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Campus Stories In Focus

Art Exhibition Features Student Work

The Annual Student Juried Art Exhibition, now on its 28th year, celebrates and showcases the art and talent of students not always seen in the public sphere.  The event celebrates the talent of students from all disciplines, from the visual arts to international development, giving them the opportunity to show their work to the wider college community. “I really love the student show,” said Emily Friesen ‘17. “It’s exciting for the students because you’re professionally showing your work to a wider audience.” Friesen, who works as a gallery assistant, also stated the show is one of her favorites of the year because so many people attend in support of their friends and family members. “It’s lovely to see the gallery so full,” she said.

Assistant professor of art/printmaking and director of exhibitions at the Ortlip Art Gallery, Alicia Taylor, also expressed excitement at the Student Exhibition. She stated that the design stage before the show is one of her favorite parts, and said, “The space with blank white walls at the start of every exhibition design becomes my canvas, and the students’ work becomes the language that I’m tasked with bringing together to form visual statements. The goal of the exhibit as a whole is to take these statements and string them together with very intentional methods to create a story that viewers can experience when walking through the space.” Taylor has been managing the Ortlip Gallery Exhibitions for the last three years.

The actual selection process of the show is in some ways intensive. A juror is chosen to judge the art, and he or she focuses on the quality, craftsmanship, and concept of the submissions. The process is impartial, says Taylor, each student’s name remaining anonymous as the juror examines the work.

On the part of students accepted to the exhibition, there is a presiding feeling of affirmation of their artistic abilities. Ellen McCutcheon ‘18 said, “I’m honored to see my art in the show. It’s really affirming as an artist to see my work on display.” This is McCutcheon’s first year in the exhibition, accepted for her submission of a small piece she painted while studying abroad in Tanzania.

Hannah Banks ‘18, who has submitted work to the show every year, said that her favorite part of the exhibition is, “getting to see my fellow artists’ work and seeing it in a gallery setting…

I think the collective student work compliments each other well.” You can see Banks’, McCutcheon’s, and other students’ work tomorrow , March 18, from 6 p.m.  to 8 p.m. Many of the pieces are also available for purchase.

 

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Opinions

Understanding Trump’s Voters

I grew up in an area much like this one, where Confederate flags were spray painted on trucks with slapdash exuberance and men walking down the roadside with guns slung over their shoulders didn’t seem out of the ordinary. People in my town took care of my single mother and her four children: stray groceries and fifty dollar bills were always finding their way into our beaten up minivan. And when that minivan broke down, you betcha our mechanic fixed it for free. That’s why I love my area, and the area surrounding Houghton. That’s also why I am so upset at the rhetoric surrounding Donald Trump’s election. It demonizes those people and places I care for so deeply, and I am ashamed to say our college has not done much better at understanding the nuances of the situation.

Before you start feeling too self-righteous (or run away screaming), let me also say this: I consider myself to be liberal, and I understand the situation I described in the first paragraph might not work the same for everyone. I’ve often wondered if the color of my family’s skin would have affected our neighbors’ generosity, had we been a minority group. I’ve also wondered how it must feel for people of color to drive down those rural Western New York roads and see a bunch of white guys openly carrying rifles. Probably not too cozy. I deeply empathize with those who have felt marginalized or threatened in that way, and I understand why Trump’s presidency is so disturbing. It’s disturbing to me too. However, that does not change the fact that he is our president. The only thing we can examine and change now is how we react to it.

Thus far I have seen many of my progressive brothers and sisters act in an unbecoming way when dealing with Trump’s election. I’m not talking about peaceful protests: my husband and some of my best friends have participated in several post-election marches. I’m talking about the riots and the days of mourning without action and the language that tells many of my family members and friends that they are sexist, bigoted racists for voting for Trump. But many, perhaps most, of the people who voted for Trump didn’t choose him because of his immigration policies or his misogynistic “locker room talk.” They chose him because they didn’t think they could survive another term under a Liberal administration. As my uncle so eloquently put it over Christmas dinner, “I know Trump’s bat shit crazy, but at least minimum wage might not go up.”

To many of you, my uncle’s statement might seem callused and unaware. But if you understood that he’s a small business owner, desperately trying to keep a tiny grocery store afloat, what would you say then? What if you could see that grocery store, the only business in town, and one of maybe two job opportunities within a thirty minute drive? My grandfather opened it forty years ago, built it up from the ground, and my uncle is scrambling to keep the doors open. With the incremental climb of minimum wage, along with increased taxes and healthcare costs, he’s worried he might have to lay off more employees.

