Notes from Underground

There are few sights more beautiful than Harvard Yard at night in the middle of a snowstorm. The red brick buildings shine against the white snow, and the Yard is quiet except for the shouts of first-years in snowball fights. The beauty almost makes you forget the downside of winter weather.

But when the storm is over, the cold and darkness return, the aesthetics are limited, and we become House-bound with ample time to surf the Web and catch up on some political debates we might have happily been ignoring in favor of making a snow angel or two. When we're hunkered down inside, unable to enjoy the outdoors, we are left to contemplate some of the hot issues of the year in this January without a thaw--among them the ongoing religious exploits of George W. Bush, the future of abortion in America and the ongoing issue of education reform in the midst of Massachusetts politics.

If anyone had the misfortune to load the New York Times Web site on Saturday morning around 11:30, she would have seen a photo of George W. Bush and Jesus Christ, a carefully cropped picture of the presidential candidate speaking in a chapel which had a mural of Christ behind the pulpit. My question is: did the photographer/editor mean the cropping to be a mischievous reference to Bush's steady invocations of Christ on the campaign trail, did he mean it to be a positive commentary on the Republican front-runner, or was it just a coincidence? If it was the latter, let's hope it's the last. Religious imagery and rhetoric in politics are alarming both because of the moral superiority implied by candidates who eagerly proclaim their faith and because of the time devoted to exclusionary religious discussion which should be spent on policy issues that matter to voters regardless of their religion.

Also on Saturday, at a Democratic fund-raiser President Clinton pointed out that the future of free access to abortion may rest in the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. His speech, juxtaposed with the announcement by the liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that she is continuing successful treatment for colon cancer, reminds us just how significant each position on the Court really is.

The next president may have the power to change the composition of the Supreme Court into a group with the numbers to overturn Roe v. Wade. Candidate Bush's clarification of his anti-abortion stance last week was unsurprising but also indicative of the strength of that plank of the Republican platform. As we mark the 27th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, the possible abandonment of a woman's right to choose is a thought scary enough to make you board the next Democratic campaign bus to New Hampshire.

Students campaigning for candidates in New Hampshire might remember that the Democratic winner in that state's primary in 1992 was former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas. Though his victory was overshadowed by Clinton's famous Comeback-Kid spin on his second-place finish, the late senator was an honorable and intelligent candidate. The irony of Governor A. Paul Cellucci's delivery of his State of the State address from the blue-collar city of Lowell, Tsongas' hometown, was therefore particularly striking to this Massachusetts resident. Cellucci's administration, which has been rightly charged with abusing the perks of power, was suddenly making the point of visiting a town of real people.

In the midst of a series of angry statements directed to State Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham '72 and Speaker of the House Thomas M. Finneran, the governor's confrontational and vague call for the testing of math teachers in order to improve students' MCAS scores particularly emphasized Cellucci's reluctance to work towards intelligent compromise with his Democratic opponents.

While we're still in the deep freeze, there's much for us to consider as we sit huddled in the relative warmth of our dorms and classrooms. Political activism is naturally on the rise in an election year, and it is inspirational to see the busloads of Harvard students heading to New Hampshire to campaign for their chosen candidates.

But behind the personalities of the candidates and the elected officials who have been in full view on our computer and television screens in the last month are the shadows of the issues themselves, issues worth standing out in the cold to fight about. The role of religion on the political stage, the future of abortion rights and the demands for education reform all deserve our strongest attention and discussion. The end of January brings our first official week-long intersession--take a day or two of that leisure time for political activism.

Susannah B. Tobin '00 is a classics concentrator in Lowell House.