare for jobs in any number of sectors from art and graphic design to engineering to food preparation. Inmates are entrusted with a high degree of autonomy; they receive private keys to their bedrooms and have constant access to sharp knives and tools in kitchen spaces and work areas.

Norway has the lowest recidivism rate of any country, and one of the lowest crime rates globally. Reports confirm that the frequency of violence in Norwegian prisons is among the lowest in the world. Norway’s restorative approach and substantially smaller per capita prison population are, in large part, responsible for their low recidivism and high public safety.

I’m not suggesting that the Norwegian model can be seamlessly applied to the United States. Norway and the U.S. are two entirely different countries. However, there are measures the U.S. can adopt to lower its rate of recidivism and to make its penological institutions more humane. In addition to shrinking its prison population, the U.S. should provide prisoners greater resources for vocational training and basic preparation for civilian life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a method of psychotherapy that focuses on separating people’s intuitive perception from their response and thus their behavior. Dr. Aaron T. Beck founded CBT in the 1960s at the University of Pennsylvania with the goal of mitigating people’s “automatic thoughts” and providing people with a rational framework for perception, response, and behavior. Numerous studies and reports suggest that providing CBT to inmates at jails and prisons lowers rates of recidivism. Resources like CBT, vocational training, civilian preparation, and greater inmate autonomy and freedom are critical in promoting a prison system that is more humane and thus more effective in ultimately promoting our public safety.

Conclusion In an age defined by political controversy, and innumerable political issues competing for your attention, it isn’t immediately obvious why you should seriously consider the problems and potential solutions associated with the American criminal justice and prison systems. I would contend, however, that no political progress—with regard to any issue—is capable of taking place if our sense of justice, if the institutions designed to safeguard our moral and legal interests, is perverted.

Mass incarceration touches every area of society and exacerbates every problem the U.S. intends to solve— from poverty to fiscal irresponsibility to a lack of state accountability.

As I stated earlier, modernity has defined virtually everything about our civilization. And yet, one would expect that our system of justice was devised by Hammurabi himself. By rolling back punitive laws and sentencing, by correcting perverse, prosecutorial tactics and incentives, and by promoting a rehabilitative, restorative approach to incarceration, we may finally thrust our judicial and penological institutions into the age of modernity. Such is among the foremost moral and political imperatives of our time, and only with the utmost urgency and deliberation will we be successful in adequately addressing it.

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Cursed

My Terrifying Experience with a Psychic

by Reilly Morrow Unexpectedly, I became distracted by a glowing purple sign that read: “Grand Opening! Psychic Reading! Love! Fate! Destiny!” I was instantly drawn towards the entrance of the small studio and knocked on the door. This was not my first time seeing a psychic, and I was desperate for some answers about my future.

After a few moments, a lady in her thirties came to the door and greeted me with a hug and a reassuring look. She told me to make myself comfortable as I made my way over to her small glass desk in the corner of the room. The atmosphere of the studio was calming: it had gray walls, scented candles burning, a mini statue of Buddha, and a Chakra poster—all of which I had seen before, which put me at ease.

After sitting down, the psychic began by elaborating on her work and its outcomes, ultimately persuading me to proceed with the session with a palm and chakra reading. I agreed. I had been feeling out of sorts recently.

She introduced herself as Jenna and asked me if I had experienced any sort of loss over the past couple of months, and I went ahead and gave a brief description as to what had been going on in my life. Jenna told me she had sensed my strong sense of loss when I walked through the door and that everything was going to be okay. To be honest, her words were comforting and reassuring, something which I had been trying to seek from counselors and friends but just could not find. By the end of the emotional session, she (and I) had come to the conclusion that I needed help rebalancing my chakras because, due to my loss, they were completely imbalanced--actually, Jenna said she had never seen a case that bad before. I felt a sense of urgency in her voice, making me truly believe something was really wrong with my soul. Jenna, in a way, made me feel as if I had been victimized and that she was the only person who could reverse the damage.

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Every afternoon for a week, I visited Jenna at her studio. We became closer and closer. I had not been that close to someone in a very long time. And the best part about it was that I did not have to explain myself since I believed she already knew what was going through my head. I began thinking any session with her was more helpful than any therapy session I had ever attended. I believed that—after years of therapists and seemingly meaningless confessions and conversations— I was finally getting somewhere. I remember messaging her after one of our sessions and telling her I had never felt so much clarity in my life.

I began thinking she was maybe my guru. I told Jenna this. And her response was that I had sought her help in all of my previous lives (all nine to be exact)—yes, she led me to believe that I have had several previous lives and that she was attempting to channel each of them. She claimed channeling my previous lives was difficult, that it took much expertise, and it was especially hard because I had been given a spiritual gift.

Jenna led me to believe that I had been royalty in my previous life, that I had married— apparently—my soulmate, that I had had his child, and that he, along with the child, had been killed in a freak accident.

She led me to believe that there had been a curse set on me by a jealous witch and that in every single one of my lives, I have gone through this process of loss and suffering. She led me to believe that I had tried to contact a psychic in each of my lives to break the curse, but I was unsuccessful due to poverty (which had been set on me as well). She led me to believe that if I did not pay her $3,000 dollars, I would be responsible for my future “soulmate” and child’s death.

I was so conflicted. I had no idea what to do. I was not sure if she was legit or if she was just trying to get my money. When I asked her if she was attempting to take my money, she claimed that paying her the

money was a sacrifice, and that any sacrifice is meant to be difficult. Even worse, she told me not to tell any parents or friends. I spent days overwhelmed with fear and confusion. I could not speak to anyone regarding the matter. And I knew no one would understand anyway.

said I needed to go to the cops. So I did, and the detective looked just as confused as my therapist did.

Ultimately, law enforcement went down to her studio, and to this day, I have not spoken to Jenna—at least since my farewell to her, which was a long stream of texts describing my resentment and disappointment.

A few days later, I had a therapist appointment— which I had previously considered giving up due to my newfound “therapy.” My therapist and I began speaking, and she immediately sensed my anxiety and asked what was wrong. I told her that I could not tell her, because if I did, she would be cursed as well. My therapist looked at me as if I had gone actually crazy, as no one speaks of being cursed in the twenty-first century. I eventually told her what had been going on and what my psychic had said, and she immediately

However, the most challenging part of this whole episode was the fact that I had believed in a perfect future—that if I paid $3,000, everything in my life would be safe, no questions asked. And really what I wanted was a simple plan that led to that perfect future because I, like most teens, have no idea where I will be, what I will be doing, or even who I should be.

