Wesleyan Bands Wanted in Middletown

Even when Eclectic is once again hosting shows and the Sound Co-op is once again amplifying music, here's a suggestion that musicians on campus should keep in mind.

Bill Carbone posted on Aural Wes over break to encourage campus musicians to play more shows at bars and restaurants on Main Street:

The recent stunning loss of Eclectic (if you haven't already, sign the petition here) as a venue has inspired quite a bit of discussion about the lack of performance spaces at Wesleyan, and it is indeed lamentable. However, there are options that I haven't really seen floated.

For one, most of the bars and businesses on Main Street would love to be more deeply engaged with Wesleyan students (The Middletown Eye had a great discussion about this recently).

I attempted to launch a concert series at Public this semester to coincide with bar night, and though it was somewhat successful, I didn't manage to get a single band in which I do not play to do a gig there (several took the gig and then canceled for various reasons). The owner of the bar is very serious about establishing a night that will showcase Wesleyan music; he's offering a guarantee and free drinks to the bands, not charging a cover, and in general being a pretty cool guy (the offer of a gig still stands, if interested contact me).

There are several other places to play in town as well. For the traditional bar-type setting there's La Boca, Hair of the Dog and the brand new and quite cool Fishbone Cafe, while the Buttonwood Tree offers a more art-space style room and Javapalooza is that interesting combination of a coffee shop and a microbrew beer bar (and thus a place where one can have a show that isn't 21+).

Of course there's nothing as fun as a dark, sweaty dance party show at one of Wesleyan's venues (or more often living rooms), but in this age of everything local, why not bring your tunes down to Main Street and encourage your friends to put their PBR dollars into a different coffer for an evening? It's a proposition that benefits everyone involved: the band actually gets paid, the local venue gets a momentary influx of Wesleyan students, and most of all, a night of music goes down free of the looming threat of a P-Safe shutdown.

This would be great - an excuse to get off campus every once in awhile, add more variety to the social scene, and maybe integrate Wesleyan with Middletown a little better. Not to mention a financial incentive for the musically skilled in these economically challenging times.

Middletown Street Art

This distinctive electric purple stencil was noticed on a wall in Middletown by Illicit Exhibitions, a blog about street art, two weekends ago:

A giraffe skeleton? A horse? At any rate it's probably no longer up, since the city's police chief is pretty scrupulous about painting over graffiti.

What does it mean, and who's the street artist behind it? Speculate here, or email illicitexhibitions@gmail if you've got information.

Officer Clark Nominated for America's Most Wanted

The Middletown Police Department's Officer Douglas Clark and his police dog Niko were recently nominated to be an America's Most Wanted's "All-Star" for the capturing of fugitive Tormu Prall.

Clark, who is infamous at Wesleyan for harassing Wesleyan students and his involvement in the Fountain Avenue incident last year, as well as for other altercations, clearly has a tendency to take his job to the extreme.

However, on September 8, 2008, this quality manifested itself as bravery. Responding to a call about a man breaking into cars, Clark and Niko followed Prall, who is accused of arson and murder, through briars and a forest to a parking lot near the Mattabasset River, where he disappeared from sight:

Using his powerful sense of smell, the dog followed the trail of the convict until it reached the tractor trailers. Then the dog isolated the man’s location under one of the parked trucks.

Based on the dog’s reactions, the officer found the suspect. As he described it, “The dog was very hot … excited. Ears are literally perked forward, tail’s wagging. Everyone should know their own dog.”

At that point, Clark started exhorting the man to show himself and police ultimately took the guy in.

Had it not been for the dog, Clark said police would not have found the fugitive.

“He had wedged himself up under the axles where you couldn’t have seen him,” Clark said, a few days after the capture.

[...] Police had no idea if he had weapons, [Fellow MPD Officer] Puorro said. Still, Clark crawled on the ground and began digging under the trailer.

That bravery, a successful capture and all the work Clark does for the force combined to give Puorro a reason to nominate him, Puorro said — so he did. The next thing he knew, the producers from the show called and interviewed him.

See the full article in the Middletown Press here.
See the "America's Most Wanted" article on Prall here.
And here's previous Argus content featuring Officer Clark.

Also, this is my first post as a new Wesleying blogger. Hey Wesleyan.

