Monday, February 18, 2002

by Evelyn Khoo
Gazette News Reporter

Love was in the air at Sharples on Valentine’s Day. Well,
maybe not love,
but at least its commercial aspect.

The Valentine’s Day Auction, organized by SAO, was conducted
over dinner
last Thursday. Members of the college who were well known
for their
pleasing countenances were sold off in a bid to raise money
for an Asian
charitable organization, the Asian Arts Initiative.

Most auction items went for an average of about $20, the
highlight being
Sixteen Feet, the popular all-male a capella group who melodiously

exercised their vocal chords onstage as they tried to raise
their price. In
a praiseworthy group effort, the girls of Parrish 4th made
a collective bid
on the singing group for a final price of $75, the highest
bid of the evening.

Although bidding was moderate throughout the auction, the
final tally was
considerable: $550 in total.
But there were a few complaints from the audience when certain
items
advertised were not placed on the auction block. Main organizer
and SAO
board member Kaiko Shimura ’05 explained, “Many people
backed out at the
last minute, the day before or even the day of, and we didn’t
want to force
them to do it, so we had to do the best we could.”

Yet despite these grouses, everyone who participated was
a winner. All
auctionees went home with at least a voucher for a free meal
at Kohlberg
Coffee Bar, with the higher bidders winning free meals at
restaurants such
as John Harvard’s and Outback Steakhouse. Buyers got themselves
a
Valentine’s date, and everyone else had a chance to ogle and
revel in the
charged atmosphere that, even if it wasn’t quite Valentine’s
Day hearts and
flowers, was at least out of the ordinary.

*****

by Shavaugn Lewis
Gazette Sportswriter

May 18, 1955: Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune dies

Mary McLeod was born in 1875 to former slaves Samuel and
Patsy Macintosh
McLeod near Maysville, South Carolina. She was the fifteenth
of seventeen
children, giving her a strong sense of family and love for
children early
on. Her early teachers recognized Bethune’s thirst for knowledge
and were
not surprised when she went on to attend first Scotia Seminary
near
Concord, North Carolina, and then Dwight Moody’s Institute
for Home and
Foreign Missions in Chicago. She started her first community
school, the
Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Negro Girls, in
Palatka,
Florida, but she is best known for founding the Bethune-Cookman
College. In
her career, Dr. Bethune headed the National Association of
Colored Women’s
Clubs, was the first woman to receive Haiti’s Medal of Honor
of Merit, and
worked with Presidents Coolidge, Hoover, and Truman on child
welfare reform
as well as organizing a U.N. Peace Conference after World
War II.

*****

* At the start of his official visit to Japan, President
Bush expressed his
faith in Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s ability
to lead his
country out of its recent economic slowdown. At his meeting
with Koizumi,
Bush is expected to commend the prime minister for the extensive
economic
reforms he has proposed and to encourage Japan to liquidate
the more than
$1 trillion in bad bank loans that it currently holds. While
it is unclear
whether Bush’s failure to ratify the Kyoto protocol for reducing
greenhouse
gas emissions and his recent unveiling of a less stringent
alternative plan
will be a stumbling block in talks between the two leaders,
some Japanese
protestors have made their displeasure with Bush’s stance
clearly felt,
demonstrating in the streets of Tokyo with banners reading,
“Bush, Don’t
Ruin My World”. Another 300 demonstrators called for
Bush to remove the
50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan, while a third group
objected to
Bush’s characterization of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an
“axis of evil”.
Bush’s next stop on his East Asian tour will be South Korea,
where Bush’s
recent statements about North Korea are expected to figure
prominently in
his discussions with South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.
From there Bush
will travel to China, where he will meet with President Jiang
Zemin to
discuss issues of human rights, religious freedom, China’s
weapons
production and sales, and the status of Taiwan.

