2.5.15 Hillsdale Collegian

Page 1

Michigan’s oldest college newspaper

Vol. 138 Issue 15 - 5 February 2015

www.hillsdalecollegian.com

Sir Martin Gilbert dies in London photocopies.” “We courted over the copy machine,” Larry Arnn said. The Arnns agreed that Gilbert was very focused and very disciplined, but also extremely kind. “One time he telephoned me

Morgan Delp Editor-in-Chief

Sir Martin Gilbert — Winston Hillsdale College distinguished visiting fellow, and one of the most important historians of the 20th century — died Tuesday in London. Gilbert battled illness following a heart arrhythmia in April 2012. His last visit to the college was in the fall of 2007, and he is survived by his caring wife, Esther. “He had the greatest capacity that I’ve ever seen to understand and marshall a story of great events and all the details connected to them. This made him always extremely interesting to hear from and talk to,” College President Larry Arnn said. “He cared very much. He wanted to get it right. Anybody who was around him saw in him a very Gilbert’s biography of Winston Churchill — tasked to him in October 1968 — is the longest biography ever written, and his work in publishing all of Churchill’s documents is even more extensive. He completed 16 of the volumes and started the 17th before he became ill. Arnn published the 17th volume of the documents series last year, and the college plans to publish six more.

Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill, pictured earlier in his life at left, and at a 2006 visit to Hillsdale at right. (Photos Courtesy of External Affairs)

“He was impatient. If you were good at working, and understood the importance of it, you could get along really well. If things got in his way, and they would, he would move quickly and speak abruptly. He was an intense man,” Arnn said. “But you understood that it was intensity with a great purpose. Had he not had that great purpose, he would not have got nearly as much done. It took a

lot of strength of character to do what he did,” Penny Arnn said. Immense are Gilbert’s contributions to the intellectual development of many, including Arnn. As Gilbert’s research assistant in the late 1970s, Larry Arnn worked with Gilbert to gather all of Churchill’s writings, correspondence, letters, notes — in essence, all of the great statesman’s published and private works. The late Harry Jaffa, another teacher of Arnn’s,

introduced Gilbert and Arnn in London, and they began working together three days later. Gilbert’s hand in Arnn’s life exceeds the academic. Gilbert is responsible for the meeting of Larry Arnn and Penny Houghton. Penny (Houghton) Arnn was hired to work on Gilbert’s research two weeks after Larry Arnn joined Gilbert’s staff in August 1977. Penny drove to work in an undependable black Austin Mini, while Arnn rode a

scooter. “I would go to the basement in the library, now in the Churchill College of Cambridge, and I would mark stuff to be photocopied,” Larry Arnn said. “Then, every couple days, Penny and I would take Churchill’s and we would go to lunch.” “They had to be returned by nighttime,” Penny Arnn said. “Sir Martin only dealt with the

and he was really cross because he was out in Israel and a journalist had tracked him down at his private number and telephoned and awoken his baby. He thought that I had given the journalist his phone number and told me to never do that ever again,” Penny Arnn recalled. “Thirty minutes later he apologized because he found out where the number came from and it wasn’t me. He was nice enough to call back from Israel, which was a big deal because long distance calls were expensive. He felt bad that he balled me out for sharing a private number.” As a devoted Jew, Sir Martin Gilbert frequented Israel often, and committed much of his life to studying Jewish history and refuting Holocaust deniers. He knew personally many Jews who were persecuted by Josef Stalin in the Soviet Union. “Survivors of the Holocaust would seek him out because he had a lot of information that

See Gilbert A3

BPU director charged with drunk driving Macaela Bennett City News Editor

Rickie J. Rose, 61, director of Hillsdale’s Board of Public Utilities, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after crashing into a tree Saturday, Jan. 24, at 7:45 p.m. “It’s one of those stupid personal decisions, and it could have been a hell of a lot worse, frankly,” Rose told the Collegian. “I’m just thankful no one was hurt.” According to the Hillsdale County Sheriff Incident Report, Rose’s vehicle hit a road sign advising there was an upcoming curve in the roadway before crashing into a tree on Bankers Road in Reading, Michigan. Rose consented to taking a breathalyzer test, which registered his blood alcohol content as .23 — just shy of three times the legal limit of .08, accord-

ing to the Michigan State Police website. Because Rose had a BAC higher than .17, if convicted, he more jail time, and other weighter penalties than normal operating while intoxicated cases under Michigan’s “Super Drunk” law. The incident marked Rose’s third time being arrested and charged with operating a vewas in July 2003, for which he was convicted, and the second in September 2005, which was lowered to a misdemeanor reckless driving charge. Thus, this was registered as a second offense, and Rose was released the same night after posting bail set at $2,500. Acting City Manager Doug Terry said the city will review Rose’s position with BPU in the termination of his employment rests heavily on “decisions Rose makes.”

