the stentorian I ncssm
features
September 2002
In his own words: Harry Tucker
George Kachergis &
Albert Ren
A mong the hordes of
new juniors this year,
there were also some
new officials added to our
campus. This school year, an
important addition to the
NGSSM faculty is the new
Head of Campus Resources.
Here we present Harry
Tucker, in his own words.
Where are you from?
Maryland.
Where did you attend college?
I attended the University
of Maryland and American
University, but never graduat
ed.
What was your most recent
job?
For the nine years before
Dr. Boarman came to
NCSSM, I worked for him at
Eleanor Roosevelt High
School, a school with over
3,000 students, in Prince
George's County, Maryland.
Have you ever had a Job that
involved a hearing process?
I had a supervising post
for the last ten years, though it
was^ with employees and not
students.
Are you satisfied with the new
hearing process?
My goal is to be fair and
equitable and to have
improved sanctions. I am
sympathetic to the student
body. I understand yopr con
cerns, but what I want you to
understand is that every rule
put in place has a purpose.
I came from a school with
3,000 students, but I think that
the residential part [at
NCSSM] makes things differ
ent. In a residential setting
you can get
yourself in • i . • i
a lot more I Ih 3 residential
trouble.
I don't
think that
at home
you would
sneak out, but if you did, you
would know the area. Over
here, it's an alien location to
you. Nothing good can hap
pen to you when you leave
late at night.
pin
setting you can get
yourself in a lot
more trouble."
spaniel. My daughter has two
horses, though. I've also got a
Siamese fighting fish.
If someone who had just been
mud-wrestling outside near
the Pit came up to you offering
a hug, would you let him?
Would you hug them back?
It depends on what the
intent of the hug was.
Let's assume it’s completely
non-malicious intent, a good-.
natured hug.
Am
wearing
suit?
I
my
Let's assume
you are.
Well then, no.
I wouldn't do that because my
wife would kill me!
Yes, although in the
future I want the punishment
to fit the crime better.
Do you feel that you are capa
ble of fairly "sentencing" stu
dents single-handedly?
Yes. My main concern is
that, in the past, the process
took too long. 1 mean, there
were hearings that took four to
six hours.
Do you have any children?
Yes, I have two sons and
two daughters, all grown. I
also have five grandchildren.
Do you feel that having been a
parent allows you to bring any
extra wisdom to the job?
Not really, because my
kids grew up in a different
world than today's.
Do you have any pets?
Yes, I've got a cocker
What if you were in normal
wear?
Yes, I would. I'd proba
bly like to play in the mud
with them.
If the intent was just to
get someone muddy, then I
wouldn't do it, but you can
usually spot those types.
Do you have anything else
you'd like to add?
I enjoy being here, I look
forward to the challenges, and
I hope that everyone will have
an open mind and give me a
chance.
Intellectuals respond to September 11
Continued from
Front Page
section, where she states, "A
lot of thinking needs to be
done...about the ineptitude of
American intelligence...
about options available to
American foreign
policy...and about what con
stitutes a smart program of
military defense. But the pub
lic is not being asked to bear
much of the burden of reali
ty."
Behind her words is an
honest pleading of the public
to "wise up," to reject the
infantilization that the media
and government peddle:
"Let's by all means grieve
together. But let's not be stu
pid together." And in
response to the repeated mes
sage that we are strong, she
says, "Who doubts that
America is strong? But that's
not all America has to be."
Pulitzer-prize winners
Nicholas D. Kristof and
David M. Kennedy take a dif
ferent view.
Kristof, in The New York
Times early this year, called
our war on terrorism a "mer
ciful war," saying "troops can
advance humanitarian goals
just as much as doctors or aid
workers can."
He said that those
against the war on terrorism
focus only on the innocent
civilian deaths caused by
American bombs and not by
diseases that often went
untreated under the rule of the
Taliban: "I've sat in mud huts
with parents sobbing as their
children died of diarrhea, and
trust me: ■■■
|"Th
Their
grief is
every bit
as crush-
as
of
mg
that
That IS my flag,
and that's what it
means: We're all just
people together. "^J
parents
who lose children to bombs."
Kristofs message is that
"Military intervention, even if
it means lost innocent lives on
both sides, can serve the most
humanitarian of goals."
Kennedy, a history pro
fessor at Stanford, also wrote
in the New York Times about
historical instances where our
country has been challenged.
"Yet at least some Americans
can still remember the teem
ing anxieties that plagued the
United States after the assault
on Pearl Harbor," he says,
"American history abounds
with comparable trials of
incertitude, trepidation and
consequence." Through this
and other instances, such as
the American Revolution and
Civil War, Kennedy indirectly
defends a military response to
an atrocity - in this case, the
9/11 attacks.
Former presidential nom
ination candidate and Arizona
senator John McCain writes
in The Wall
Street Journal
that "There is
no avoiding
the war we
are in today.
...The United
States is not
waging war against a religion
or a race. ...We did not cause
this war - our enemies did.
..,To [help repair the damage
of war], we must destroy the
people who started it."
Barbara Kingsolver,
Pulitzer Prize finalist and
author of The Poisonwood
Bible, takes a non-political,
non-biased view in an article
that appeared in the San
Francisco Chronicle. Rather
than reacting to the attacks
themselves, she reflects on a
human American Flag assem
bled in her hometown of
Tpcson, Arizona.
* "Then my teenage daugh
ter... laid her hand over a
quarter of the picture, leaving
visible more or less 6,000
people, and said, 'That many
are dead.' We stared at what
that looked like - all those
innocent souls, multi-colored
and packed into a conjoined
destiny - and shuddered at the
one simple truth behind all the
noise, which is that so many
beloved people have suddenly
gone from us. That is my flag,
and that's what it means:
We're all just people togeth
er."