But now I know that that is okay—because everyone’s futures are filled with unknowns, and I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me them.

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Where the Skies are Blue Utopias, suffering, and hope.

By Sophie Levenson Just as daylight fades into darkness and the moon makes way for the sun, happiness must exist alongside suffering. A painless life may be desired by nearly all people, but the fact of the matter is that there are too many obstacles inherent in human nature and society to allow for a life lived completely devoid of misery. As a race, we have somewhat clouded the meaning of the word “happiness.” The idea of fully-encompassing joy, in essence, is a beautiful one, and even perhaps an essential one. But in modern society, happiness has turned into one more thing to achieve. If one lacks happiness, they are under an immense amount of pressure to attain it. And then they must compare their happiness to that of the rest of the world, something that can only be damaging.

It becomes more and more difficult to separate genuine happiness from the illusion. Either perfect happiness is hidden excruciatingly well, or it is just another cruel joke, courtesy of society. It is nonetheless ingrained in our minds that we must find happiness, the closest thing to perfection in our minds.

The concept of a perfect life is a strange one.

Perfection, the way that we typically see it, is flawless. It is a state of absolute happiness and the absence of suffering. But perhaps this idea, this definition, is itself imperfect. Perhaps “perfection” is something else entirely.

In a mathematical sense, a perfect something is complete. It has all the things that it should, or ever would, require. From this angle, a perfect life is absolutely achievable, depending on one’s own subjective interpretation of “perfection.” A life can be full with all of the things that one may want or desire; and thus from an individual perspective, a perfect life may very well be in the books.

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However, on a larger scale, a perfect world is impossible.

Human beings are in constant competition with one another: individually, nationally, continentally.

There are, of course, plenty of “good” people in the world, but there has never been enough selflessness among humans to solve greater suffering. There are innumerable factors that can cause suffering in an individual’s life. There are small afflictions, simple things, like heartbreak and loneliness and a lack of success. There are worse things, more powerful afflictions, like abuse and illness. And then there are tragedies that put dents in the world: famine, poverty, hate, oppression, murder.

What if there were a place in which we could escape the suffering that pervades human life?

A place of perfection, where we could be happy, always, free from the chains of being human and the various problems that we have created for ourselves? For they are, truly, problems prescribed by none other than ourselves.

However, on a larger scale, a perfect world is impossible.

In 1516, in the tumult of the Protestant Reformation and the abysmal reign of King Henry VIII, High Chancellor Sir Thomas More published his legendary book Utopia, along with the word itself,

for the first time. He coined the term from Greek roots: ou-topos, meaning “no place,” along with eu-topos, meaning “good-place.” With this in mind, his clever new word posed a myriad of questions, beginning with the most obvious one: is a perfect world attainable?

Humanity is a species that lives not for the sake of living, but for the sake of some greater thing, some abstract concept through which our insatiable appetites can finally be conquered.

No, but the reasoning behind why not? is fascinating. The idea of a utopia says an awful lot about human nature. It is magnetically desirable, and yet we ourselves are the only real barrier in front of it. We are all very much aware that utopias are phantoms of the mind, unreachable and completely impossible, but we nonetheless have the word and the idea. It is almost as if we have decided to taunt ourselves with a notion of perfection that is other humans exist would not necessarily eradicate always out of reach. loneliness. Besides, living in isolation deprives a person of a keystone aspect of existence, which is However, theoretically, there are two ways for a human connection. No man is an island, as it is said, utopia to exist. The first is simple, though just as and this is simply because he naturally surrounds simply rebuked. If every one of us lived wholly himself with others. If people could not connect, alone, on an island where we had to work for our there would be a dark, vast emptiness inside of needs but never ran out of resources, we would them. be free of the complications of inequality that accompany society. There would be no upper class and no lower, no king and no peasant, no pressure to be above others and no fear of falling below. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau would have put it, there would be no chains shackling us to a life deprived of free will and liberty. But if loneliness and isolation is the trade-off for perfection, it does not seem worth it. In fact, it does not seem perfect at all, but merely a form of protection and selfpreservation. Humanity is a species that lives not for the sake of living, but for the sake of some greater thing, some abstract concept through which our insatiable appetites can finally be conquered.

This something is a near-impossible goal that we set for ourselves—the crown jewel of humanity’s self-inflicted problems. In a sense, we are running in circles, chasing our tails, and pursuing goals that will inevitably become more steps on the staircase that we build until we suffer our last breath of air.

Perhaps we would not know any differently and could not understand our isolation fully, but the human mind is remarkably complex, and isolation cannot completely prevent the possibility of emotion. In this case, simply not knowing that

The second theoretical possibility for a utopia would involve an equality so strict that it would suffocate individuality. Such an idea has, of course, been exploited: one notable instance being the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut.

The world Vonnegut designs in his story strives to conquer inequality and competition by hammering individuality, talent, and ability out of its residents.

The government weighs down athletes with heavy loads and kills intelligence with mental “handicap radios” that make it impossible to think. It does not allow anything beautiful, for fear that it will ruin the system. It starves humanity of passion in its effort to fight suffering. But a lack of spirit can be a suffering in itself.

In a more recent work, Lois Lowry explores the same idea in her 1993 novel The Giver. The book explores a world in which nobody sees in color, nobody knows emotion, and complacency is the peak of excitement. However, there is no known crime, no inequality, and everybody is perfectly oblivious to the fact that deformed or imperfect infants are sent like expired leftovers down the trash 37

chute. But even beyond the heartless murder and the lack of love, nobody knows of a passion to pursue, books do not exist, and life is so structured that it is difficult to see the use in living it. People are shielded from suffering, but there is simply nothing worth suffering for. This idea has been exploited countless times in art and literature—it seems a topic that remains always on the human mind.

Adam and Eve discovered things that they had not known before, that they had not been allowed to reach: knowledge and passion.