My uncle is not alone in his feelings of being overlooked by a Liberal administration. A man I spoke with recently, a first generation Chinese-American combustion engineer, was laid off when the coal energy plant he worked at was closed by the Obama administration. He had little sympathy for the environmental reasons behind President Obama’s decision because he and many others in his community no longer had jobs. These are not the people we think of when we sling insults around about Trump supporters.

One of our problems at Houghton is that we don’t have much interaction with the folks in our extended community. We are a city on the hill, so far removed that we can’t see the hurting people who live at the bottom. On the news, we see a man with a beer belly and a trucker hat hurling racist insults in the name of Trump, but we don’t see the moderates, the people who are just trying to survive in the only way they know how. My challenge and my hope is that you would go into our community and actually listen to these people, without defensiveness or excuses. If you can’t do that, I understand, but please: stop asking how Trump was elected and start trying to understand those who elected him.

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Stories In Focus

Laura White: Alumna and Author

“It all started with a Hiccup. Hiccup and Toothless, actually,” said Alumna Laura White ’13 of her recently published fantasy novel. White, who writes under penname Elle Katherine White, began working on her book Heartstone as a student, after an evening of trying to divide her attention between reading Pride and Prejudice and watching the film How to Train Your Dragon. She stated, “Halfway through the movie I had the sudden image of Mr. Darcy riding a dragon and all I could think was ‘This story HAS to exist.’”

The fact that her story has gone on to be published is no small feat. From the time of its conception to its publication in January, the book has been four years in the making and has gone through multiple rewrites. White stated she had “Lots and lots of rejection…we went through several rounds of editing with Heartstone before going on submission to a list of editors my agent thought would be interested. After that, it was . . . more rejection. Luckily there was one yes in that sea of no’s, and that’s how we landed with HarperVoyager.”

White visited her alma mater in October, both to promote her book and to encourage aspiring writers that publication is possible. She held a lecture and visited classes, speaking powerfully about the writing life and the need for diligent work while maintaining a gracious attitude. Professor of English, Stephen Woolsey, who taught one of White’s classes at Houghton, stated, “She has a real calling or concern for the students here, wanting them to value their own gifts…calling them to a kind of courage in exploring those gifts and making the most of them.”

Students who attended White’s talks certainly felt the passion that White has for writing and encouraging young artists in their craft. Sophia Ross, who attended the lectures, stated, “Laura had a lot of practical advice for us at each of her events. She obviously works incredibly hard to balance her work life with her writing life. She’s proof that being published by a big house isn’t impossible, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”  HarperVoyager, White’s publisher, is a branch of HarperCollins, and is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world. Not bad at all, for a Houghton grad.

White stressed how important a writing community has been for her during the creative process, and recommended a similar path to aspiring authors. “Network with fellow writers at all stages in the career path,” she said. “Writing is often a lonely endeavor, and you need a strong community to keep you sane.” White also emphasized the importance of treating writing as a serious occupation. She worked as a marketing manager while writing her novel, but considered her writing to be the equivalent of another full-time job. She stated, “If you treat it seriously, other people will too; if you treat it like a casual hobby, so will the rest of the world.”

       

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Opinions

Just What You Want to Hear

Since the election, the media has attracted new levels of criticism. Blame for the “surprise” election results has fallen on faulty polls and biased reporting from a highly politicized media. However, while the problems which have been highlighted by the media’s failure to report without prejudice are valid, it is important to examine the role which consumers have played in the degradation of the media.  

Photo by: Nate Moore
Photo by: Nate Moore

According to the Pew Research Center, forty-four percent of adult Americans rely solely on Facebook for their daily news. That means that almost half of Americans get all their news from memes, two-minute videos, and even websites like The Onion that are meant to be read satirically, but are often mistaken for fact. Our patience for solid reporting has dwindled as we become more and more willing to accept BuzzFeed listicles as fact or videos of the Clintons playing with balloons as a character reference. However, the blame for this issue cannot completely fall on the media. We must accept at least partial responsibility for this shift. The media reports on what people want to hear: it falls to the public to determine what kind of quality we look for in the news.

