Point News, 1994 November 21

              Page 2 The Point News November 21,1994
AIDS Quilt arrives in Southern
Maryland, promotes awareness
CINDY KING
staff writer
Portions of the NAMES Project
AIDS Memorial Quilt, a tribute to all
those who have died of AIDS related
complications, will be displayed in
Somerset Hall on November 30 from
1 lam-9pm and on December 1 from
9am-4pm. This display will be the
highlight of a number of events taking
place on campus from November 27
through December 3 inhonor ofWorld
AIDS Day. The bringing ofthe AIDS
Memorial Quilt to Southern Mary­land
has been a tremendous task in­volving
both the college community
and organizations from Charles,
Calvert, and St. Mary’s Counties.
The Project requires the help of
about 200 volunteers, who will be
acting as greeters, readers, quilt mon­itors
and volunteer coordinators. Cur­rently,
the organizing committee is
still seeking volunteers. (Call 862-0202
for more information.)
The first square of the Quilt was
made in the 1980’s in San Francisco
by Cleve Jones. Jones spray-painted
the name of his friend, Marvin
Feldman, onto a piece of cloth in
protest ofthe AIDS epidemic. Others
in the area, driven by the tragedy of
AIDS, joined the effort by making
their own panels. Soon, people around
the world began to learn of the quilt
and thousands sent in panels of their
own. Today, the Quilt has more than
27,000 panels that cover 16 football
fields when fully assembled. The St.
Mary’s display will consist of 528 of
these three-foot by six-foot panels.
Panels come from 29 different coun­tries
and were made by family mem­bers,
friends, and other loved ones.
It was Umar Hasan who began the
Umar Hasan, who recently passed away due to AIDS complications,
initiated the efforts to bring the quilt to Southern Maryland.
effort to bring the AIDS Memorial
Quilt to St. Mary’s College. Over the
summer, Hasan organized a commit­tee
to help bring the Quilt to SMC.
The Quilt display has now become a
tri-county, as well as campus-wide,
project. Almost all the offices on
campus are involved in the Quilt dis­play,
fom Community Service to Ath­letics
and the President’s Office to the
Physical Plant. The community has
also been supportive of the Quilt dis­play,
volunteers working on the project
range from high school students to
families to the elderly. The display of
the AIDS Memorial Quilt at St. Mary’s
is dedicated in loving memory of
Umar Hasan and all those in the tri­county
area whohave died of AIDS
related complications.
Students have also played a large
role in bringing the Quilt to St. Mary’s.
Lisa Voso, Chair of the Fundraising
P r e s i d e n t i a l P r o c l a m a t i o n
It used to be the custom~and in some communities it still is--that,
when someone died, a single note o f the church bell would be rung,
slowly, for many minutes. The tolling was announcement that
someone had died. Everyone within sound of the bell would send a
family member into the street to ask who had passed away. It was
known as “the passing bell,” and it was a strong and simple method
o f communication.
In 1624, the English poet John Donne used the passing bell in a
reflective meditation on our common humanity. We are all connect­ed
to each other, he wrote, and the death of even one o f us is as
important as if a piece o f a continent were to break off and fall into
the sea. The death o f any one person reminds us that each o f us must
also die. “Therefore,” he wrote, “send not to know for whom the bell
tolls. It tolls for thee.”
The passing bell has tolled for Umar Hasan whom we remember
today. He would have us remember that we are all connected, thatnot
one o f us lives on a separate, safe island, that AIDS is as final as it is
ravaging, and that it impartially infects black and white, male and
female, gay and straight, mother and unborn child.
Now, therefore, I, Ted Lewis, President o f St. Mary’s College of
Maryland, do designate November 30th and December 1st as AIDS
Awareness Days, and further ask that all who read and hear this
proclamation take it upon themselves to reach out to those who blind
themselves to danger and comfort those for whom the realization of
our connectedness has come too late.
Edward T. Lewis, President
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
November 17,1994
Committee sees her contribution to
the project as a “last gift” to Hasan.
The fundraising committee’s goal is
to raise $6,000 dollars and although
many people have said she will not be
able to raise that much money, Voso
is still hopeful. Some of the
fundraising efforts include the sale of
NAMES merchandise, a 50/50 raffle,
a car wash, and a bike-a-thon to Point
Look Out.