It is interesting that a part of what God called sin is what we call joy. What he called paradise is what we call complacency. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were content, but outside of it, they were human. They were in love. Their minds were open to knowledge and growth. But they were also If we were all handed a magic wand and told to vulnerable in so many ways. Are happiness and build our own personal utopias, designed to conquer freedom contingent upon suffering? If so, is it worth the deepest desires of our souls and satisfy all that the trade off? Or is it better to exist passively—with we need, it remains doubtful that anybody would no pain but also no golden moments? be able to do so. Each person’s idyll is distinct, even from one’s closest companions. One could But as I ponder this further, I find myself wondering not expect that their dream world would align what the difference between genuine happiness and completely with that of everybody they love. And the illusion of happiness actually is. If happiness is, so, either people are lonely, or they compromise. in its truest form, a feeling of complete contentment Yet compromising doesn’t seem to be in the and the living of a life that brings a person a description of a utopia. So, what? We have clones sense of excitement, it is simply an emotion. And made of our best friends and convince ourselves if a person is under the impression that they are they’re the real thing? This approach is merely experiencing said emotion, how is it any different ignorance, and ignorance, however blissful it may from the reality? Blissful ignorance, certainly, be, is not a state in which I involves a lack of awareness would like to exist. There is concerning the world and the always a catch. Always. unpleasantness inherent in existence, but it satisfies the And yet, there are two people, illusion of happiness. Perhaps two figures both remarkably that is all that is needed— famous and infamous, who ignorance, illusions, and have supposedly existed in ultimately, contentment. paradise: Adam and Eve. According to the legend, the Surely there is more to joy than pair existed happily in the that, though. The difference Garden of Eden, simply going must then be that a person can about life in a state of peace not know genuine happiness and contentment, never truly if they have not suffered. One troubled with the burden of cannot appreciate the sun until being human. And yet, Adam they have been cold, or water and Eve never experienced any until their mouth has been dry. fervent degree of happiness.

It is as a rainbow after a storm; They simply existed in constant one must see the bad to earn contentment—something quite something rare and lovely. apart from joy. They were It is almost as if life is more ignorant to knowledge and enjoyable with pain. It is very would never be able to feel the wonder of learning possible that we find a sort of glorifying satisfaction or the satisfaction of producing an idea. They were in suffering. Or maybe, subconsciously, we simply there, wanting for nothing but also knowing appreciate its necessity. It is a muddling paradox. of nothing to want. What changed? Simply put,

To suffer is to persist—and the power of persistence is invaluable. If we suffer through pain, if we suffer through darkness, if we suffer through sorrow, we are living despite it all.

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This certainly does not mean that all levels of suffering are necessary. Famine, abuse, slavery, all the gravest problems that plague our world. If humankind were less nested in the idea of fighting for luxury and domination, perhaps we would move toward defeating these greater sufferings with a more fervent pursuit. Alas, here we are,

It is as a rainbow after a storm; one must see the bad to earn something rare and lovely. living in a country of climbers, fighting to be on top of the gilded mountain we call home. And every time someone lands upon its tiny summit, they cut the ropes that harness in the people clinging on to its scraggly edge. If that person gave up the idea of luxury, they could build a plateau and crush the mountain, thus ending the suffering. But then maybe they would not be quite as happy. By no means should our society recreate “Harrison Bergeron,” but we may be able to find a happy medium.

Suffering will always be a part of human life.

There is simply no way around it. There is, though, a nicer way to spin it. To delve, once again, into semantics: the word “suffer” has an extremely negative connotation, naturally, as it indicates pain and displeasure. But to suffer is to endure (which is why we say we do not “suffer fools” and such). To suffer is to persist—and the power of persistence is invaluable. If we suffer through pain, if we suffer through darkness, if we suffer through sorrow, we are living despite it all. We are living with a hope of better things to come, with a subconscious assurance of improvement. As humans, we have an incredible power to hope, but we very rarely notice it. We call ourselves “cynics” and “pessimists,” and yet we continue to hope. If the cynics did not believe, on some level, in something to hope for, they would find very few reasons to stay alive. And yet they live, despite.

Our world is far from perfect at the moment.

Suffering is happening on a large scale and in a rare fashion. I wrote most of this article before the global outbreak of COVID-19—nonetheless, I think it should certainly be addressed. It is terrifying, and it is tragic. This is the kind of suffering that is not at all necessary or desirable for people to appreciate the better parts of life. However, it is having an effect on the way we see the world.

We have suddenly become a more athletic, more creative, more outdoorsy generation. We have suddenly started begging school (school!) to happen because we realize how important it is for our social lives, our mental health, and, yes, our education.

The aforementioned idea of isolation has become an incredibly real problem—all of us now know the importance of interaction and communication.

Lastly, we are holding out hope. We all are—we all have to, or the consequences will be even more ominous than they already are. Remember, hope is an immensely powerful thing.

It is quite clear, at this point, that a utopia is impossible—at least on a global or national scale. But a utopia, though supposedly a “perfect place,” may not be as desirable as it seems. There is obviously something in life worth living for; otherwise humans would cease to exist. Certainly, we all suffer, but there must be a reason to endure.

If we lifted the burdens of knowledge from our shoulders, wrapped our lives in pretense, and relived The Truman Show, perhaps we would not suffer. We could stick mental handicap radios in our ears and stop living for the unknown something.

We could satisfy ourselves with complacency and ignorance and sacrifice the pursuit of something more. Or we could suffer, endure, persist, and find perfection somewhere in the mix.

Or perhaps we will simply ask ourselves questions forever and spiral deeper and deeper into the pursuit of blue skies.

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Science shows pre-game rituals do help performance – now that’s lucky!

By Emmy Keogh It was a tough loss. The Porter-Gaud girls’ basketball team had fought hard but came up short in a close match against our rival this past December. Sweaty and exhausted, we poured into the locker room to discuss what we could have done better. Our coach, Kevin Ziman, went through the obvious corrections – fouls from not extending our arms high, unnecessary turnovers, missed free throws. But, also on the list, was something else: the concept of luck. Coach Kevin apologized to us for not wearing the same shirt that he had worn the last time we’d played them and won, and he promised the next time he would. We all understood immediately.

Many of us in that locker room had our own pre-game rituals to bring ourselves continued good luck. For example, Elise Pearson, The Post and Courier’s AllLowcountry basketball player of the year, might not have gotten to where she is today without her lucky white shoes. As a team, we received matching black Nike basketball shoes, but Elise kept wearing her own lucky footwear and outscored every girl in the region. Kyle Lafayette, the school record holder for triple jump and SCISA’s number one triple and long jumper, has several pre-game rituals for both track and football. On the field for football, he prays and writes “sos” on his wrist tape. For track, he always wears his lucky chain and completes the same warmup every time. As for me, I always wear low socks on game 2

day, or else I feel like we’ve already lost. It might not be fashionable, but it is what it is. It’s superstition.