Mentaltown: support local artists

Lauren Barth '09 sends in some info about a local blog/tv-show by Elvee, a Middletown resident:

Do you like idealistic local musicians? Tune into Connecticut Public Access Channel 15 the first and second Tuesdays of the month at 11pm, or visit mentaltown.blogspot.com to see what rap/hip hop artist Elvee has been working on. Mentaltown episodes are part goofy talk show, part music video, and part political commentary with a lot of local pride, all shot here in Middletown, CT. (Most of them mention Wes!)

The site looks pretty cool. Def worth checking out!

Students Attacked Outside CFA Last Friday

The Argus has more information about last Friday's Public Safety report: two students, Claire Staples ’09 and Travis Fitzgerald ’09, were assaulted in an unprovoked attack by four people on Friday night, outside the Davison Art Center on High Street.

Following a gathering at her house on Court Street, Staples and Fitzgerald were traveling up Court Street towards a friend’s house when they noticed four youths loitering ahead. The youths began to follow them, at which point Staples and Fitzgerald crossed High Street and headed towards safety at the CFA, where they both have studios. Staples then tried to flag down a passing PSafe patrol car, but it failed to notice her attempts.

...Within seconds, Staples was severely hit multiples times in the face by one assailant. Fitzgerald, after chasing the attackers, sustained minor injuries to the face and back. No weapons were used in the assault, and theft does not seem to have been a motive. Following the attack, Fitzgerald called PSafe, and he and Staples, who was heavily bleeding, were taken to the hospital.

The effects of the assault have outlasted the incident itself. Staples, who bore the brunt of the attack, sustained an orbital blowout fracture below her left eye and received multiples stitches for cuts on her chin. Currently on Percocet to numb the pain, she is unable to attend classes or work on her senior thesis.

“I definitely thought that I was invincible,” Staples said. “Now I feel a little vulnerable. It all happened in like twenty seconds.”

This is pretty unnerving - by all accounts this kind of attack is rare, and Public Safety has stepped up security in the area since Friday. The case is being pursued with the Middletown Police Department, but the fact that it happened is another reminder to watch your back when you're out late.

The victims are admirably clear-headed about the incident:

The assault is particularly unsettling for Staples since it appears to be unprovoked and unmediated. Additionally, she feels that it was directed towards her not as an individual, but as a Wesleyan student.

“I was attacked because I was a Wes student,” Staples said. “It didn’t matter that it was me. It’s an isolated incident and yet it’s not an isolated incident. It was just a bunch of fucking punk ass kids.”

Staples, who has lived on the periphery of campus both during the summer and academic year, still considers Middletown a safe place to live. Both she and Fitzgerald do not fault the community for what happened or see this assault as an accurate depiction of relations between the University and greater community.

“It certainly hasn’t changed my opinion of Middletown,” Staples said. “I know that it’s not a good representation of Middletown. It’s still a great place to live.”

According to the Argus, Claire is planning to hold an art show of photos chronicling her injuries in March - kudos for making something positive out of this ordeal.

Argus: Two Students Attacked Outside CFA on Friday

Town-gown relations redux

Over at the Middletown Eye (in my opinion, easily the best source for Middletown news & culture), a post about "Middletown and Wesleyan" sparked a considerable amount of comment discussion.

Blogger and History Prof Vijay Pinch links to Melissa Pionzio's Courant piece, which links to John Milardo's Dec. 22 MMPA (Middletown Managers and Professionals Association) newsletter piece, "Where is Wesleyan University?"

... Anyway, Milardo writes an interesting perspective, and the whole newsletter is pretty short, so it's worth a read. Here are some highlights:

Over the years, I have read about the enormous amount of money the Wesleyan alumni contribute to their alma mater. How many millions of dollars the school has in investments around the world, and how financially sound they have been. Student tuition for the university is not something for the faint of heart; their admission fee is commensurate with the education you receive.

I grew up in the neighborhoods surrounding the University. My parents and their parents lived in the same neighborhood before me. I know the school grounds like the back of my hand. The only thing I don’t know about Wesleyan University is; what do they do for the City of Middletown residents?

...Wesleyan is not like any other college town I have ever visited. Other universities and students involvement with their towns is much greater and noticeable than what our city’s university is. In Middletown, it’s almost as though the student body is directed away from involvement in the community. It’s a weird sense of they being their own town within a town; separate and distinct.