Additionally, exposure to a variety of issues is becoming increasingly rare, as news stories are now catered to the individual. Our Facebook newsfeeds, for example, are filled with news items the website’s algorithms have determined we are interested in. Furthermore, what’s “trending” on Facebook is filtered by a team of “news curators” who, according to a recent article published in Gizmodo, were routinely encouraged to suppress certain news items and promote others. In a given situation, our biases are easily confirmed because we are presented with information that either sooths our egos or gives us a sense of righteous indignation, depending on the situation. We are rarely confronted with issues we disagree with, and if we are, we can hide safely behind our computer screens as we lob insults and “facts” at our opponents in an attempt to educate or embarrass them. We are almost never confronted with the humanity of those we disagree with, nor with the legitimacy of their opinions.

rachelquoteIn this sense, we have all missed the mark terribly. Both the media and its consumers have allowed sensationalism, pettiness, and backbiting to become the norm in our daily news, and we have forgotten how to disagree civilly. Under such circumstances, it’s no wonder we have witnessed such a disgraceful campaign season. Each side bought into strawman arguments about the other simply because their newsfeeds told them they were true. There was little-to-no fact checking involved before hasty judgements were made. Trump’s supporters are not all homophobic racists, just as not all Clinton supporters are abortion-touting socialists.

My hope, moving forward, is to see both the media and our society as a whole moving toward real curiosity and openness. To do this, we must actually interact with each other; not simply through social media, but through sincere conversations that help us understand our similarities along with our differences. We can listen to each other’s fears, thoughts, and hopes whether or not we come to the same conclusions. We have been a polarized nation for too long, and the effects are taking an obvious toll. It is imperative that we listen to each other, deeply and without prejudice, in order for us to live peacefully with one another.

Rachel is a senior writing major.

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Stories In Focus

Leading and Learning: ROTC Program Trains Houghton Students for Military Careers

When planning course loads each semester, not many of us anticipate learning land navigation or combat skills as possible syllabus expectations. However, for the Houghton students participating in the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), that’s exactly the type of schedule they can expect.

Photo courtesy of houghton.edu
Photo courtesy of houghton.edu

ROTC is a program designed for people interested in attaining a four year degree and serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Cadet Elizabeth Groff ‘19 said of her choice to participate in ROTC, “I thought it was really cool that while you’re learning your [academic], you can also earn your military degree.” Groff went on to discuss the important skills students develop, such as leadership training and self-discipline, while simultaneously building their resumes and looking forward to the possibility of a scholarship. Speaking of the physical portion of the program, she also commented, “I’m learning the limits I can push myself to.”

There is no need to be a contracted military member; the classes are open to students of any discipline and there is no long-term commitment, although a military career is one possible outcome. For those continuing on with the military, they will graduate college and enter either the reserves or active duty as a second lieutenant.

Cadet Victoria Krisher ‘19, a contracted cadet who is interested in becoming an Army dentist, said her interest in ROTC began with her family history of military service. She said of her family heritage, “They always told me how their experiences [in the military] have shaped their lives, and a lot of their experiences were sort of instilled in how I was raised.” She continued, “I didn’t want a normal job. I wanted to make a difference, make an impact.”

According to Houghton’s website, Houghton is part of the Seneca Battalion, which is hosted by St. Bonaventure University. Cadets travel to Bonaventure once a week for the lab component of their coursework, in which they do everything from battle drills to eight-mile rucks. Both Krisher and Groff described labs as an extremely valuable and portion of the program. Krisher stated that “in labs, we get to apply everything that we’ve learned.”

For anyone interested in joining ROTC, Groff assured that it is not too late and encourages students to talk to any of the cadets or to ROTC faculty advisor and psychology professor, John Van Wicklin. She said, “There’s really no applying [to ROTC]. I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that it’s an actual class… just tell your advisor you’d like to add it to your schedule.” It is possible to begin taking courses as late as junior year, so the timeframe for adding ROTC courses is quite broad. Groff  also emphasized that there is no pressure to continue on with a ROTC or a military career if it is not a good fit for the individual. Personal growth and the development of leadership skills, however, are lifelong benefits of participating in ROTC.