Before you laugh at us, be honest: when was the last time you knocked on wood, or used your “lucky pencil” while taking a math test, or quickly said “jinx” when you said the same word at the same time as your friend? It seems everyone has some sort of ritual to ward away disaster, or a special charm to enhance performance -- even the famous.

Taylor Swift has a thing about the number 13. In 2009, she said in an interview on MTV: “I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first No. 1 song had a 13-second intro. Every time I’ve won an award I’ve been seated in either the 13th seat, the 13th row, the 13th section or row M, which is the 13th letter.”

Supermodel Heidi Klum carries a bag of her baby teeth when she travels. Jennifer Aniston, before she gets on an airplane, walks with her right foot first and then taps the outside of the plane to bring good luck and a safe flight. Tennis star Serena Williams will not change her socks in a tournament, and, before her first serve, bounces the ball exactly five

times. Michael Jordan wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform in every game because in 1982 he led UNC to the NCAA Championships and believed his UNC shorts brought him that good luck.

But it’s not just entertainers and athletes who engage in lucky rituals. Even the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a ritual of eating peanuts when they are attempting a risky maneuver, such as when the Mars Rover was landing.

activity such as a sports competition led to diminished anxiety and elevated confidence. They found that even those who did not believe in the good luck rituals, but still participated in them, still benefited from them. Additional studies in sport psychology found multiple benefits of pre-performance routines, seeing a

correlation between the ritual and improved attention, execution, emotional stability and confidence. Clearly, having a lucky charm or doing a pre-game ritual elevates your chances for a better performance.

So, the next time your coach puts on his winning shirt, thank him… it might just be the extra edge you need to bring home the win.

Artwork by Eliza Dieck

The question is: are we all crazy? We certainly look ridiculous, and it certainly seems irrational. But do these pre-game rituals and lucky charms actually

contribute to more wins? Is there any connection between the act and the outcome?

In a scientific experiment at the University of Cologne in 2010, people were given either a “lucky golf ball” or an ordinary golf ball, and then they putted ten times. Those who believed they had the lucky golf ball sank two more balls out of ten than those who thought they had a regular ball, yielding a 35% performance improvement. They showed improved motor skills, dexterity and memory. The authors of the study concluded that having “the lucky ball” had boosted the participants’ belief in themselves, leading them to pursue higher goals and persist until they achieved their goals. Research reported in 2013 in Scientific American explained that rituals for good luck that were performed before undertaking a high-pressure 3

Musical Matters of Taste: Our Preferences Don’t Have to Divide Us

By Katherine Geils

Imagine yourself in Target. After spending half of your day meandering around the most beloved place on Earth, you finally enter the checkout line with two items you weren’t intending to buy in the first place. Just ahead of you, holding a case of beer, Eggo waffles, and sunflower seeds, a man saunters down to the register— Carolina baseball cap, plaid button down, an unnecessarily large belt buckle accompanied by faded jeans, scuffed boots.

Nothing unusual in the lowcountry. You both finish scanning your items and leave the store in succession. You walk out to your car to find this man has parked next to you, a big red, mud-caked, 2019 Ford F-150.

He starts up the ignition, rolls down the windows, cranks up the volume on the dash loud enough so that his truck vibrates, and out blares....

Beyonce?

You probably expected the sappy lyrics of Thomas Rhett and the strum of an acoustic guitar, not the peppy “pro-women” songs of Queen Bey, right?

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Something we’re all familiar with is the concept of stereotyping; as a society, we tend to stereotype people quite frequently and in a scant amount of time. Despite much encouragement to “not judge a book by its cover” and to have an open mind when meeting new people, we still tend to make quick generalizations about others upon first impressions. Such are mainly based on appearance or quick interactions in which we’ve seen them participate. For many, these thoughts are inevitable; we try to dissect one another, picking up on small indicators, like those based upon sex, hair style, apparel, and body language, which allow us to make thousands of generalizations about one another: generalizations about personality, hobbies, and even music taste.

“As a society, we tend to stereotype people quite frequently and in a scant amount of time.”

Based on my own traits, I’ve been told people generally see me as friendly and reserved, yet silly. (While this is all true, some have also told me that I’m “basic,”

shorthand for basically unremarkable and unoriginal—Why would you tell anyone that to their face!). People assume that I’m a Starbucks fanatic, a health freak (something I desperately wish I were), and, most importantly, a pop music devotee.

Though there’s nothing necessarily wrong with enjoying those things, I simply don’t.

For instance, pop music: the bane of my existence.

If you turn on the radio or go onto Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits,” you will likely find a selection of Justin Bieber, Camila Cabello, Sam Smith, or Dua Lipa, among other overrated artists. To some, these songs are absolutely riveting. The rhythm is juuust unmatched. But to me, most pop music lacks any appeal: few pop songs have original and melodious beats accompanied by a decent voice. Take Dua Lipa: the beat in all of her most popular songs consists of a variation of electronic pulses. Fine, except that those electronic pulses sound almost identical to those in her other songs, or those in other pop songs. They’re overused! They’ve lost their peppiness and there’s no appeal anymore. Furthermore, these mundane beats are not accompanied by a beautiful voice, but rather...talking! There’s no actual singing in Dua Lipa’s “songs.” Sorry, but doesn’t the word “song” suggest that someone will be singing at some point? And is talking even a talent?!

I’m ashamed to admit it because it’s so stupid, but I try to separate myself from others based on “having better music taste”. I try to put myself on a pedestal, telling myself that I’m superior because I listen to something more soulful like Alabama Shakes and The Lumineers. It’s something so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, yet I’ve used it to divide and barricade myself from others in the same regrettable way.

Sadly, these put downs and attempts to divide humanity are not uncommon. It’s human nature to fixate on relatively insignificant details about a person and develop a stereotype about them in order to fix them or confine them with a label. It’s an easy way to pit ourselves against one another and lift ourselves up. However, there’s no excuse for such nonsense. To have such thoughts suggests a sense of superiority and desire to segregate the world with meaningless and insignificant lines and petty judgements about “taste.” Quick, subjective judgements should not dictate who we interact with.

We should welcome the fact that we don’t all fit into a “box” and accept the country boy driving away, blaring Beyonce...