...Many private colleges and universities in Connecticut and I would guess, around the United States, pay their respective municipalities, voluntary payments and fees, in lieu of taxes. Yale University pays an estimated $10 million dollars to the City of New Haven each year; they have their own Police and Fire Departments so the taxpayer does not have to cover this cost.

I know Yale is much larger than Wesleyan, but there is so much more Wesleyan could do for our community. It would be very important this year for Wesleyan to step up to the plate because of projected hard economic times. Our elected officials will have to cut programs, services, or ask employees for give backs in this year’s fiscal budget. The State of Connecticut is juggling their own budget problems this year, so for communities to rely on them for assistances is unrealistic. The business community is having a difficult time with the economy; so that is not an option.

We are talking about an educational institution with 175 years of presence in the same town. I would think with a city the size of ours, Wesleyans involvement with Middletown residents and government would be much more than it currently is?

...Legally, the school is paying what it must; morally, they could be truly making a positive impact on the entire City of Middletown and its residents. The financial problems of Middletown have a negative effect with the City’s work force, services and programs. It affects employees through layoffs, which in turn trickles down and further affects the economy, especially the local economy. It affects those elderly taxpayers who cannot afford a decrease in programs and an increase in taxes. It will affect families with young children, and those with college aged kids. In essence, it affects everyone who is not wealthy.

Wesleyan University has the opportunity to really be part of Middletown, and make the most positive impact on the community it ever has; if they want to.

However, at least note the humorous disclaimer on the newsletter... I appreciated it:

Disclaimer: This News Letter is for the viewing by union employees only! Any claims, statements, omissions, or deletions, are not intentional. The names in this story may have been changed to protect the innocent. This News Letter is not intended to be distributed to any Councilpersons of the City of Middletown, their families, friends, cousins, neighbors, butt kissers, or descendants thereof. In the event this News Letter is offered to a “Scab”, “Spy”, “Rat”, or your ordinary Narcissist, there is a good chance said individual will not be able to tolerate it because it is not about them.

Still, I think there are some major problems/assumptions in his piece. Vijay Pinch does a great job of explaining why it doesn't make sense to compare Wesleyan to Yale considering our relative endowments (and also has other GREAT comments definitely worth reading, which I would have quoted, but this post is already way too long), but I'd like to add to that.

In addition to having a much smaller endowment, Wesleyan University must first and foremost take responsibility for its students. As Milardo himself points out, "Student tuition for the university is not something for the faint of heart." And that's a problem. Most families in the United States can't afford to pay Wesleyan tuition out of pocket, especially in these economic times. Wesleyan's primary financial concern should be to assure that need-blind admissions can continue: no one should be turned away from learning because they can't pay the high tuition. As Milardo also points out, everyone is having hard financial times right now, and that certainly doesn't exclude Wesleyan University. On the university administration's "Securing the Future" webpage, President Roth wrote that "Wesleyan’s endowment continues to outperform market indexes, its value has declined by approximately 20 percent to about $511 million..." and that was only November 25th.

Wesleyan University as an institution has a commitment to do what it can for Middletown. Unfortunately, right now, it can't. Losing the ability to pay financial aid for Wesleyan students who need it isn't much of an option, and for that reason, Wesleyan must concentrate on keeping its own endowment strong.

As for the issue of Wesleyan not doing enough for Middletown in general - that's another issue entirely, and a complicated one at that. Being a Wesleyan student can confuse your identity. Where is "home?" Are you a real Middletown resident? You're there for four whole years of your life, interacting intimately with the town community - but then, you know the whole time that your stint in Middletown is probably time-limited. It doesn't help that commenters on the Hartford Courant call all Wesleyan students "spoiled brats" or that many Middletown residents seem to assume you're a passer-through with no regard for the town.

On the contrary, I believe that most Wesleyan students do become real Middletown residents. Whether through excitement over local politics, through interaction with local businesses, or through community service (such as tutoring at MacDonough Elementary or Traverse Square or one-on-one with high school students, or helping out at the soup kitchen, and many more ways), Wesleyan students DO care about Middletown.

So, how can we improve relations with Middletown? How do we interact more with our neighbors, our community? I don't know. What about a potluck meet-and-greet block party somewhere on the border of campus/not-campus, on Pearl St. or on High St. past the Butterfields? What about making more of an effort to invite residents to more of our campus events? Or, hey, what about just reading the Middletown Eye and becoming more knowledgeable about the community we live in?