* Residents of Moble, Georgia, a small town 25 miles south
of Chattanooga,
were shocked as over the weekend investigators continued to
recover
decomposing bodies from storage sheds and woods behind the
town’s Tri-State
crematory, where bodies from over 25 funeral homes in Georgia,
Tennessee
and Alabama had been routinely sent for cremation. So far
97 bodies,
including that of one infant, have been found, and according
to Dr. Kris
Sperry, Georgia’s chief medical examiner, the final toll is
expected to
reach at least 200. The first gruesome discovery was made
on Friday, when a
woman walking her dog in the area found a skull. Investigators
believe that
the crematory may have been stockpiling bodies sent for cremation
for up to
15 years, and many of the remains are now mummified. 16 of
the bodies have
already been identified, but officials have requested federal
aid in the
identification process, as the number of remains to be processed
is
overwhelming local resources. Georgia governor Roy Barnes
has also declared
a state of emergency in Walker County, where Moble is located.
When asked
why the bodies sent to him had not been cremated, crematory
operator Ray
Brent Marsh said that the crematory’s incinerator was not
working. Marsh,
28, who is the son of the crematory’s owners, was released
on $25,000 bond
on Sunday after being charged with five counts of theft by
deception, a
felony, for taking money for cremations he had not performed.
Walker County
and state officials have said that they believe further charges
against
Marsh will be forthcoming. In the meantime, people who were
given ashes by
Tri-State have been asked to turn in the contents of their
urns to police
for analysis, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
began
testing well water in the area for possible contamination
on Saturday.

* The federal government began taking over security at the
nation’s 429
airports on Sunday in accordance with the Aviation and Transportation

Security Act passed by Congress in November. This law established
the
Transportation Security Administration and charged it with
renegotiating
contracts with private security companies and taking over
those contracts
from the airlines on February 17. For the time being the same
security
screeners will be working the conveyors and X-ray machines,
but all of
these positions will be turned over to government employees
by November 19
of this year. Officials have promised to replace screeners
hired by private
security firms with especially poor records, such as Argenbright
Security,
as early as this spring. Argenbright, which at one point employed
40% of
the nation’s airport screeners, has recently come under public
scrutiny
due to a series of high-profile security lapses and the company’s
admission
that it had hired felons. Applicants for the new governmental
screener
positions must meet a set of guidelines which is considerably
more
stringent than what most private security firms have required.
They must be
U.S. citizens, speak and write English proficiently, have
attended 40 hours
of screener training, and possess a high school diploma or
equivalent work
experience. As the TSA begins working to fill the 40,000 openings
for
screener jobs with people meeting these qualifications, TSA
head John Magaw
said that he hopes the transition from private to public employees
will b
eased by the presence of 436 interim airport security managers,
who have
been hired to meet with airlines, airport managers and private
security
companies.

*****

Lecture by Steven Wang, Mathematics/Statistics Candidate
Kohlberg 330, 4:00 p.m.

“The Acoustics of Speech” by Elliot A. Moreton
Kohlberg 115, 4:15 p.m.

French Cinema Club: video showing
Kohlberg 302, 7:30 p.m.

Hebrew Bible Text Study
Lodge Five, 7:30 p.m.

Queer and Questioning Small Group
SQU Room, 8:30 p.m.

Swing Dance
Upper Tarble, 9:30 p.m.

Swarthmore Progressive Action Committee
Kohlberg 228, 9:30 p.m.

SWIL Movie Night: “After Life”
Kirby Lecture Hall, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

by Pat Quinn
Gazette Sportswriter

In the final home game for the Garnet seniors, the women’s
basketball team
defeated Haverford this Saturday, 59-35. Along with Ali Furman
’03, seniors
Katie Tarr, Heather Kile, Emily Gray, and Caitlin Ryland started
the game,
and Kile showed her diverse talents by playing at small forward
instead of
her usual power forward position.

After a slow start, the women finally picked it up and built
a comfortable
lead. With tenacious defense, including six steals by Katie
Robinson ’04,
and patience on offense, the team went on a 21-1 run and never
looked back.
By halftime, the Garnet were up 36-9.

Robinson led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds.Meanwhile,
Furman
was on fire from behind the arc with four three-pointers and
15 points
overall. Kile also put up 10 points and grabbed 13 rebounds
in her debut as
a guard.

All players on the squad got playing time and it was a real
team effort.
The Fords never stood a chance because the Tide was so fired
up by the
senior day festivities. The squad also handed out flowers
to their
dedicated fans, and “superfan” Mike Loeb received
multiple carnations.

This was the last regular season game for Swarthmore. They
head into the
Centennial Conference playoffs with a record of 19-6 (12-3
in the
Conference). The first playoff game is Wednesday at Franklin
and Marshall.
Said Robinson about the postseason, “we’re all looking
forward to the
playoffs.We’re coming off a great win and have good momentum.”