Due to my considerable disdain for pop music, if I find out that someone else loves it, I too feel inclined to make ostracizing generalizations about them.

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We say a fond farewell—for now—to a few of our favorites...

Ms. Jen Rader

Upper School Science Has Been Found: At the MP Wastewater Treatment plant, rebuilding oyster reefs, foster-failing kittens, baking cookies Will Be Found: Wearing 17 layers of clothing under her parka, driving a riding lawn mower, raising chickens (maybe one day sheep…?), taking Bea and Thatcher to the cider mill Favorite Sayings: “What are you weirdos doing in the dark?” “Shut your lips and learn” “How did that work out for you?”

Fondest PG Memories: Taking the junior class to Hunting Island during a tick outbreak, APES field trips, teaching freshmen, chaperoning Kanuga, science department get-togethers, lunch Quote: “Success is walking from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill Parting Words: After 12 years at PG, I’m graduating along with the class of 2020, heading into the unknown (Frozen II spoke to me), and on to whatever comes next. While I didn’t miss my own prom or graduation, I am missing this year’s and I feel the sense of loss, the lack of closure that comes along with missing those milestones. I’ve struggled a lot over the last couple months, figuring out how I would get over not having the good-byes I’d planned, the last big hugs, the last feel of the warm breeze on the green at graduation, saying goodbye to all of my students. But the more I struggled, the more I began to focus on what was important; the relationships I’ve built over the last twelve years that haven’t gone away during quarantine, and won’t go away when I move to Michigan.

So, to my fellow graduates, I ask you to consider this. We may not have our last goodbyes in person, but we don’t need to say goodbye. We won’t be at PG physically next year, but that’s ok. We are moving on to our next adventures, will face challenges, have wonderful new experiences, and eventually life will get back to “normal.”

Porter-Gaud will still be here, waiting for us to come back and share our stories. No matter how far we travel, after 12 years (or 6 years, or 4 years, or 1 year), the magic of Porter-Gaud is that you became part of the family.

Porter-Gaud becomes home; always willing to welcome you back with smiles and hugs (remember those?!?). So, I’ll send my love to my students and colleagues, my gratitude for 12 years that taught me more than any classroom ever could, my wishes for laughter and adventure, but I won’t say goodbye. I’ll see you on the flip side ;) 446

Ms. Deborah Reinhold Former English Teacher, Lyceum Director

Has Been Found: Grading essays—at school, at home, on the beach, in the mountains, pretty much all the time, wherever I happened to be; in the Lyceum scheduling, tutoring Will Be Found: On the beach, in the mountains, traveling, writing (and not grading) Likes Most: My students, my colleagues, my family, my pets Fondest PG Memories: Watching my English students and now my Lyceum students find their voices and their confidence; the day my eleventh grade class with William Feldman, Wayne Chomitz, and twelve other amazing students refused to leave the class at the final bell on the last day of school; being at school every day with Joanna and Evan; listening to students read their essays, especially the day we all sat stunned and awed as Jackson Wills read his short story to the class; guiding student editors such as Sally Parker Phillips and Hannah Ellison in fulfilling their vision for Polygon and creating a beautiful record of their experience at Porter; advising student leaders planning their proms, their class trips, their yearbook, their service projects; any pre-PG event parties with Tommy Evatt and the English teachers on Sullivan’s.

Quote: “And, when we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men. . . In fashioning myself I fashion man. . . Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.” Jean-Paul Sartre To the graduating seniors: You never really leave Porter-Gaud. As you move on to fresh starts and new lives, you leave behind the many ways you’ve shaped the school: the laughter you’ve shared with friends still echoes across the Green; your questions and comments linger in the classrooms and in the minds of your classmates; your performances on the fields, courts, and stages replay as stories and memories; the goodwill you’ve shared through service radiates in the heart of the community; and the kindness you’ve extended continues to enrich lives. As you leave behind your gifts, take into the future the experiences and memories of your years at Porter that have helped shape you into who you have become and will become.

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Ms. Beverly Oswald

has earned her credits.

If you have ever signed up for a course, taken a course, passed a course, or remained on course to graduate, then you have one person to thank: Beverly Oswald, of course.

The registrars at any school must be technicians of the highest order, for order itself is what they stand upon; so many details must fall in so many ways to get so many students what they need to become so educated.

At Porter-Gaud, though, ours has been a heart surgeon, ensuring that all our chambers and aortic valves, hundreds by the way, not merely function, as if to keep us alive, but flow, so as to keep us in rhythm with the hasty pace of an ever-changing world.

So our world will certainly change when, after forty-five years on this campus (Forty. Five?!), Frau Oswald, as she first became known as a beloved German teacher, a role she reveled in for decades before becoming registrar, steps away to tend to the easier ebb and flow of a much-deserved retirement.

Several of her former students and colleagues reflect on what she has meant to them, and to all of us.

When Ethel Merman retired from the theatre, she was quoted as saying, “Broadway has been very good to The robust language curriculum that we now have me, but then, I’ve been very good to Broadway.” in the Lower School is due to Beverly. There was no Lower School foreign language program at all when she Beverly Oswald is too modest to make such a arrived, and Beverly had to fight tooth and nail to have it statement, so I shall make it for her: Porter-Gaud installed. (You want to know the gory details? Don’t ask!) has been very good to Beverly, but Beverly has been exceptionally good to Porter-Gaud.

In the 2000s, Beverly was called upon to take on the role of registrar/scheduler. Did I mention that Beverly is Beverly came to PG in the fall of 1975 right out of extremely well organized? This talent was exactly what Furman University. A year later she became the chair her new job required. Her predecessor had left several of the department of foreign languages. Although cardboard boxes of papers which he had been hired to hired to teach Spanish, she also developed the enter into the computer. From the beginning, Beverly German program in her department. had to keep the current records straight while working with these boxes. Not surprisingly, she dealt with the When I arrived at PG, I thought that it would be nice backlog in record time. one day to succeed Beverly as the department chair.

Then I saw how much work she put into that position I began this tribute with a show business quote and and how well suited her talents were to that particular I would like to end it with a verse from the Bible by job. At that point I decided that I would be happier paraphrasing slightly Proverbs 31:29: “Many people do remaining a classroom teacher. noble things, but you excel them all.”