“We have certain expectations of behavior on part of all public employees,” Terry said. “We will review acts of past and present and where he should go for help to ensure organization, integrity, and consistency for BPU so it continues to meet the needs of citizens.” Although Rose is a city employee, Terry hopes to maintain a “balance of privacy yet transparency” regarding the case. “My philosophy is govern by conscious,” Terry added. “We work within the realm of law yet apply good moral applications in the way we treat co-workers and fellow human beings.” Rose said he appreciates the support he’s received from the city and Terry and is using the incident as an opportunity to “refocus” himself. Rose’s arraignment in the Hillsdale District Court was waived Wednesday, according to the Prosecuting Attorney’s of18.

Q & A: Jason Riley Jason Riley is a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board, and often appears on Journal Editorial Report on Fox News. He is the author of two books: “Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders,” and “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed.” Riley spoke at the Allan P. Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C., as part of the Kirby Center’s monthly AWC Family Foundation Lecture series on Jan. 30. As a conservative, if you were talking to someone who was claiming racial injustice, how do you sensibly respond to those claims? You’d have to ask them to deoften today, people look at the racial makeup of the police force and if they don’t see a proportionate number of blacks as represented in society on that police force, they assume there must be racist practices going on. That’s not necessarily the case. They’re

looking at outcomes and assuming racism is producing those outcomes. A few months back, you had Jesse Jackson complaining about the dearth of blacks on the staffs of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Oracle, and Intel, assuming racism was the reason. We know those companies are hiring from the most selective schools in America — not only the most selective schools, but the kids that disciplines of those schools. And

blacks are simply underrepresented in that pool of people. There’s no evidence that a black person who met the same credentials as the typical hire at Yahoo or Google has been turned away. All Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton is looking at is the outcomes: who’s on staff. And if they don’t see “X” percentage of blacks, they’re assuming racism

See Riley A3

INSIDE Defining marriage The Lyceum and Symposium groups and YAF host debate about gay marriage. A3

An old-fashioned thesis

Women’s basketball heating up The Chargers went 3-0 over the weekend highlighted by an upset victory over Grand Valley. A8

CANTUS impresses Men’s a capella group brought down the house with tight harmonies and international set list. B1

Snow plows came out in full force after Sunday’s snowfall.

Sunday snow slams city Morgan Delp Editor-in-Chief

The biggest snowstorm of this year prevented many college employees from getting to work Monday. Two city trucks plowed the trunk line roads — M-99 and a couple other major roads — on the streets Monday morning at 3 a.m. “We don’t believe in chasing the storm,” Director of Public Services Keith Richard said. “Rather, we let it subside.” City employees must be paid double time and a half to work on Sundays and holidays. Because the street crew knew the storm was coming, they planned to get to work early Monday morning. It just so happened, Richard said, that the storm stopped at about the same time. On Sunday, the police department dispatched the public services on-call person, who rotates week-to-week. That employee surveyed the situation and directed a small crew to do initial clearing on the main roads.

trucks plowed up and down the three miles of trunk line roads. Then, they plow the 19 miles of major roads followed by the 25 miles of local roads. “The city plows snow based ume. Because the state trunk lines are most heavily traveled, frequently. Accordingly, major streets are plowed second and the local streets third,” the city’s website reads. trucks worked on the downtown area, which includes the downtown streets and city-owned parking lots. Afterward, they branched out to dead-end streets for the bigger trucks to plow. Richard estimated that the crew worked for 15 hours on Monday to clear the roads, and that everything was plowed by noon Monday. However, many citizens said they believed the city’s delay in plowing to be dissatisfactory. “I found the conditions on larger streets, such as Broad Street, to be very poor on Sunday too. There was some plowing, but it was not enough,” AsHistoric Dawn Theater thwarts threat of closing its doors An outpouring of community support keeps the Dawn alive. A6

counterfeits with science. B4

(Anders Kiledal/Collegian)

(Hailey Morgan/Collegian)

(Elena Creed/Collegian)

News........................................A1 Opinions..................................A4 City News................................A6 Sports......................................A7 Arts..........................................B1 Features....................................B3

sistant Professor of Politics John Grant said. “In general, I think the city government is not as interested as it should be in basic functions such as snow plowing and road repair.” On Tuesday, more cleanup occurred and the city minimized piles of snow in the downtown area. The city is not responsible for plowing Hillsdale’s county roads, but Teacher of Music Debbi Wyse said the county cleared her road in a timely manner. “Gravel roads are usually low priority, and are plowed after all hard surface roads have been cleared. Our road was plowed Monday at 1:30 p.m. I was unable to get to work that day because we usually wait until the road crews have passed, piling up the snow in our driveway, then my husband, Ned, goes out with his tractor and loader to clear everything,” she said in an email. “The county crew really did an admirable job on our road this time, even sanding a little.”

Gay marriage Students argue for and against legalizing same-sex marriage. A5

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