|
|
Vol. LXII, No. 44
|
|
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
|
|
|
|
Vol. LXII, No. 44
|
|
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
|
 (Photo by Dilshanie Perera)
“LOVE IS NOT A PLAYTHING”: Professor and public intellectual Cornel West drew a crowd to the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church last week to hear his thoughts on the status of contemporary politics, the election, and history. Regarding a humane politics, Mr. West said, “Justice is a fire inside you, where you care so much you can’t help yourself. Justice is … what love looks like in public.” |
“The political ice age is beginning to melt,” observed scholar and Princeton University professor Cornel West during his talk at the Witherspoon Presbyterian Church last week. He characterizes the “political ice age” as “the highest level of political indifference,” or “to be well-adjusted to injustice.”
While addressing property taxes, the budget, and the possibility of consolidating services with the Township are key issues for all of the candidates running in the 2008 Borough Council election, their individual visions differ. David Goldfarb and Barbara Trelstad are running unopposed for reelection to Borough Council, while incumbent Kevin Wilkes and Dudley Sipprelle are vying to fill the year-long remainder of former Borough Council member Wendy Benchley’s term.
Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC) Chair Wendy Kaczerski began last Wednesday’s meeting by explaining that commission members “wanted to know the health, environmental, and safety concerns of synthetic turf.” Recreation Department Director Jack Roberts came in to answer questions and elaborate upon the rationale for using such a surface for athletic fields.
“I didn’t get into Princeton, but I’m here now,” exulted author Naomi Wolf at the beginning of the recent Labyrinth Books talk and reception marking the publication of her book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. Former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges joined Ms. Wolf for the event, posing questions and adding his own take on the practice of democracy (or lack thereof) in America today.