Oh the joys and woes of a newspaper!

Yesterday, after class ended at around 1, I ate at Val per usual and then read Vaclav Havel's essay for history for about an hour. Then, at 3:10 PM, I set off, took pictures of a science building that we had article on (renovation) and by 3:20, was sitting in front of a computer in the newspaper office. Oh how I love and loathe InDesign at the same time. By 5:30, I went to dinner because I had to attend a lecture at 7:30 (and it was going to be packed so I had to get there early) because I was writing an article on it that was going in the paper that night. The lecture was by Dennis Ross, who served in the Reagan, George HW Bush, and Clinton Administration as a Middle East envoy, and was Obama's chief advisor on the Middle East during the campaign and now figures to be high up in the administration. It was really, really good, though slightly biased. Camille, Kuhuk, and I got there twenty minutes early, and it was already more than half full. I brought my laptop with me and sat there transcribing the entire lecture, which was not only very difficult and tiresome, but also earned me unceasing dirty looks from a bunch of people around me. Did they think that I WANTED to sit there and type as fast as I possibly could to catch every word? Did they think that I wanted to sit there knowing that I had to crank out a huge article immediately after? GRR!! Especially these adults who were probably from town who were sitting around us who had the gall to actually question me and give me death looks. WHATEVER.

If anyone would like to read the six page transcript, you're welcome to it.
The lecture was very educational and very fascinating, as he talked about possible ways the Obama administration could bring about peace in the Middle East. He addressed Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and really revealed a lot of layers and aspects we the public never consider. However, in the Q&A session afterwards, some people began asking questions that represented the Palestinian side of the argument. How can the US claim to be an unbiased mediator in the conflict when we give billions of dollars in money and arms to Israel every year? People began becoming hostile, and at one point, after one slightly-deranged, hysterical woman started shrieking anti-Israel accusations, they began booing loudly. I understand that, but then after that, a student, one who was legitimately called upon by Ambassador Ross, asked another pro-Palestinian question, half of the audience started booing halfway through his question. That is absolutely ridiculous. I understand that the event was partially sponsored by Hillel, the Jewish group on campus, and that Amherst is something like 1/3 Jewish, but that makes it even worse. It just shows what a long way we have to go in this whole peace process. If students in a lecture hall can't even listen to each other because of their own beliefs and roots, then how can the actual people living in that situation? I was so ashamed of what happened. And what was worse was that the ambassador skirted around the issue. He did not directly address the Palestinian side, something that the entire nation doesn't as well, which is ridiculous.

I ran back to my room afterwards, grabbed my cable so I could upload the photos I very sneakily took of Dennis Ross. NOT BECAUSE PHOTOS WERE FORBIDDEN, BUT BECAUSE THE STUPID PEOPLE AROUND ME KEPT GLARING AT ME. Mind your own damn business. I wasn't even using flash. I need a press pass or something so they stop giving me death stares, like this one old man who actually waited for me to look up so he could fix me with his death glare. I interviewed Camille about her thoughts on the lecture, and then ran to the office to actually write.

I also called Amal, an international student from Palestine who I knew was there, and asked her what she thought because I thought it would be really fascinating to hear from someone who actually lived in that environment, one I could never even imagine. She was really angry with the lecture and basically said that Americans are being robbed of information and that we are never informed on the Palestinian side. People always undermine the Palestinian struggle because they marginalize them and think that they'll be happy with things like the elimination of checkpoints and do not understand that the Palestinians want security and livelihood as well. They are murdered and bombed every day as well and don't even have the means to protect themselves that the Israelis have.

I sat there and cranked out a 2000 word article in about an hour and a half and then started working on layout. I was rather annoyed when my article was sent to an editor who was in the office earlier yelling about how pro-Palestinian people shouldn't be allowed in those lectures because I knew he'd try to change the wording in my article about those questions. And yup, he did. So I took out some of the adjectives he added so that it fit my original message, which was definitely not a condemnation of the Palestinian questions.

If anyone wants to, they can read the article at:
http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/current/news/view.php?year=2008-2009&issue=10§ion=news&article=01

All in all, with edits and issues that arose in the last minute and all the rest, I stayed there till 4 AM. Yes. Four in the morning. So yesterday, I was awake for 19 hours and spent twelve of them at the newspaper. Yet somehow I still do it. For some reason, I still love doing it, despite the stress and death. Brian, who is a managing editor of arts & living, was done around 11, but he stayed up until I came back to make me feel better. :)

My mom's coming to visit today, which will be... interesting.. I'm sure. Alright. Gotta go to history now!