lewis & clark college « isaac holeman

On Friday the 29th, leap day, some members of my a cappella group and I did a benefit show called Barackappella at my college in Portland, Oregon. It was so much fun, I wanted to share the story with you.

I support Barack Obama. I am very happy about the phenomenal voter turn out and political participation his campaign for the presidency is inspiring, and I am so excited about what I believe he will do as president. One of the many things I like about Obama is that he inspires action among really diverse groups of people. He inspires different people in different ways, but a lot of us love his speeches. A few weeks ago a group of famous artists put portions of some of his speeches to music, and made a very cool video called Yes We Can. Millions of people have watched it at the original site and also on YouTube, where it was re-posted.

I cried the first time I watched this video, and I know I was not alone. It is so nice to hear a “We” instead of an “I”. It is so nice to be so proud of a person who represents our country as a senator, and who I believe will be our President. Words do matter. I feel empowered when I say “Yes I Can,” and I feel even more empowered when I feel connected to something large enough to say “Yes We Can”. I believe more empowerment and civic engagement would be great for our country, and our world.

Just days after first watching this video, some friends and I wondered if we could arrange an a cappella version. I was already in an a cappella group at my school called MoMo and the Coop, and I knew that most of the other members were also Obama supporters. Long story short, most members of our group and another friend decided to do a benefit concert, and to call our concert Barackappella. Our performance was one of many “Leap for Change” events nationwide. About eighty people attended, including some of MoMo and the Coop’s fan base, and many Obama supporters we had not seen before. Some in the audience were much younger than me, and others could have been my grandparents. The video above is our version of Yes We Can, we also posted videos of the seven other songs we sang that night.

I am the guy with pink pants in the video, in case you were curious. I hope you enjoy it, it was so wonderful for me. By the end of the song my normally confident voice was quivering – definitely a symptom of my strong emotions, not stage fright. The audience really loved it, but I cherish most the proud and excited expressions of my friends who helped build this version of Yes We Can. Thanks guys.

The original Yes We Can speech was phenomenal, and the Yes We Can video is probably a lot more impressive musically, but I think our project is special. We are not famous or powerful, I think we are an interesting bunch, but all things considered we are ordinary Americans. But, we are participating in this movement in a way we would not have for any other politician since we were born. We are participating in our own way because a very inspiring person told us that ordinary Americans could do extraordinary things, and now our YouTube video is getting an awesome ton of views.

It’s been 24 hours since we performed (to the minute…as I write this), and we have already received some pretty awesome press. The Oregonian covered the event in an article that hasn’t been published yet. The Youtube video already has over 300 views and a bunch of great comments. The site that originally published the Yes We Can video linked to us along with other Dip Inspired projects. We have already received a request to perform this song in other parts of Oregon, and I hope we will. I am so excited. I would like to thank Jon Wash (red shirted guy in video)et al. for arranging this piece, Ben Brysacz (leader of Lewis & Clark students for Barack Obama) for helping promote the event, the lovely audience, Wil.i.am (main creator of the Yes We Can video), and Barack Obama, for inspiring all of us. If you hear of any press/publicity that I have not mentioned in this blog, please do leave a comment to let me know. If you like this story, please post it to your Facebook profile, blog, del.i.cious, etc. Please send us an email at momoandthecoop [at] gmail [dot] com for questions or performance requests.
cheers

Update: We are now approaching 50,000 views on YouTube and more than 20 comments on my blog here; we really love that people are enjoying the video. Our YouTube fans are leaving some really nice comments, and it looks like we will definitely continue to work on this song, and plan on performing again. A few people have even suggested that we try to sing at the Democratic National Convention. I think people really like that we are just a group of relatively ordinary folk being part of something extraordinary. People seem to be enjoying our efforts more because we are less famous, and closer to the grassy roots – that’s pretty different from traditional campaigns isn’t it? What do you all think? DNC?

Update II: Barack the Vote! Over 65,000 views and we recently performed again at a Barack the Vote rally at Lewis & Clark College. I think Obama is more than popular enough to win Oregon, our great challenge right now is registering voters. I grew up in conservative central/eastern Oregon, and I now attend one of the most progressive schools in progressive Portland Oregon. The Obama campaign is really the first time I’ve been able to talk with friends from school, friends from home, and family, and everyone is excited about the same thing. This movement for change has captured the attention of a very broad swath of Oregon’s great political diversity, and so now we really just need to focus on getting everyone registered to vote (due to Oregon’s mail in ballot, you must be registered by April 29th, 20 days before the actual primary, find more info on registering to vote here).

