In the last issue of the Review there was a welcome report of the event on Wednesday, September 17th to designate as an Historic Landmark Charles Martin Hall's 1886 discovery of the electrochemical process for refining aluminum metal. In this account it was reported that Hall made his discovery in the woodshed attached to the Jewett House. The discovery was, however, made in the woodshed attached to the Hall family home on East College Street. The woodshed there was removed in the 1920s. Opening at the Jewett House on South Professor next week is a new exhibit about Professor Frank F. Jewett, Hall's mentor, Hall, and Mrs. Jewett. This exhibit includes a recreation of the woodshed workplace. All are encouraged to visit this new exhibit and to learn about this important chapter in Oberlin history.
I was among the eager and curious first-year students in attendance at Tuesday night's convocation who became quickly infuriated and disappointed with the infrequently relevant and consistently trite rhetoric of keynote speaker, Gary Snyder. I will try to show you more mercy than he by making my statement as brief and forthright as I possibly can.
I am sincerely disgusted with the state of hypocrisy and naivete in which Mr. Snyder exists. His seemingly innocent and idyllic home within the serenity of nature is an unrealistic and non sustainable lifestyle for the times in which we exist. Although I recognize that his remarks concerning the invariability of the human essence are totally valid, one must come to terms with the fact that the earth today is completely different from any other era in human history due to the sheer number of humans which exist on this planet. There is simply not enough space for every baby boomer to realize his or her dream of owning a twenty-five acre niche in the woods. Furthermore, Mr. Snyder probably doesn't drive a Geo Metro on those crude roads which he mentioned at the beginning of his speech; nope he and all of his enlightened buddies need a couple of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles for that. The sloppy way that he handled the first question, (which took aim at the assumption that his lifestyle was a possibility for all the people of the globe), by sputtering false and irrelevant sound bytes, (such as something along the lines of "This is America, you can do anything you want to do," and "the animals of the earth are the truly oppressed") was only another testament to his warped view of reality. Mr. Snyder appears to labor under the delusion that most people in this nation choose to be the tools of capitalism and dwell in inefficient and unnatural living spaces. The fact of the matter is that most people simply cannot afford to miss a day of work to go off to Walden Pond and write really, really, really deep poetry that really, really, really doesn't do most of the people on this planet a damn bit of good.
Now, in all sincerity, Gary Snyder's opinions are not so vital to me that I would stay awake until 1 a.m. bitching about them. What bothers me the most about his sentiments is that they reflect a sort of sit on your ass talking deep talk in a coffee house and do nothing about it attitude which seems to prevail in private institutions of higher education such as Oberlin College. It is all too easy, in this quaint sanctuary of knowledge, to forget that there are those upon this sphere who remain chained by poverty to a certain bleak destiny that transcendental meditation cannot alleviate. I ask that as you "find your place and dig in" in Oberlin and in the "real world" you remember those who seem to have no place in Gary Snyder's fantasy world.
This year is a special year for OSCA. Every three years OSCA's Rent Contract with Oberlin College is renewed. In the renegotiating process OSCA students and Oberlin staff and administrators will get a chance to talk about the Contract and how it should change to benefit both OSCA members/ owners and Oberlin College at large.
Many people may not even know that OSCA and Oberlin College have a rent contract. Even though OSCA members own OSCA as a corporation, many of the buildings we use are owned by Oberlin College. We pay rent to the College for the use of these buildings. Last year the 630 members/ owners of OSCA paid nearly 1 million dollars in rent to Oberlin College for the use and maintenance, capital equipment (like your Hobart), and rent charges. Whether you are in OSCA, waiting to get into OSCA or are thinking of signing up on a waitlist for OSCA, this greatly affects you and your bills.
I encourage everyone to keep abreast of the negotiation process.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 2, September 12, 1997
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