Not only did Beverly excel as a teacher but she was also a superb judge of character. She could be strict, but diplomatic about it. And she rarely, if ever, got ruffled. Even if she had days when she felt—as all teachers sometimes do—that teaching was like trying to nail Jello to a tree, she did not let it show.

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Thank you, Beverly. May you enjoy every moment of your well-deserved retirement.

Maxwell Mowry PG Faculty Member 1976-2012

It was the late summer of 1975, and at Camp St. Christopher we were four women hired for the Upper School Faculty in preparation for the arrival of girls into all grades of Porter-Gaud School.

Vaughn Mazursky in history, Cherry Daniels in physical education, Beverly Oswald in Spanish and

her undergraduate study. I remember Beverly explaining to me why my daughter was shouting FU across the campus to Mr. Stewart, another Furman graduate. I learned about Camden and became friends with Beverly’s mother and sisters. We made several trips together, including taking my laundry

German, and I in English. We four women would become respected colleagues and good friends in the years to come. Yet over the next forty-five years, I would develop the closest professional and personal friendship with Beverly.

to her mother’s house during the weeks without electricity after Hurricane Hugo. We took a trip to Germany together, and she was my guide and tutor in the culture that she loved I remember standing in the airport in Frankfort and realizing that I had no place to stay the night and could not speak the language. I really hoped that Beverly knew what she was doing.

For twelve years, Beverly and I coached the school’s debate team together leading the team to several milestone achievements. We became department heads at the same time and worked closely together to develop the curriculum and improve the educational experience for our students. We served together on committees to research three headmasters. I was a friend to mourn with when the decision was made to end the German Department.

Beverly loved her German classes, the culture, the language, and her dedicated students. We both knew that she would make an excellent registrar and would come to love that position as well, but we also knew that she would most deeply miss teaching German.

My friendship with Beverly, however, went beyond school. Beverly was a strong influence in my daughter’s choice of Furman College for

For many years, Beverly and I have shared good times and bad times in our families, have laughed and cried together, and have encouraged one another through life’s vicissitudes. We still try to see each other for breakfast most weeks unless one of us gets a better offer! Beverly has been invaluable to Porter-Gaud School, to her colleagues and her students. I have promised Beverly that retirement also is wonderful. Not because she no longer loves her career and Porter-Gaud, but because she will have so much fun exploring another phase of life’s journey.

Sue Chanson, English Teacher, Dept Chair, 1970-2010

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In 1975, when Beverly Oswald joined Cherry Daniel, Vaughan Muzursky, and Sue Chanson as the first female teachers in the Upper School, she had just graduated from Furman University the previous May. In fact, she was so young that a faculty member mistook her for a student and tried to shoo her out of the faculty lounge, which, by the way, had a smoking room—though, I hasten to add, Ms Oswald nor I took advantage of that space.

Although you probably know Ms. Oswald as Porter-Gaud’s registrar, for many years she taught German and chaired the World Language Department, the first female teacher to serve as chair. Although more students took Spanish and French than German (Latin was not offered in the Upper School), German tended to attract the most intellectually curious students, perhaps because of the difficulty of the language with its challenging syntax and polysyllabic vocabulary.

During Ms Oswald’s tenure as a German teacher, often the valedictorian or salutatorian (or both) had been one of her students.

In keeping with the general conception of the German character, Ms. Oswald’s organizational skills were—and are—a source of wonder; not only did she have her yearly syllabus ready on opening day, but also her exams printed and deliverable. Her superb skill at conveying the material is underscored by her having so many of her students major in German; moreover, a number of them earned Fulbright scholarships and worked in Germany or Austria as student aides in English classrooms. In addition to providing students with the linguistic skills to become proficient in German, Ms. Oswald also instilled in them an appreciation for German culture, its music, literature, philosophy, art, and architecture. We’re talking Beethoven and Mozart, Goethe and Kafka, Kant and Nietzsche, Dürer and Klee. She did a superb job of transferring her love of German culture to her students.

The excellence exhibited in the classroom continued in her position as registrar. When I was English chair, it would take me hours to line 4810

up English teachers with courses. I can’t conceive of the complications involved in scheduling the entire school, a seventy-story sort of Rubik’s Cube, all the pieces having to click together just so.

Yet every year she managed to pull it off, going out of her way to ensure that virtually all students got their first choices.

During her forty-five-year tenure at PorterGaud, Ms. Oswald has always epitomized professionalism, which includes maintaining the most pleasant of demeanors in the most trying of circumstances. Her retirement marks the end of an era [sigh], and all who have had the pleasure of working with her and being her friend deeply appreciate her service to the school.

The good news, at least for her, is that retirement’s a blast.

Wesley Moore English Teacher, Dept Chair 1985 – 2019

Beverly, for your forty plus years of dedicated and tireless commitment to Porter-Gaud School, I am delighted to be a small part of this special and welldeserved tribute honoring you. Few individuals in any career can claim your longevity at a single institution or the variety of your professional responsibilities from rookie teacher mistaken as a student to Upper School World Language Dept.

Chair to Registrar / Scheduler Extraordinaire.

Camus’ warm portrayal of Louis Germain in The First Man, little is known of Germain. However, the letter that Albert Camus wrote to his teacher, Louis Germain, after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature reveals volumes.

Certainly, you have had a profound impact on every student you ever scheduled. You worked tirelessly with precision focus and determination to make certain that every student got his or her first choices of classes. Yet, if queried about the job you liked best, you would likely not hesitate in stating, “Classroom teacher.”

Dear Monsieur Germain,

I let the commotion around me these days subside a bit before speaking to you from the bottom of my heart. I have just been given far too great an honor, one I neither sought nor solicited. But when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small, poor child that I was, without your teaching, and your example, none of all this would have happened. I don’t make too much of this sort of honor.

But at least it gives me an opportunity to tell you what you have been and still are for me, and to assure you that your efforts, your work, and the generous heart you put into it still live in one of your little schoolboys who, despite the years, has never stopped being your grateful pupil. I embrace you with all my heart.

With such a response in mind, I wanted to share how that impact can best be explained by way of describing another dramatic teacher-pupil relationship: Louis Germain on his young pupil Albert Camus. Yes, I know they are French and you taught German, but indulge me. Aside from

Your own students over many years believe the same of you.

-Albert Camus Just as you have touched the lives of your students, you have touched faculty and staff as well. As you begin your retirement, I hope that you enjoy many happy years of travel, singing, volunteering, and relaxation. Porter-Gaud will not be the same. I will miss you. I wish you good health and godspeed.

