Volume XXV, Issue 3
Educating Women to Excel
September 19, 2007
ON THE
INSIDE:
Editorials
p. 2
Campus News
p. 3
Campus Activities
p. 4
WEATHER
TODAY: Partly Cloudy.
Low 63, High 83.
Thursday: Partly
Cloudy. Low 64, High
85.
Friday: Partly Cloudy.
Low 65, High 86.
Saturday: Partly
Cloudy. Low 67, High
90.
Sunday: Sunny. Low
68, High 92.
Monday: Sunny. Low
62, High 90.
'Diesday: Sunny. Low
64, High 84.
Source: www.weather.
com
Information retrieved
I\ies. Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.
Anne Fadiman Kicks Off Blue Cross/Blue Shield Lecture Series
Charis Hill
Contributing Writer
Anne Fadiman vis
ited Meredith College
last Monday to begin
the 2007-2008 school
year's Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of North
Carolina Presidential
Lecture Series. Fadiman
is the author of this
year's Summer Reading
Program book. The Spirit
Catches You and You Fall
Down.
The book was cho
sen based on the col
lege's theme of "Ethical
Leadership." Fadiman's
book begins in 1980
and tells the story of a
Hmong child named Lia,
bom in California to her
refugee parents from
Laos. Lia has epilepsy,
and is cared for by both
her family and the doc
tors in a small commu
nity hospital in Merced,
California. Hmong
views on treating illness
are quite different from
western medicine, so in
addition to an extensive
linguistic barrier existing
between the American
doctors and Lia's family,
the methods used to treat
her epilepsy are conflict
ing.
Eventually, the lack
of compliance by Lia's
parents to administer
her medicine correctly,
resulting in more sei
zures, drives her west
ern doctors to put her
into a foster home for a
year. This is an insult to
Lia's parents, who love
Lia dearly and believe
they are caring for her
the best they know how!
After Lia's return home,
she does well imder her
parent's care for about
five months before suf-
Anne Fadiman, sitting with student Charis Hill, before her
speech Photograph submitted by Charis Hill
fering her largest seizure
of her life, which leaves
her in a vegetative state.
Her doctors expect that
she will die any day after
the grand mal seizure,
but her mother manages
to keep her alive, which
comes as a great surprise
to the doctors. While the
doctors blame her down
fall on too little compli
ance on administering
her medicines properly,
Lia's family blames the
doctors for giving her too
much medicine.
Fadiman opened her
lecture by telling the
audience that, after all
of the wonderful ques
tions she had already
answered that day, she
was "looking forward to
a further interrogation"
after her speech. With
a good bit of humor to
match the equal amount
of seriousness and sad-
Fadiman cont. on pg. 4
Dario Fo Comes to Meredith College
Aima Britt
Staff Writer
The Stillwater
Performers are happy
to present Elizabeth: ’
Almost by Chance a
Woman, which will run
September 20^ through
the 30^^ in the studio
theatre of Jones Hall at
Meredith College. But
before you go running
off to the show, it is best
to know what you are
dealing with.
Queen Elizabeth I was
the queen of England
and Ireland from 1558
imtil her death in 1603.
She reigned almost 45
years, during the time
known as tihe Elizabethan
period. According
to Encyclopedia
Britarmica, this period
was marked by an
increase in England's
power and influence
worldwide as well as
great religiolis turmoil
within England. During
this era, playwrights such
as William Shakespeare,
Christopher Marlowe,
and Ben Jonson
flourished. Not only
did the literary world
make great advances
but so did the known
world. Francis Drake
was the first Englishman
to circumnavigate the
globe while English
colonization of North
America took place vmder
Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir
Humphrey Gilbert.
The play picks up
toward the end of
Elizabeth's reign during
the time of the Spanish
Armada. Written as a
farce by Dario Fo during
the Presidency of Ronald
Reagan, the play deals
with a paranoid head
of state, corrupt chief
officers of intelligence,
and seemingly barbaric
beauty alterations. These
may sound like head
lines tom from modem
newspapers, but these
are the key plot points
for this hilarious farce.
Elizabeth is an aging, for
getful monarch, obsessed
wifli appearances. She
is very suspicious of
Shakespeare, who has
written a play about a
Danish prince. Elizabeth
is convinced that the
play is actually about
her. Fo presents Elizabeth
as a foul-mouthed mon
arch who is in the midst
of a rebellion by her
lover, Robert of Essex.
Her advisors, a maid,
the Chief of Police, and
Mama ZaZa, the Queen's
personal beautician, are
comically inept in giving
assistance as Elizabeth
deals with the trouble
some Shakespeare and
other issues of "national
importance."
Loud and fun, the
Fo cont. on pg. 4