*****

by Pat Quinn
Gazette Sportswriter

In an uplifting end to a less than fulfilling season, the
men’s basketball
team defeated Haverford on Saturday, 59-53.Though Haverford
led throughout
the first half and during much of the second, Swarthmore eventually

prevailed to avenge their January loss to the Fords.

Dave Pearce ’03 led the team with 18 points, and freshmen
Bayne Heersink
and Matt Gustafson each came off the bench to score 11 and
grab seven boards.

Haverford led the Garnet throughout the first half, with
several Swat
streaks failing to turn the tide. Halfway through the second
frame, Jacob
Letendre ’04 came into the game and nailed a three pointer
to begin a
comeback that would eventually give Swat the lead off a Pearce
foul shot.
Once the squad had finally gained an edge, they never looked
back, with
Gustafson making a hook shot to extend their advantage to
ten points with
4:38 to go.

Despite attempts by Haverford to reclaim their lead in the
waning minutes,
Swarthmore would not allow a second loss to their archrivals.When
the final
buzzer sounded, Swarthmore had finally found their second
Centennial
Conference victory.

Though the team did not make it to the conference playoffs
this year, they
still managed to end on a good note.As freshman Blair Haxel
put it, “a
comeback victory over Haverford was the best possible way
to end our season.”

The team’s record this season was 6-19 overall, and 2-11
in Centennial
Conference.

*****

Last weekend, the men’s tennis team handily beat Mt. St.
Mary’s and St.
Joseph’s, both Division I squads.They must have developed
a knack for
playing “David,” as this weekend they slew another
“Goliath,” defeating
Div. I Temple, 5-0. And next Sunday, they’ll play host to
Fairleigh
Dickinson–you guessed it, a Div. I school.

*****

This Saturday, the indoor track and field team traveled to
Haverford to
participate in the annual Keogh Invitational.On the men’s
side, Matt
Williams ’04 finished fifth in the 55 meter hurdles with a
time of 8.6
seconds.Also competing were Bill Schwarz, who placed 35th
in the 800
meters, and Dan Keyes, who recorded a time of 9:51.1 in the
3000 meter
event.The women’s results will be released today.

*****

* After dropping its first meeting with Duke earlier this
season, #3
Maryland defeated the #1 Blue Devils Sunday afternoon, 87-73.
Chris Wilcox
scored a career-high 23 points in the victory, while teammate
Juan Dixon
added 17.It was the seventh time that a #1 team had fallen
at Maryland’s
Cole Field House, the most for any arena in the land.It was
also one of the
last games to be played at Cole, as the Terps will move to
the new $20
million Comcast Center next year.

* Ward Burton won his first Daytona 500 yesterday, thanks
to his ability to
maneuver through some major crashes that cost his competitors.
Two large
pile-ups, including an 18-car fiasco on lap 149, narrowed
down the field
considerably, but nobody was injured as new NASCAR rules to
minimize the
dangers of crashes were in effect throughout the race.The
rules were
developed, in part, due to the tragic death of racing legend
Dale Earnhardt
in last year’s 500.

* Chris Witty, an American speedskater, won a gold medal
in the 1,000
meters yesterday, and set a world record in the process.Germany’s
Sabine
Voelker took the silver and American Jennifer Rodriguez won

bronze.Meanwhile, America continued decades-long droughts
in Nordic
combined and bobsled, as the US contingents took fourth in
both
events.Finland and Germany captured gold in those competitions,
respectively.

*****

Today:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Tomorrow:
Badminton hosts Bryn Mawr, 7:30 p.m.

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal
lobotomy.”
–Tom Waits

*****
.
Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette?
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Contact the staff at daily@swarthmore.edu

Section Editors: Karla Gilbride
Pei Pei Liu
Jeremy Schifeling
Photo Editor: Casey Reed
News Reporters: Mary Harrison
Evelyn Khoo
Sanggee Kim
Natacha Pascal
Kent Qian
Alexis Reedy
Chiara Ricciardone
Sportswriters: Muhsin Abdur-Rahman
Shavaugn Lewis
Pat Quinn
World News: Karla Gilbride
Campus Sports: Pat Quinn
Jeremy Schifeling
World Sports: Jeremy Schifeling

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