Brad Gilman Upper School Principal

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As I write these words, I’m occasionally pausing to look out the small, oval-shaped window of my bedroom in Nuremberg. Across the street, you can see the red-tiled roofs of the apartment houses and, if you tilt your head just right, the Fernsehturm standing tall against the horizon. To say that Beverly Oswald had an influence on me would be an understatement.

Though we would audibly groan—the way teenagers do—during the inevitable times we had to learn grammar, German class at Porter-Gaud was something to look forward to. Frau Oswald cultivated a small community in her classes, and students were encouraged to speak out and make mistakes, something vital to the process of language learning. And despite my old grammar-induced groans, I now enjoy the kudos I get from my German roommate Sarah whenever I use the genitive case correctly, a case that often eludes native speakers, a case I learned in Frau Oswald’s class.

Frau Oswald’s palpable love of German culture was the highlight of classes for us, something she shared by telling stories and using authentic materials in class. By doing so, she showed the immediate relevance in learning a foreign language; German was something to be used. Instead of just learning shopping vocabulary from the textbook, Frau Oswald brought in real German newspaper advertisements and a videotape of TV spots. (In fact, I still think about the goofy, and very German, Captain Iglo commercial we watched in class whenever I pass the brand in the grocery store.) Sometimes lessons would be very hands on. During a unit on food, not only did we learn the vocabulary, but we also had to cook traditional German meals. Also, Frau Oswald was quick to highlight cultural differences with the United States without evaluating them, whether educating us on the differences in legal ages to obtain a drivers license and drink alcohol or just bemusedly warning us that half of Munich’s English Garden permits nude sunbathing. Her lessons have informed my own language teaching, as I too make my lessons as authentic as possible, using real materials and highlighting cultural differences.

Frau Oswald laid the foundation for my interest in Germany. Thanks to her, I not only placed out USC’s foreign language requirement but wanted to continue learning German despite having no requirement to do so. Now, fifteen years later, I’ve spent over four years collectively studying and working in Germany, long enough that it will always feel like home. While I did not foresee this outcome after signing up for German class as a rising ninth grader, I do have Frau Oswald to thank for leading me down this path.

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Ned Moore Class of 2004

In the midst of COVID-19, many things are unfamiliar – the solitude, the news reports, the virtual classrooms, the constant Zoom calls. But as I sit at my desk in quarantine, one thing brings familiar memories: a dog-eared copy of a German-English Dictionary, purchased seventeen years ago in Fall 2003 during my first trimester of Frau Oswald’s eighth grade German class. Since then, it’s accompanied me through four happy years with Frau, to college and graduate school, on trips to Europe and through conversations with good friends. When the news of shutdowns and stay-athome orders first arrived in March, I returned once again to German. Something about the complexly structured clauses seemed comforting in a time of chaos. Could it be that the suspense and satisfaction of waiting until the end of a sentence to find the verb somehow teaches us patience? Each line enacts, in miniature, the stamina needed to puzzle through uncertainty until we finally reach that sought-for moment of clarity. At first, I felt rusty, but soon the vocabulary and grammar, the rhythms and patterns, came flooding back. As I flip through the well-thumbed pages of my Dictionary, words resurface like old friends, still spoken in Frau’s voice in my memory. Bleiben: to stay.

A word of duration and persistence. Ruhig: calm. A good reminder amidst our anxiety. Zusammen: together. One day soon. Zukunft: future. Still worth fighting for. Each day of quarantine (sixty-five and counting), I’ve practiced my German, finding consolation in the consistency when everything else seems to shift beneath our feet. So thank you, Frau Oswald, for the lessons and language that you instilled in us – they have provided comfort for me in a challenging time and inspiration as I look to the future. We wish you a happy and healthy retirement. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Abigail Droge Class of 2008

Farbenlehre, the poet’s book on color theory, into simple vocabulary lessons about the rainbow and insisted that we be familiar with modern German history from Bismarck to Weimar to Hitler to division and reunification and the ways in which “Nothing great in the world has ever been those eras shaped a people and a language. Her accomplished without passion.” Hegel may have classroom was filled with wonders: posters of the written these words, but it was Frau Oswald who great Kölner Dom, breathtaking views of Ludwig taught us what they meant.

II’s castles, rural scenes from along the Romantische I mean this literally, of course—with daily vocabulary Strasse, and Dr. Caligari’s cabinet in the back, which contained an extensive and horrible archive of our quizzes, she terrified us into learning ten new words disappointing tests, all guarded by the verboten each day; with her Teutonic insistence that a 100% German Furby, which Frau passionately hated but— on any assessment had to be achieved purely and not through rounding, we drilled our forms, patterns, because the little beast was a gift from a former student—could never throw out. and syntax until we realized that the Holy Grail was more easily attained than perfection in Frau’s It is her voice I hear when I conjugate in my head grading ledger—but, more than anything, I mean it and it is her giggle that prevents me from saying metaphorically. her favorite German words without laughing myself: Geschirrspülmaschine, dishwasher; Frau Oswald was a daily example of passion in Rhabarbermarmelade, rhubarb marmalade. She the classroom. The most arcane grammatical rules taught us to see the beauty in a language that is and regulations were punctuated by her stories, her often the punchline for its guttural noises and harsh mnemonics, and by her distinctive giggle, which would bubble up mid-phrase and buoy the rest of the sounds; her lilting Southern accent brought a music to the cadences of German—and helped us learn to sentence. She never taught us the language isolated from either reality or history; she wove Goethe’s Zur pronounce the tricky ü-sound.

“Nichts Großes in der Welt ohne Leidenschaft vollbracht worden ist.”

Frau Oswald would patiently sit with me and translate German arias into English so that I could understand what die Königin der Nacht was threatening or what it was that Tannhäuser yearned for. So, Frau, if you would let me, I would sing for you the gifts you gave us and the lessons you taught us with a bit of Wagner you once gave me: “Frau Oswald gab uns Mut: wie ungewohnt uns alles schien, wir sangen voll Lieb’ und Glut, dass wir Frau Oswalds Studenten verdien’.”

Paraphrasing Wagner’s opera Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg: “Frau Oswald gave us courage: even though everything seemed strange to us, we sang full of love and ardor so that we might deserve to be Frau Oswald’s students.”

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Frau Oswald!

