By Billy Joyce
At approximately 4:30 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 4th, Community Meeting went into hibernation. McGregor 113 bought speed from a 1st year to gear up for the video/film show, but it had dreams of rubbing its feet together and shuttering its woody doors for a long winter’s nap. Candy and cookies adorned the long cresting tables and troubadours gave tidings of cheer. It was a celebration. But to the crowds gathered in community it seemed like everyone was holding their breath, anticipating a cultured confrontation and a big-ugly, yet necessary Pulse.
At 4:15 p.m., and after the crowd had thinned down to less than half who had been there at the start, Dr. Dana Patterson, the director of the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom read a statement addressing the now infamous events that had transpired in North last week. The statement condemned racism and deemed the events as being perceived as racist by unnamed individuals. Perhaps that statement can make it through the Antioch channels and into the hands of Record editors or onto Pulse/Announcements/Antiochians.org.
10 students who attended the Powershift conference on catastrophic climate change presented a report replete with video documentation. Carl Reeverts, and Jacob Stockwell were vocal about their experiences.
Stockwell said that more than 6,000 people attended the D.C. event. On Reeverts’ video, speaker of the house Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) California said that the conference was the highest-attended conference on global warming in history. Pelosi struck gold comparing the audience at the conference to the founders of the United States, “They rejected the status quo. All of you were young. Many of them were young.” And so on.
Reeverts’ video also captured candid moments with non-Antioch students and speakers who talked about the potential for “green collar” jobs and the importance of reducing the size of certain “footprints.”
Former CM Levi B. Cowperthwaite talked about bringing lessons he learned back to Antioch and the village of Yellow Springs. He made connections to bring a speaker or panel to the village to add another voice to the current coal debate about town. This particular voice will create a conversation around debunking the myth of “clean coal.”
Cowperthwaite also mentioned that Antioch students plan on and will be planning on participating in mountain justice spring break, to protest and learn about mountain-top removal in the southwest Ohio’s Appalachian foothills.
With the screen pulled down for the green vid, Dennie Eagleson couldn’t resist regaling us with a flowing photographic retrospective of the term. Her snaps were accompanied by a soundtrack that was buoyed by ooos and ahhhs from the audience.
Beth, as seen on Trivia with Beth, may have passed the torch to Shea Witzberger. While Witzberger pleaded not to be burdened with the task, community members clapped and hollered. She agreed reluctantly, then said, “Antioch is a soul vacuum.” Well said.