I’ve whipped up a Register for Change event poster to help spread the word!
Click the preview below to download the full-size PDF.
Life of a Student at Tufts University
Monthly Archive for July, 2008
If you couldn’t tell, I’ve been keeping myself busy. Besides working a full-time job, I’ve been planning something big – something awesome.
Let me fill you in.
It’s no secret that I enthusiastically support Barack Obama as the next President of the United States of America. From the moment he spoke at the Democratic Convention in 2004, I’ve always kept him in my consciousness. Soon after its release, I read The Audacity of Hope and again fell in love with Barack’s policies, personality, and eloquence.
When there were close to a dozen Democratic Presidential candidates, I publicly supported Senator Obama. Much later, a week before Super Tuesday, I made time in my hectic life to put up signs around Dover Plains in support of his candidacy.
If you don’t recall, it was clear that Hillary Clinton would claim a clear majority of the delegates in New York state. Nonetheless, I still felt compelled to show support for Barack. There was virtually no political presence in the town from any political party and I found this apathy to be disgraceful. I couldn’t do much, but I did something.
Now, let’s fast forward. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, announced that the campaign will compete all over the country this fall, as opposed to solely in swing states.
Today, I am proud to announce that our presidential campaign will be the first in a generation to deploy and maintain staff in every single state.
The Obama campaign is following Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, an idea with merit. I share the contention that by campaigning everywhere, a truly powerful grassroots movement can take hold.
Before graduating high school some weeks ago, I created a Facebook group called Dover Plains for Obama. There, I threw around the idea that progressive Dover students should organize a campaign event in support of the Illinois Senator. Fifty-four students joined the Facebook group, and a vocal subset agreed with my idea.
That’s when I started doing some serious research. I went to BarackObama.com’s social network, MyBo, and searched for campaign events within 50 miles of Dover Plains. Here’s a map of the results:
Notice something? There’s a geographic hole in that map, a gap where seemingly no events are being held. That void is Dover Plains and its surrounding communities. This is unacceptable, but luckily, we can change this.
In the last two weeks, I made some calls to the Dover Town Hall to check up on a group’s right to peacefully assemble, say, in the middle of town. After a well-received presentation at the public Town Council meeting this last Wednesday, I obtained the town’s blessing to hold an event of some sort.
Here are the details as they stand right now:
- Name: Register for Change
- Tag-line: Register for Change, Rally for Hope, Learn about Obama
- August 9th
- All day (9AM to 6PM)
- Intersection of Route 22 and Mill Street in Dover Plains (map)
- Voter registration drive
- Information tables about Barack Obama
- Encouragement of Obama supporters to honk horns as they drive by
My personal goals for Register for Change are straightforward. I’d like to…
- Encourage people to participate in the democratic process. Our right to vote is our most important and powerful asset as Americans.
- Clear up misconceptions, often caused by hatred and intolerance, about Senator Obama.
- Show Dover Plains and its surrounding communities that the young people of Dover can do something positive. I want to send a clear message that Dover’s young people aren’t all about gangs, drugs, or fighting.
It’s easy to respond that an event like this won’t have a tangible effect on the election. One can say, “New York state will vote Democratic, no matter what you do. What’s the point?” To that, I have a simple response.
If we can register one person to vote, it will be worth our time. If we can correct one misconception about Senator Obama, it will be worth our effort. If we can get one person to start thinking, we’ve made change.
I hope you can join me in preparing and executing Register for Change. I’ve made events on the major social networking sites. I encourage you to sign up.
BarackObama.com: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/44kjt
Facebook.com: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=68562510053
Upcoming.org: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/933115/
Let me know if you’re coming and how much you’d like to be involved. If you just want to show up, that’s fine. If you’d like to be involved with the planning, setup, and execution, please get in touch with me as soon as possible. Anyone is welcome to email me with questions, ideas, or much-appreciated offers of help. If you contact me, please leave a phone number so I can stay organized and get back to you as soon as possible.
My Doverian friends, and my friends in Dutchess County, now is our moment. Let’s do it.
One of my favorite people on earth died today. Although I’ve never met him, I’m going to miss Randy a lot. From the moment I came across his story some time ago, I’ve been inspired by his message and struggle. If you weren’t touched by his outlook on life earlier this year, I urge you to watch his last lecture or to read his book.
You won’t regret it.
If you’re a Dover resident or a frequent visitor, you’ll find this post a particular treat. If not, it may be less relevant.