Events in coordination with the
Quilt display begin on November 27,
the Sunday on which students return
from Thanksgiving Break, with the
showing of the movie And the Band
Played On, a film about the history
and politics behind AIDS. On Mon­day,
November 28, two films, Com­mon
Threads: The AIDS Memorial
Quilt and Talking About AIDS: One
Man’s Story, will be showing in Low­er
Charles Hall throughout the day.
Monday will also be “One in 250
Day”, look for the red shirts! A pro­gram
entitled “AIDS: The Effects and
How Society Reacts” will take place
on Tuesday, November 29 in Library
room 321. This program will include
a reading of Hasan’s poem “Hurri­cane
Elijah” by the Fomesics Team
followed by the movie “Philadelphia”
and discussions lead by the Peer
Health Educators and the
Multicultural Student Advisory. On
Wednesday, the Quilt will open in
Somerset Hall with a short ceremony
at 1 lam and remain open until 9pm.
Along with the display will be an
AIDS/HIV Education Display and
Resource Table. That evening there
will be a presentation on “Living with
HIV/AIDS” at 8pm in Montgomery
25 and “Philadelphia” will be shown
in Library shown in Library room 321
at 9:30pm. ThursdayDecember 1 is
World AIDS day and the Quilt will
open at 9am in Somerset Hall and
remainopenuntil4pm Again, the HIV/
AIDS Education Display and Resource
Table will accompany the Quilt display.
At 7 o’clock Thursday evening the Fo­rensics
Team will be presenting, “A
Life Well Lived: A Tribute to Umar
Hasan,” in Lower Charles Hall. “Phil­adelphia”
will be shown again onThurs-day
evening at 8pm in Library 321.
Finally, on December 3 at 8pm in Mont­gomery
25 Lynne Wolf will be dedicat­ing
her Senior Voice Recital to Umar
Hasan and the NAMES Project.
This week’s sign th a t th e
Apocalypse is now u p o n u s:
The Ku Klux Klan visited the College last week. After ex­member
Floyd Cochran finished speaking, cards with a
KKK message and artwork were found littering the walk­ways
and roads around Lower Charles Hall.
Such an obvious attmept at intimidation is deplorable, that
much is clear. It was a blantant attempt to intimidate a man
who delivers a powerful anti-Klan message.
Perhaps what is less clear is how to respond. Even I
grappled with how to cover the issue; accoding to Cochran,
race group love to use incidents like these to influence the
public agenda.
But I doubt they really will, at least not in this instance.
Race relations in St. Mary's County appear to be no better
or worse than the rest of the country. In the aftermath o f Mr.
Cochran's visit it is important to remember thatthe cards left
last Thursdayrepresent a certain fringe in the area, and not
how a majority o f area residents feel about Mr. Cochran's
message.
Editor-in-Chief Production Editor
Evan Christman Brooks Scoville
Assistant Editor Production Assistants
Jonathan Allen Bethany Leddy
Vice President at Large Andy Kitchenman
Aaron Garnett Staff Writers
.Sports Editor Cary Fentzloff
Cindy Davenport Aaron Koos
Sheep Herder
Katie Edwards
Scott McCormick
K.C. Culver
Rebecca Miller
Graphics Editor Katie Bomstein
Mark Smythe Barbara McLean
Photographer
Rachel Sussman
Steve T. Smith
Stephanie Edwards
Cymantha Governs
Advertising Manager Jamie Manfuso
Chris Heun Keisha Reynolds
Advisor Angela White
Judy Landau Typist
Carleen Treppe
The Point News is published weekly during the academic semester by the students
o f St. Mary’s College o f Maryland. The ideas and opinions expressed on its pages
are not necessarily those o f the college.
We welcome all readers to submit commentaries and letters to the editor. Submissions
must be sent to The Point News or dropped o ff at our office in Lower Chaiies Hall. We
reserve the right to edit submissions in order to correct errors in spelling and grammar, to
shorten length, orto remove libelous statements. The opinions expressed in commentaries
and letters to the editor are solely those ofthe writers.
Anyone may place advertising in The Point News. For current advertising rates,
please call our Advertising Manager at (301) 862-0213 orx4213. Advertisements
represent no endorsement by The Point News orthe college.
L i q u o r L o c k e r
112A Millison Plaza
Lexington Park, MD 20653
(301)863-7990
10% O ff All Wines Tuesday and Wednesday
Hours: Mon.-Wed. 10-9 Thur.-Sat. 10-10 Sun. 12-8