Let's start with just reading the comment discussion on Pinch's "Middletown and Wesleyan" Eye piece. At least it's a start toward hearing what Middletown residents have to say. Hopefully it's just a start, and not an end.

As always, this blog post is my own personal subjective opinion. I obviously do not and cannot speak for all Wesleyan students. Also, sorry for the length of this post!

Motorcycle Parade

Today at 1pm there was what seemed like a motorcycle parade flying down high street. The procession started with a cop car and then was followed by 5 straight minutes of pure motorcycle madness (they continued going even when they had the red light).

Everyone had their faces covered, and some wore skeleton masks. At the end there was a slew of black cars with flashing headlights, and finally, one unmarked cop car. If anyone has more info on what this was or also witnessed the event and took pictures, please comment!

[Edit] According to the Middletown Eye, the Renegade Pigs Motorcycle Club were having their annual turkey ride for the American Red Cross, where they donated several turkeys to families in need. Seems like these renegades were in a spirited mood.

[Photo courtesy of Ed McKeon]

Town-gown relations: moving forward

At last night's Middletown Public Safety Committee meeting, Common Council member Thomas Serra recommended a good way to build positive relations between students and the city—one that is apparently already on the books but not being followed.

According to Ed McKeon of The Middletown Eye:

Commission member Thomas Serra suggested that the city follow a resolution passed in 1990 which requires a monthly meeting between the city, represented by the mayor, the majority council leader, the minority council leader, the president of Wesleyan, the student assembly leader and a member of the public.

What's Billy Joel doing in Middletown?

He was filming the hit 1993 music video for his "The River of Dreams"... that's what he was doing. I present you with:

Exhibit A: Billy Joel with his three backup singers, standing on an old swing truss rail bridge. Where ever could it be?

Exhibit B: Hey, that looks familiar! It's the Providence & Worcester rail bridge, along with the Arrigoni Bridge in the background! Why, they're standing on a bridge above the Connecticut River! A bridge that connects Middletown and Portland!

Exhibit C: These guys are chillin' on top of the "Come On Over" sign that beckons Middletonians to Portland. Except the lettering looks different. A mystery for another day...

Huge Middletown Resources section added

Check out the new Middletown Resources section in our sidebar. It's underneath the Wes 2.0 category, and is filled with links to businesses and restaurants, environmental organizations, city government resources, and information on volunteerism, voter registration, and transit.

If you're a Middletown organization or blogger—or have useful links relating to Middletown or Middlesex County—please feel free to leave a comment, or email us at wesleying@gmail.

Middletown Sasquatch Attack

Apparently, shooting began in Middletown last night for Sasquatch Assault, which looks to be a riveting horror B-movie of sorts about the legendary Sasquatch, torn from its home in the wilderness by unscrupulous capitalists, and its subsequent rampage against a cruel society that just doesn't understand.

Or something. Either way this looks awesome. According to Ed McKeon at the Middletown Eye:

Filming will begin at sundown [yesterday, Thursday night] on the site of the former power plant for the Remington Rand Typewriter Factory on Johnson Street. The film is directed by Andrew Gernhard, director of photography is Wesleyan grad Colin Theys '07.

The public is invited to observe the filming as long as they are willing to adhere to crew instruction for staying outside of shots, and agree not to try to lure the Sasquatch from the filming area with Little Debbie snack cakes.

Matt Lesser wins 100th District seat

The Middletown Eye reports:

In a surprise upset, Democratic challenger Matt Lesser unseated Congressman Ray Kalinowski, winning 51% of the votes in the district. His victory was made possible only by virtue of an overwhelming 67% mandate in the Middletown districts, which compensated for losing margins in Middlefield and Durham.

Overall, the results indicate that Dems swept Middletown. Check
out The Eye for the results of other local elections and referenda.

Computer science students needed

The Middletown Eye recently reported that students at Middletown's Macdonough Elementary School will soon be using XO laptops in their after-school activities—yes, the XO laptop that grew out of the One Laptop Per Child project.

Now, the school is looking for computer science students who want to help the third, fourth, and fifth graders with the new laptops. Cathy Lechowitz, Director of Community Service and Volunteerism, writes:

Volunteer to help the XO One Laptop Per Child education project by learning and mastering computer programming skills while helping to teach Middletown’s North End Macdonough Elementary School third- through fifth-grade students to do so, as well. This project is to bring creative uses of technology to the low-income North End neighborhood, where the lack of income and resources stifles access to technology. Service learning at its best!