We were also honored to have Congressman Earl Blumenauer speak about why Obama inspires him. After it was all over we had pizza and doughnuts with the Obama logo on the frosting. It was a fun and I think successful event. Thank you so much everyone for encouraging me and my group to keep being part of the Obama movement.

Me in the Lycan Lab wearing an Archimedes Movement Shirt Photo from a recent article in the LC Chronicle.

Update: After writing this post I contacted the publicity and communications office at Lewis & Clark. They are great and offered to post a version of this argument opposite the article by Julio on the LC web page. The article went up on the front page of the College of Arts and Sciences on November 8th.

This post is a response to the article “Confronting the Science Crisis with Liberal Arts Education.” My argument will make more sense if you read this other article first.

I was taken aback by the article “Confronting the science crisis with Liberal Arts education”; I think it portrays a severely skewed conception of the “science crisis” that liberal arts education at Lewis & Clark is preparing students to confront. I am a biochemistry & molecular biology major, but it is through my (liberal arts enabled) academic work in the social sciences and humanities that I have been able to explore and come to understand something of the truly human crises that the scientists of my generation must confront. As of yet, science has been unable to produce:

A vaccine for HIV/AIDS
A vaccine for avian flu
Sufficiently cost effective production and distribution systems for countless other medicines and necessary material goods that are useful primarily to the world’s poor.
Sustainable energy alternatives to petrol.
Lots of other things

This is the science crisis. The article duly calls attention to some of these issues, but the apparent motivation to seek solutions seems to be economic superiority rather than the alleviation of suffering. Science and technology have great potential to alleviate human suffering and should be valued as such, not as tools to perpetuate US global hegemony. Fostering global prosperity is important, but promoting the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge and technology because we know that whoever “wins this race and commands the scientific frontier will control the global economy” is less moral. Scientists should be unwilling to have their work employed for the promotion of global dominance if the nature of our dominance results in populations and entire nations being unable to meet their basic needs, protect their human rights, and live with dignity.

In my experience, science education infused with the liberal arts has been concerned with fostering “a voting public that is informed about science and that can insist on an economic infrastructure that fosters scientific research and technological advancement.” But an economic infrastructure that fosters scientific research and technological advancement should not be tasked with enabling the people of our nation to better serve the economy. Rather, we have a moral imperative to foster an economy, science, and technology that can better serve all of humanity.

Science is about and for humans, not dollars. Knowledge cannot morally be a tool of pernicious economic dominance. If the scientific community in the US finds itself on the wrong side of the constant tide of greater social inclusion and participation, no amount of increased funding for any kind of innovative education will maintain our prestige and success in science.

This article got it right when it said “Scientists trained in the tradition of the liberal arts understand the socioeconomic and political contexts of the problems being tackled and are more likely to find solutions that affirm human rights, protect the environment, and raise standards of living across the globe.” It’s important to make the distinction, however, that we should pursue human ends first rather than pursuing economic ends while also keeping human needs in mind. In my opinion, it’s not a “solution” at all if it doesn’t work towards affirming human rights, protecting the environment, or raising standards of living across the globe.

Perhaps the most important piece of context that the liberal arts can provide scientists is an understanding that scientific knowledge, technological advancement, and the scholarly and practical expertise that make them useful must not be hoarded by competing nations. They should be shared equitably so that they can serve people – of all types and nationalities – first, and serve profits, global economic dominance, and anything else later. This is my conclusion based on partial completion of a rigorous Liberal Arts education.

An important note: I would like to say on the record that I hold Dean Julio De Paula, the author of the article in question, in high regard. This post is not meant as a personal attack. Generally, I have been impressed and pleased with his contributions to our college. I also think that in recent months the Communications group at LC who published this article have made many bold, much need, and very excellent steps in refining Lewis & Clark’s public image and affirming our school’s commitment to fostering an engaged and just citizenry. My critique here deals specifically and exclusively with some of the themes of the article mentioned above.

Tag Archive for 'lewis & clark college'

Barackappella: Our a cappella version of the Obama Yes We Can song

The Liberal Arts: Fostering Science that Serves Humanity

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