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Stories In Focus

The Wizarding World Comes to Ithaca

Last year, businesses in Ithaca, New York banded together to create a magical, Harry Potter themed event called the “Wizarding Weekend.” Business owners re-imagined their shops, cafes, and restaurants into locations straight out of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series. According to online news website The Ithaca Voice, event planners initially thought they would draw a crowd of about 200. However, by the end of the weekend over 8,000 people had attended.

facebook.com/wizardingweekend
facebook.com/wizardingweekend

Planners this year are better prepared for the onslaught of Potter fans. Increasing the schedule from one day to a four day celebration, Downtown Ithaca will be transformed into a haven of wizardly goods from October 27 through October 30. Several streets will be turned into iconic streets from the Harry Potter series, including Diagon Alley, Godric’s Hollow, and Knockturn Alley. Life’s So Sweet Chocolates on West Green Street will be creating confections inspired by Honeydukes, Tompkins Trust Company will become the wizard bank of Gringotts, and businesses throughout the town will be embracing the Harry Potter theme.

Melissa MacLean ‘17, who attended the event last year, that the best part of the weekend for her was “the feeling of being in an environment where everyone is geeking out at the same thing.” She described it as an atmosphere which fostered conversation and shared space between people who may otherwise walk very different paths in life. MacLean also commented on the food trucks and the “legendary butterbeer” which she assured is “community covenant approved.” When asked if she would attend the Wizarding Weekend again, she replied that she would, saying, “I wouldn’t want to let my Ravenclaws down!”

Although events are scheduled for each day of the Wizarding Weekend, the greatest number of activities will be available on October 29, the event’s “Festival Day.” According to the official website, some activities include a Horcrux Hunt, a “Dark Arts Coffee Crawl” through local coffee shops, several Quidditch matches, costume contests, live music, and a Tri-Wizard Ball. A number of local artisans will be selling their wares, including everything from jewelry to quills to handcrafted wands. Additionally, acceptance letters to Hogwarts will be handed out by characters from the series.

Some events require tickets or reservations, but many are free and open to the public. As of October 25th, the “Ithaca’s Wizarding Weekend” Facebook page reports over 3,500 people will be attending and some 11,000 are interested. For any of the ticketed activities, it is recommended that tickets be purchased soon as there are a limited number available for most events.

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Opinions

The Importance of the Desert

I often feel like I am stumbling through my faith. I’m a pilgrim who doesn’t know her path, a disciple without a prophet. This feeling comes to every person of faith at some point if we are willing to grapple with our questions. Some call it “the dark night of the soul” or “our desert time.” But these characterizations seem, to me, incomplete. They suggest that wandering is a bad thing, something to get through as quickly as possible. However, it is in these times of ambiguity that the veil seems at its thinnest. I stop blindly going through the motions of my faith, and I take time to re-examine the foundation. Christ is lifted from stained-glass panes, and comes to me asking, “Who do you say I am?”

Photo by: Nate Moore
Photo by: Nate Moore

Right now, I don’t know the answer to that. I flounder, asking how I can profess a God of love if He seems to hide himself and then punishes those who don’t believe in Him. The problem with the way I see God right now is that He is ambiguous. He has the power to make himself known to an individual in an unquestionable way, yet He seldom does so. St. Anselm, an eleventh century monk and theologian, wrote, “It is thou that hast made me, and hast made me anew, and hast bestowed upon me all the blessings I enjoy; and not yet do I know thee. Finally, I was created to see thee and not yet have I done that for which I was made.” If a person of great faith like St. Anselm remained uncertain about the nature of God, how can a wandering pilgrim such as myself ever hope to understand Him?

This is the reason so many people of faith try to rush through their seasons of disbelief. They are uncomfortable with the questions. But if we leave our search at this seemingly hopeless point, it is so easy to make the inference that because God cannot be seen and understood, He does not exist. This is not an irrational reaction, but it can be driven by frustration. Emotionalism is just as unacceptable a reason to leave a faith as it is to stay in one.

So what are we left with, in searching for a God who seems so untouchable? Some would say that asking why we cannot completely understand Him is like asking why we can’t drink the ocean. Seventeenth century philosopher Blaize Pascal commented on God’s ambiguity, saying, “If there were no obscurity man would not feel his corruption: if there were no light man could not hope for a cure. Thus it is not only right but useful for us that God should be partly concealed and partly revealed, since it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness as to know his own wretchedness without knowing God.” That, to me, is one of the most irritating and unsatisfying answers in the history of theology. Because at the root of my question, one more has always remained hidden.

