The Bowdoin Orient

The Climate Days events of this past week and the "We're committed. Are you?" banners featuring a green "B" in the word Bowdoin are intended to showcase the College's commitment to "educating our community and promoting sustainability on campus." Over the course of the week those students who attended the events learned about important, contemporary, environmental issues like the importance of eating local foods, the environmental work which is happening at the College, the availability of green jobs and...how to tie-dye and make organic granola.

A vitally important question will appear on Maine's ballot this coming November, and once again, conscientious voters will be urged to vote "No on 1."

Earlier this week, I was offended and surprised by insulting depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers, and I am sure that many of you were as well. I supported the Muslim community's right to protest these images, but the violence that has erupted as a result of these cartoons is progressively getting out of hand, with senseless deaths ensuing. One Iranian newspaper in particular has gone too far in its desire to respond to the images published in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The Hamshahri newspaper has announced a contest it is holding for cartoons depicting the Holocaust in response to the images of Muhammad. In justification of the contest, the best-selling Iranian newspaper offered this statement, according to BBC: "Does the West's freedom of expression extend to...an event such as the Holocaust or is this freedom of expression only for the desecration of the sanctities of divine religions?" The Hamshahri is offering gold rewards to the best 12 artists (to match the number of cartoons commissioned by the Jyllands-Posten).