By: Darren Ranck, Brennan Carley, Charlotte Parish
With summer comes fascinating freedom, a time where students return home to their friends, their cars, and jobs galore. Cheesy movies, deep-fried whatnots, lazy days spent lounging by the pool—Americans eat these types of things up every summer, and rightly so.
By: David Cote
The communication department has announced that beginning in the fall of 2012, a number of advertising and public relations classes will be offered as general university courses. This change follows the movement of journalism classes out of the communication department beginning in fall 2011.
By: Brennan Carley
On Friday and Saturday evenings, a murder most foul took place in the O’Connell House as part of Superdead, the Creative Committee for Enactment’s annual celebration of all things zany and improvised. Upon entering the dimly lit mansion in the middle of Upper Campus, audience members were warned that the show was an interactive one in which the characters might directly address the audience, in which case showgoers were encouraged to interact with them.
By: David Cote
I think Osama bin Laden’s death matters. It seems obvious, doesn’t it? How could it not?
But just days after his death, news agencies, political analysts, terrorist experts and all number of well qualified people have said it might not matter as much as we, as Americans, all want it to. They say that bin Laden had lost his central role as leader of al-Qaida. They say his money will move on without him. They say that there are any number of people to take his place, and he was already struggling with health problems due to an enlarged heart anyway. All of these things might be true, but there are still reasons to disagree with the experts.
For 10 years, the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan. Unlike previous wars, this war doesn’t have a very tangible enemy. There aren’t Nazis, Vietcong, or North Koreans. There is al-Qaida, yes, but when Hitler died in World War II, it essentially ended the war in Europe. Bin Laden’s death won’t win us the War in Afghanistan. In fact, we could probably remain in Afghanistan another 20 years without “winning” the war. So why are we there?
By: David Cote
“Justice has been done,” announced President Barack Obama Sunday night. During a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, United States Navy SEAL(s) killed long-sought al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, ending the near 10-year manhunt that began after the attacks of Sept. 11.
The raid took place at about 1 a.m. local time. Four Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters landed 24 soldiers on the compound, with a total of 40 men involved in the assault. The terrorist leader was killed by a bullet to the head. There were no American casualties during the raid.
Though there have been numerous leads about bin Laden’s whereabouts since the worldwide manhunt began almost 10 years ago, he was able to escape several times. Reports say he was wounded by shrapnel during an attack by U.S. and coalition forces at Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001. Amid rumors of health problems, bin Laden was said to have fled to Pakistan.
By: Brennan Carley
On Friday April 28, Boston College welcomed home novelist and screenwriter Chuck Hogan, BC ’89, as part of the Lowell Humanities Series. The event, co-sponsored by the Alumni Association, featured a conversation between Hogan and Christopher Wilson, a professor in the English department and an expert in the crime fiction genre.
By: Adriana Mariella, David Cote, Elise Taylor, & Brennan Carley
On Sept. 17, 2001, U.S. former president George W. Bush made a bold statement: “I want justice. There’s an old poster out West, as I recall, that said ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.'” Last night, nearly 10 years later, President Barack Obama finally announced the achievement of that justice.