I realize I can’t understand all there is to know about God, but couldn’t He, at the very least, let me see Him? If I could even catch a glimpse, it would be enough to sustain me for the rest of my life. I would, like Peter, step out of the boat and begin my first timid steps toward my Father. So why doesn’t He just show up?rachel3

For me, it all boils down to this. I must ask myself the question: am I really looking for God and am I looking in the right places? Through all my wandering in the desert, crying out for the answers to why I can’t see Him, have I even had my eyes open? Am I like the Jews in the wilderness, so blind to their own issues that they place the blame on God? I believe I’ve been searching because I feel angst about God, but having angst and actively searching are not the same thing.

Perhaps, as a professor of mine once said, God is like a fox that lives in the woods behind our house. We know people who have seen it, they assure us it’s there. But we have never caught sight of it ourselves, and so we disgruntledly begin to question its existence. But seeing the fox is a two sided thing; it’s not all about the seeker. The fox has a say in whether or not it will be seen, and where it will show up. What we really have to question is whether we know enough about the fox’s character to guess where it might come next.

God walks silently. We must listen for His footfall. In my wandering, I will be still and wait quietly. Maybe then I will be aware enough to see Him when He steps wordlessly from the underbrush.

Rachel is a senior writing major.

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Campus News

Seminary President to Speak at New Vision Week

Next week, Houghton students will be hosting New Vision Week. Overseen by director of off campus studies, Marcus Dean, New Vision Week emphasizes the college’s deep connection to global missions. Events will run from October 24 through October 28. Dean stated that the event asks the question, “how do we reach out to people who aren’t like us?” He continued, “This could be a time to find out more about that.”

NVW week posterNew Vision Week has been a yearly tradition since the 1930s. According to former faculty member Paul Shea, Christian students throughout the U.S. were engaging with the idea of globals missions. Because of the focus on missions, what is now Global Christian Fellowship (GCF) began at that time, and have headed New Vision Week since. Shea emphasized the importance of student participation in the event, and stated, “If students don’t get involved, New Vision Week doesn’t happen.”

Planning for the event is headed by Bethany Rudolf ‘17 She has been involved with GCF since her sophomore year and is passionate about missions. Rudolf said, “I really love the opportunities to explore different topics and questions through the workshops and chapel messages, but my biggest interest within NVW is just trying to open the missions circle and break down some of the perceptions that are built up about missions.”

The keynote speaker for New Vision Week is Matthew Ayers, who spoke at GCF last year. Ayers serves as a missionary in Haiti, as the president of Emmaus Biblical Seminary, and is the author of a number of books and scholarly articles. Rudolf stated the seminary works alongside Haitians, and  its goal is “to reproduce Christ-like leaders equipped for effective ministry and committed to the transformation of Haiti and the world.” Ayers will be speaking in chapel for the entirety of the week, with a Flag Ceremony taking place on Monday to usher in the event. Students representing countries from all over the world will bear their flags in a striking visual of the global church, which Dean said is a great opportunity to find out where students are from.

In addition to chapel, those planning NVM have scheduled a number of workshops, a prayer and worship night, and a culture fair. The workshops will take place on Tuesday and Thursday, covering a broad range of topics including discussions on cross cultural missions, Islam, Bible translation, and human trafficking. The culture fair will take place on Monday at 8 p.m.,with the prayer and worship night on Wednesday also at 8 p.m.  

 

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Opinions

Sanctified Moments

Sometimes I live whole days without knowing it. Morning to night, it’s as if my time is spent in a vacuum. School is dull, relationships are difficult, work is overwhelming and so I shove it all to the back of my mind. I don’t feel fulfilled in what I’m doing, so mentally checking out seems the easiest option.

Photo by: Nate Moore
Photo by: Nate Moore

I think we all have days like this, days where we just put our heads down and push through our busy schedules until we reach those blessed moments where we can truly be ourselves. It’s incredibly difficult to be active participants in our lives when we feel that the things we’re doing aren’t expressing who we are as individuals. The problem is we can allow this pattern of rushing and pushing to overtake our lives. We can fall into the trap of believing that we are only really living at the end of the day, in our moments of freedom. If we only engage in the easy, interesting, “free” bits of our lives, we sacrifice a massive portion of our lives to empty space and anonymity.

Currently, I’m experiencing these days in greater frequency; they always take hold during the school year. But, as a wizened senior, I’ve found a few ways to counteract my vacuum days. I find it helpful to view each day as sanctified, as an offering to God. Under those terms, it becomes apparent that even the mundane is sacramental. Understanding our lives as offerings attributes our participation much more significance and depth, whether we’re working our dream job or cleaning the house.