I’ve been so busy working at the Computer Academy and planning future endeavors that I haven’t had time to address the many awesome comments that you all, my readers, have posted. I always appreciate feedback, so I’ve made some time to highlight the recent comments on my blog. Individuals all across the spectrum have been leaving me their insightful thoughts, people who have been moving through my life this last year, and people who I have yet to meet in person.
Feel free to skip to the comments about the Dover Carnival Incident. If not, let’s get started.
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Day One, Year Two, Computer Academy
Rick is the gentleman who taught the Computer Hardware class at the Computer Academy during the first two-week session. For those two weeks, I was his Teaching Assistant. We had a great time and got a lot of work done. I look forward to working with him again in the future.
It doesn’t make me feel better that it’s seemingly common knowledge about what “Dover students (are) able to get away with”. It’s just sad, really. I’m sure everyone agrees.
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AP Scores
Mike wrote:
Getting a 5 on either Calculus Exam is literally easier than passing it. For some odd reason, about 65 of the 110-or-so are necessary to get a 5 each yeah, though the results are always heavily skewed toward the high-grade end. The tests with more common results have about 10% 5’s, 30% 4’s, 30% 3’s, 20% 2’s, and 10% 1’s. Calc AB has about 30% 5’s, with more than 60% getting a 4 or 5. Calc BC is “worse”, with about 50% 5’s.
To me, this seems to be a grading contradiction on part of College Board. If I get a normal percentage score (earned/possible) of 80% on both my Calc BC and Language Exams, why do I get a 5 of the former, but a 3 on the letter.
That’s interesting, Mike. But, all tests have their own rules and curves – that’s just a part of life for an American mainstream test-taking student. I don’t mind.
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I’ve never seen a college accept 5s but not 4s. Granted I only actually looked into a few schools’ policies.
And the AP, like other College Board exams, is curved, which is why there’s a difference between the scores earned by different percentages on different exams. Whether or not that’s a good policy is another issue.
I saw a school or two who had an AP policy of only accepting “fives”, and I’ve heard of others, but they don’t really matter now. I wasn’t upset because I thought I wouldn’t get credit, entirely. I just felt that I had studied too long and too hard for the score I got; I was wrong, obviously.
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Reflections on the Dover Carnival Incident
J wrote:
Ricky,
I’m glad that someone is reporting about how the so-called “gangs” are popping up in this neighborhood. Quite frankly, I feel that this issue is being overlooked in our community, and I believe this is because nobody can take teenagers seriously these days. When people hear the word gang, they think of Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, and so on. I believe that these “gangs” aren’t taken seriously because there have not been any issues. Until now. I believe the incident was a wake-up call, and it’s proof that something needs to be done now to prevent this from happening again, although it should have been prevented from happening at all.
Hello J! Welcome to my site; I encourage you to come back. Although I assume posting as “J” is to keep you anonymous, feel free to email me to claim your identity. I’d love to have a chat with you, really. This goes for any commenter in the community, always.
I agree with J’s contention that this issue is being overlooked in the community. I too have noticed that people have a hard time taking teenagers seriously. I’ve made it my last year’s work to change that perception, but there’s only so much one person can do in isolated incidents.
And really, if this vocal minority of teenagers keep causing public trouble, this misconception will never be changed.
If a Dover student finds the need to affiliate himself or herself with a “gang” of any type, it’s a sad statement on his or her life. That isn’t to say it’s his or her fault; the nurture side of the nature v. nurture debate comes to mind. All I know about the psychology of gangs comes the book Freakonomics and episodes of This American Life, which isn’t much.
These students should and must be taken seriously. They must never be dismissed as people not worth our time. That’s all I know – I’m not sure where to go from here.
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What a tragedy! The violent acts both immediate and brewing. To see a beautiful thing deteriorate like that…To feel helpless. Awful.
Thinking of you Ricky and wishing you and your community well.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand; ”THE SECOND COMING
W.B. Yeats
Despite the somber mood running throughout the threads of my website’s discussions recently, I was so glad to see John’s comment. For anyone who doesn’t know, John spoke at the Dover High School “Leadership Rally” earlier this year. I fought for several months to secure the funding for this normally-routine assembly to be held. The fact that John and I have been keeping touch after the ordeal is rather impressive.
Finally responding to John’s comment, I couldn’t put it any better. Watching something I’ve loved so much crumble in front of my eyes was painful. I appreciate your thoughts and wishes, John.
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Christopher S. Penn wrote:
Dover is not alone.
