The presidential campaign was represented on campus at UMass today by this table set up to recruit volunteers for Democrat candidate Barack Obama.
Also participating in political activity was the marijuana club, which is collecting signatures to put the legalization of marijuana on the ballot in Massachusetts in 2008.
Be sure to sign their petition and then let's all go to the polls and pass it by a large margin! Campus feminists had a rape awareness display up today consisting of t-shirts with anti-rape messages.
Nearby some Christian proselytizers were recruiting with this somewhat cryptic poster.
What are they trying to say, that without God you would automatically lie, steal and commit adultery?
One of the many great things about the internet is how you can wonder aloud about things and someone will just pop up with the answer to what you were wondering about. Last month I expressed curiosity about the landscaping work that was going on around the famous Minuteman statue at UMass.
To my surprise and delight one of the architects behind the work, John Sendelbach, contacted me with some information about what the project is all about. He included this Hampshire Gazette article that had this to say about the project on July 11th:
The 9-foot-tall Minuteman statue that gazes across the lawn at Campus Pond at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst will soon be surrounded by a stone plaza, thanks to the Class of 1956 and two local landscape architects.... Local landscape architects John F. Sendelbach and Chris R. Baxter have been commissioned by the class to bring the plaza concept to life. "It's basically the biggest project of both of our careers," Sendelbach said, from his home and studio off Sunderland Road. "For us to land the job is incredible."
The two men have been friends for years and completed the master's in landscape architecture program at UMass together.... The plaza will be made out of Goshen stone, a dense, hard stone that breaks into flat pieces. The statue will sit in the middle of a circular terrace with steps leading up to it. There will also be a spiral stone pathway leading to the terrace, reminiscent of Sendelbach's first public sculpture. "Crossroads Salamander," located at Cushman Common in town. The plaza will be handicapped accessible and be a welcoming place for people to come and sit and enjoy the campus atmosphere, the two men said. "I think this is a great gift," Baxter said. "It will be here forever. This type of work lasts hundreds of years.... It's really a very central focal spot where people walk," Donald said. "It's also close to the old campus, which the Class of 1956 remembers. They remember the Old Chapel, South College, Campus Pond and Memorial Hall.
It also turns out that Mr. Sendelbach is a Deadhead. Here is a picture and drawing he sent showing the project from above.
The project is nearing completion, and you can be sure I will post a photo essay about it when it's done.
1 comment:
Newt has always been better as a behind the scenes policy and stretegy genius and has never been good at being the one to deliver the message. His time for thoughts of being president faded a decade ago. His best bet at this point is to pair up with a popular candidate and have that candidate deliver the Gingrich agenda. That he fails to see this shows a lack of understanding of the political climate and an overestimation of his ressurection as a political player.
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