Granted, it’s much more pleasant to view our successful moments as important than it is our disappointing or humdrum ones. We have trouble acknowledging that the seemingly boring or unfruitful bits of our lives contribute just as strongly to who we are becoming as individuals.

rachel-quoteBrother Lawrence, a seventeenth century monastic, viewed his life by this standard. He believed that his most commonplace deeds were what truly cultivated his spirit, not the times when he was in the spotlight. He even viewed washing dishes, a task which he is reported as disliking, as an act of worship. He said, “I am doing now what I will do for all eternity. I am blessing God, praising Him, adoring him, and loving Him with all my heart.” His practice was to be fully present in what he was doing while also acknowledging the ultimate purpose of each action, however lowly.

If this sounds hyper-spiritual, I understand. It can certainly be harmful to tell people who are living in extremely difficult circumstances that they need to focus on each moment in their lives. However, I believe that when we make ourselves more available to our grief, our irritation, or our boredom, we have greater potential to live more fully in our joys as well.

When A.J. Swoboda visited Houghton earlier this month, he spoke about his addiction to alcohol, how it numbed his pain but also affected his ability to feel happiness and other emotions. When we discount the ordinary moments of our lives, a similar effect is created: we numb our ability to enjoy the times when we are at our most authentic. Being mindful of our lives, even the seemingly insignificant portions, centers us. It helps us grow into fuller, more aware people. And I, for one, hope to live fewer forgotten days.

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Stories In Focus

Houghton Community Sends Representatives to Climate Conference

From November 30 to December 11, the city of Paris will host the Conference of Parties (COP21) which is a meeting of representatives from over 190 countries around the world. The conference was called in the hopes of forming a legally binding and universally recognized agreement on climate action. This week, three members of the Houghton community will fly to Paris in order to show their solidarity with the movement: Sustainability Coordinator Brian Webb and his wife Becky, along with senior International Development major Lauren Bechtel. Becky Webb was unavailable for interview, but both Brian and Lauren expressed high hopes for the outcome of COP21 and stressed its international importance.

COP21This is the twenty-first time that the Conference of Parties will meet, but according to Webb, the effect of previous meetings has been minimal. This year, however, a different approach will be taken. Rather than a treaty on climate action being drawn up and ready to sign before the conference meets, the participating countries have been asked to bring their own solutions and goals toward slowing down climate change. Because of this new approach, Webb said that he believes that COP21 is “the single most important political event of the decade,” and that the outcome “will decide the trajectory of how the world decides to take a stand on climate change.”

When asked what his goals for conference were, Brian answered, “there are two primary goals. Most importantly, we’re hoping to use this as an opportunity to bring a witness to the church about how climate change is related to our faith and how responding is an issue of justice. The secondary piece is that we want to be a witness to the world of God’s love by simply being there, and by being there as Evangelical Christians.”

Although Webb and Bechtel both agreed that the primary reason they are attending COP21 is to be witness to the fact that they care about climate action, Bechtel also views the conference as a means of empowering voiceless people groups. She stated that the people who are most affected by climate change are often those who are least able to speak out against it, but that “the global community thinks of COP21 as the first time that we can really band together to do something, to make a positive difference.”

To Bechtel, the issue of climate change has moved from a distant future to an immediate present. She said, “One of the arguments that has been made for a long time has been ‘preserve the environment for those that come after you,’ but what we’re seeing now is that we’re looking out for the environment because climate change is going to affect our lives.”

When asked what she thought of the argument that environmental regulations on fossil fuels should not apply to developing countries because it will hinder their development, Bechtel compared that thought process to feeding fast food to a young child. She said, “We know that it’s not good for the child, but people will argue that if there’s nothing else to feed them, then you have to feed them something. And in some ways, that’s true. But I don’t believe that is our choice here… if we think of countries’ development as either fossil fuels or nothing at all, we’re faced with an unsolvable problem. Using fossil fuels will have negative effects on them in the long run, so we have to think creatively about how to harvest energy in ways that do not prevent that country’s development.”

For students who are interested in the issue of climate change and would like to show their support of COP21, two events will be held by Eco Reps on December 8 and 9. The first is a day of silence which will represent solidarity with people groups who are unable to speak out against the deterioration of their land by climate change. The second is a 24 hour prayer service for climate action, the success of the conference, and for Brian, Becky, and Lauren. Students interested in either event should contact Eco Reps Intern Daniel Bellerose for more information.