As the economy goes in a capitalist nation, so goes the society.
My condolences still to the community breaking apart.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought and I’m starting to think that Chris is right. My generation has grown up in a time of relative prosperity and safety. It’s only now that I’m starting to internalize that this can change, will change, and is changing. Knowing something and internalizing it are two different concepts.
Within hours of reading Chris’ comment, I had a phone conversation with one of my former history teachers. We talked about AP scores and the Carnival Incident. Not surprisingly, he said exactly the same thing. If the United States’ economy reflects the peace in Dover Plains, we’re in for a rough decade.
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wrote:
I agree with what you wrote. The carnival use to be a fun place to go and hang with friends, meet up with family and have a good time but this year it did feel different. Walking around with my 2 younger sisters, 9 and 13, I felt like I needed them by my side at all times. It never use to be like that, I could take them and let them go off with friends and enjoy themselves but this year it just felt very unsafe. From the mexican’s who stood around and starred and checked out a 9 year old as well as myself who is clearly very pregnant to the drunken teenagers fighting with each other, I just felt like I could have spent my money elsewhere. Its really sad but this town is slowly becoming a place I do not want to be associated with But how do we, and the town as a hole turn things around?!?! There really is no way and that is horrible. The event on Saturday was the last straw. I returned to see the fireworks like I always do and then to witness a stabbing only 50 feet from where I stood was incredible. I can not stop thinking of what would have happened had I walked that way a few moments earlier. We shouldn’t have to fear our town or watch our backs at a place that is suppose to bring joy and excitement. This year marks the last year of the carnival for me and sadly I think for quite a few others.
Hey Meg! It’s nice to see another new face around here.
I obviously agree with Meg’s belief that this carnival was tangibly different than those of the past, but again, I don’t have the answers for turning it around.
Regardless, I’m willing to throw out some ideas. We need to keep doing what we do. We must move through our daily lives propping ourselves up in society while never forgetting to help others. Over time, things may improve. If they don’t, I’m not sure if it’s feasible to think our actions can change the lifestyles and values of others. It may be, but I have my doubts.
I hope I will attend the carnival again. I look forward to writing about my joy on the fairgrounds sometime in the future.
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Why doesn’t the Dover community promote AA rather than open another liquor store? It has been to my observation that Dover and the surrounding communities are socially reclusive, impoverished, and in denial. Been here six years, can’t wait to move because there is no productivity or prosperity. I’ve been noticing that the general consensus of the neighborhood is “alcoholism, and compulsive television/video game involvement!” Not a very intelligent community, VERY LAZY.
Welcome, Anne! Yet another new face? You commenters have me overjoyed.
These thoughts are very insightful and I think there’s some merit here. I’m not quite sure how a community “promotes” Alcoholics Anonymous over opening another liquor store. Doing some research, I’ve learned that there are AA meetings in our community and in nearby communities. The open market dictates the opening and closing of stores, so any liquor stores that open will be regulated by capitalism.
You’re hinting at something that’s always disturbed me about the Dover Carnival, which is its dependance on alcohol. I don’t mind when adults get together for a few drinks in public, but I clearly saw my former classmates, those who I just graduated with, drinking during the four nights. I doubt they brought their own beer.
I had a chat with a coworker of mine today about Dover’s social problems, and Meg’s comment came to mind. We talked about shifting populations and the eventual influx of new residents as a result of future residential projects. Will these new populations, likely coming from wealthier districts of the nation, clash with the “VERY LAZY” community? Again, I don’t have the answers, but I bet that social dynamic will be interesting.
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I love my blog’s community. I can always count on you guys to have an intelligent conversation that I can’t find elsewhere.
The Poughkeepsie Journal is running a short article today about what I’ve dubbed the “Dover Carnival Incident“. I quote it below:
DOVER PLAINS – The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help regarding a stabbing at the annual J.H. Ketcham Hose Co.’s Fireman’s Fair Saturday night.
At around 10 p.m., a fight broke out at the carnival. One person, whose identity police have not released, was stabbed four times by an unknown man.
“At this time, investigation is going into trying to identify and track down the subject responsible for this violent assault,” sheriff’s Detective Gerard Pfitscher said.
The victim is in stable condition at Saint Francis Hospital. He received emergency surgery for a punctured lung, police said, and is recovering.
Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at 845-486-3820. All calls will be kept confidential.
If you have any information whatsoever, I urge you to give the Sheriff’s Office a call.