Alex Werrell Class of 2009 50 13

One might assume that teachers would be natural lifelong learners because they should practice what they teach. My experience in 20 years at PorterGaud is that is not always the case. It is human nature to settle into a rhythm and ease of teaching what you are most familiar with both in subject matter and practice.

Beverly Oswald models an extreme version of lifelong learning. I have seen her reinvent herself several times in her career at Porter-Gaud, embracing new techniques, skills, and technology over several cycles of her tenure.

When I returned to Porter-Gaud to be the Director of Technology, Beverly was still teaching German and serving as the Department Chair for Modern Languages. As enrollment in German diminished, she supported more independent study for students and differentiated for different levels in her class.

At some point, she became interested in the scheduling process and learned the intricacies and nuances of the puzzle from Jeannie Green. The puzzle became more complex every year as students had more choices in courses and then school grew in enrollment. We also moved from doing the work on a wall with post-it notes to a Filemaker system that we built in house and later to the Blackbaud platform.

Even though the computer tries to create schedules through its algorithms, it only works with the right instructions from the master. Beverly knows the tripping points in the schedule and where the restrictive aspects dictate the starting points.

She is a natural problem solver and has frequent epiphanies in the middle of the night—juggling AP Latin with the one section of multivariable calculus.

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I met Beverly three years ago and have had the fortunate pleasure of working with her on a daily basis for the past year. Beverly is one of the kindest, most selfless people I have ever encountered. Her love, dedication and loyalty to her family, friends and co-workers is truly inspiring.

When asked to share my favorites about Beverly, it was difficult to narrow it to only a few. I am always amazed by Beverly’s memory. She has shared so many wonderful stories of her time at Porter-Gaud and the people she’s met.

Her love of the students and classroom shine through when she hears a name from the past or something sparks a memory. For instance, when a former student calls requesting records, Beverly always remembers that person and has a great story to share. These stories are irreplaceable.

Another favorite I have of Beverly is her positivity and humor. Beverly is always laughing, smiling and seeing the best in people.

I’m so grateful that Beverly has always wanted to tackle a new challenge and learn the next piece of software. I’m also grateful that she has trained the next registrar and scheduler, but we are all hoping she will still take our calls and might solve our problems in the middle of the night.

Beverly, I will miss you sharing German sentences and translations with my children. I will miss your delicious and world-famous caramel cake.

I will miss your mentorship. But most of all, I will miss seeing and talking with you every day.

I wish you all the best as you begin your next adventure.

DuBose Egleston Head of School

Becca Weil Incoming Registrar

Beverly Oswald - In trying to imagine a way to memorialize this iconic figure, we looked back at those who have come before and made a lasting impression on their world. Who were these people who changed the course of history and how were they remembered throughout the generations that followed. George Washington, Winston Churchill, Rosa Parks, Abraham Lincoln. Yes, perhaps Mr. Lincoln can help us find the words to express the impact and legacy that Ms. Oswald has left with us here at Porter-Gaud School.

The Oswald Address:

Two score and five years ago, our administration brought forth on this campus, a new employee, conceived in excellence and dedicated to the proposition that Beverly Oswald would make a lasting impression on this school and its community.

Now, we are engaged in a great dilemma, how to function without this amazing woman in our midst and whether we can so endure. Her expertise and commitment to our cause – grades, scheduling and meticulous record-keeping—is something we will long admire. We have come to dedicate a portion of who we are today because of her commitment and acumen to her love of students and learning—not to mention as that she was one of the first woman faculty to enter our gates AND the first woman to be appointed department chair. It is fitting and proper that we should celebrate and honor the contributions and accomplishments of this maverick to our school community.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this outstanding educator and everything she has done for this school and its students. As a teacher and administrator, Ms. Oswald has dedicated herself to caring for those in her charge and balancing unbelievable details when all others were lost. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but the students who were taught by Ms. Oswald and the faculty and staff who were the benefactors of her expertise and dedication will NEVER FORGET what she did here. It is rather for us who are left here to walk the halls without her to carry on her legacy while missing her too much, treasuring her kindness and generosity, seeking to emulate her example, and remembering:

That this school, because of Ms. Oswald, shall not perish from the earth.

Karen Kimberly College Counselor 53 15

To the Class of 2020, I know this is not the second semester we envisioned— Spring Break, Prom, College T-shirt Day. Trying to find the perfect graduation dress or even something as small as going to lunch with your friends. We’ve been looking forward to this time for all of high school, and now we’ve had to spend our last two months on Zoom? No one could have predicted this was the way it was going to play out.

I never thought I would say this, but I miss the uncomfortable uniforms and trying to maximize how many fortune cookies you could carry out of Washington Hall.

Although things may have gotten tough over our high school years, we got through it together. And we will get through it this time, together.

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When we began our time in the Upper School, we looked up to the senior class with such admiration and respect, but also with elements of terror and inferiority. We anticipated our senior year as if it were light-years away, almost unattainable: standing at the very back of the student section on those fall Friday nights, then slowly moving our way toward the bottom of the bleachers over the years, and finally being able to wear our gold senior crowns for the first game of the season.

Now that we have finally reached this monumental and transitional time in our lives, it has been revised for us.

While we all may feel guilty about pitying ourselves during this time, allow yourself to mourn the loss of what we’ve been looking forward to for so long. Sure, we must

acknowledge how fortunate we are to be safe and healthy, but it is completely okay to grieve what this year could have been.

However, when hard times come, there is often a silver lining within the chaos. As cliche’d as this quote by Nick Jonas is, it is completely applicable to this time: “Life happens. Adapt. Embrace change and make the most of everything that comes your way.” While we are in quarantine, allow yourself to grow as a person. We are always saying there is “not enough time,” but, in a way, now there is. Take this time for yourself, whether that be binge-watching Outer Banks or learning something new, allow yourself to change your pace and make the most of this situation.

As we move on to our future collegiate journey, I could not be more excited for all of us and cannot wait to see everything we accomplish. I wish you all nothing but the best in all future endeavours. This is not “goodbye” but rather a hopeful “see you soon.” Although this is not yet guaranteed, I still cannot wait to walk across the green and graduate alongside you all as soon as we can. I am more than grateful for the pleasure of going through high school with each of you. I wish we could all be together as Cyclones right now, but until then, stay healthy and well.

I love you all.

All the best, Lindsey Photo by Brink Norton

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