Suggestions

Bill Fedullo

You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?

I don’t know how you tear a building down. Maybe it involves explosives, charges shaped in such a way that the whole structure collapses nicely in on itself. Or perhaps it has something to do with wrecking balls and bulldozers. Or could
April 28, 2016

Climate change is too important to leave to the activists

In my time at Swarthmore, no group’s star has fallen more dramatically than Mountain Justice’s. A year ago, a majority of campus had signed on to their major initiative, divestment from the fossil fuel industry. When MJ teased a new announcement, students
April 22, 2016

Hating Swarthmore, and loving it

I’m from Philadelphia. As a rule, Philadelphians hate Philadelphia. We hate that SEPTA buses always smell faintly of piss and hopelessness. We hate that our public schools are approaching Dickensian levels of dysfunction. We hate that our most iconic tourist attractions are
April 14, 2016

On emancipation and tough Jews

When I was growing up, my mother would often extol the virtues of the “tough Jew.” The tough Jew, unlike the garden variety, does not take things lying down. He isn’t a Woody Allen-type, anxiously cracking jokes in the office of his
March 31, 2016

The privilege and discontents of Jewishness

Last semester, in the early morning of the third day of Hanukkah, a menorah was stolen from Sharples dining hall. The burglar—whom I will henceforth refer to as the Grinch, as in, “You’re a schmuck, Mr. Grinch”—also stole several empty gift boxes
February 11, 2016

Decision between Trump and Bernie not so easy

“I like Bernie, but I like Trump too,” the woman says, with more than a little irritation, before slamming her phone down on the receiver. (Ah, the lost joys of landlines.) She is the twentieth, or the twenty-first, or the twenty-second (?)
January 28, 2016

Social media activism might be just a card game

The myriad damage they inflicted upon the world aside, English aristocrats have left us at least one enduring gift: the terms of venery. From the brutal Anglo hunting tradition, we have derived a wealth of enchanting collective nouns: “a pride of lions,”
November 19, 2015

The liberal arts aren’t all about job prospects

On Swarthmore’s website, you can find a page with a rather grandiose title: “Why the Liberal Arts Matter.” If you’re like me — that is, if you’re someone who takes the idea and promise of the liberal arts at least somewhat seriously
November 5, 2015

On gun control, left should reflect on its past

For a country founded in revolution, the United States has a strikingly barren tradition of successful armed revolt. In the nation’s two centuries of history, its government has only once faced a real existential threat from within — the insurrection of the
October 22, 2015

Do the demands of retribution give us a license to kill?

Content warning: Graphic physical & sexual violence By the time this column is published, the State of Oklahoma will likely have executed Richard Glossip for the 1977 murder by proxy of Barry Van Treese, his then-employer. This execution, as executions are wont
October 1, 2015
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