Contact Izzi Greenberg at 860 346-4845 if you are interested.

This Week: Voter Registration in Middletown's North End

Starting tomorrow afternoon, Wesleyan students will have the opportunity to spend three days registering voters in the North End, "Middletown's last truly urban residential neighborhood" right across Washington Street. The effort will be a partnership between two local grassroots organizations, Middletown's North End Action Team (NEAT) and Wesleyan's chapter of the non-partisan student organization Democracy Matters. This event gives Wesleyan students the opportunity to become engaged as community partners to North End residents, as well as an opportunity to work with and get to know local Middletown High School students.

Interested students should meet up with the NEAT organizers who will operate tables in Usdan 3-5pm on the afternoons of Tuesday-Thursday, October 14-16. There you will be given voter registration materials, instructions, and walking directions to certain locations in the North End, which is only a few minutes off campus. We will be canvassing several bus stop locations in the North End alongside the members of the Teen Dreams Society, a group of Middletown High School students interested in community engagement.

Thanks to this event and the efforts of the Teen Dreams Society, North End residents will have the opportunity to participate in the most important election of our lifetimes. All Wes students looking to get engaged in the community are encouraged to attend, even if just for a few hours. Go individually or in groups!

What: Register North End Residents to Vote
Who: Wes Students, Democracy Matters, NEAT, Teen Dreams Society
Where: Get started in Usdan
When: Any time between 3pm-5pm, Tuesday-Thursday, this week

Please contact Saul Carlin of Democracy Matters with questions by e-mailing scarlin at wes.

Get outside of the bubble

Want to get outside of the Wesleyan bubble a little bit? There are a couple of events you may want to check out:

Canvass for a local former-Wes-student Democrat!

Got Wesleyan pride? Have a couple of hours to spend making a difference locally before the election?

Join Wesdems in canvassing around Middletown for Matt Lesser, a former Wes student who is running for democratic state representative!

Matt is passionate about funding education, reforming Connecticut's highest-in-the-nation property tax system, expanding support for renewable energy, and protecting our open spaces and needs your help!

Email Sophie Ackoff at sackoff@wes or Miriam Berger at maberger@wes if you are interested!

See a local play at Oddfellows Playhouse!

Theatre 4 is a new professional theater company based in New Haven, and this weekend, they're going to be putting up a new show right here in Middletown, over at Oddfellows Playhouse.

The play, "Anton in Show Business," is described as an "intelligent comedy for grownups, satirizing the trials and tribulations of producing a play. While taking a comical look at self-involved actors, egotistical directors, complacent audiences, over zealous critics, and fickle corporate sponsors, the play’s heart lies in the growing importance of the arts for their ability – if only for a moment in time – to create community and magic."

When: October 10-11 at 8 pm
Where: Oddfellows Playhouse (128 Wash St)
$$$: I think free? But Theatre 4 is a nonprofit and there is a $20 suggested donation
Reservations: Call 203.623.7560

Donate blood to the American Red Cross!

The Wesleyan Blood Drive (this monday/tuesday at Beckham Hall) still needs people! See our prior post for more info. Sign up to give blood at www.giveblood.org - just put in 06459 as our zip code and look at what time slots are still open.

M-Town Focus Group on Drug Issues

WesWell reports that the Middletown Substance Abuse Action Council is looking to hold a focus group with a group of students from Wes and Middlesex Community College about drug issues:

This is more about personal concerns, as they describe below:

We are looking for a diverse group to participate in a confidential hour long discussion on their experience with drug use on campus and in the Middletown community – among their peers, use that may be impacting their family, concerns that they have about the future. The group will be lead by Kent Alexander, a professional facilitator.

There will also be 5 Middlesex Community College students in the group so we thought that the MCSAAC office (located at 393 Main Street) would be a nice in-between location to meet at one evening. As an incentive we’ll have pizza dinner for participants and a raffle of a gift certificate.

If you are interested in participating, please email your name and phone number to lcurrie@wesleyan.edu by Monday, September 29. I will share your contact info with MCSAAC and one of their staff members will then contact participants with scheduling details.

Please note: This is NOT connected to any Wesleyan initiatives. The University will not receive information back from these sessions.

Middletown Bar Looking for Live Wes Acts

Public, the new bar on Main Street, is looking for Wesleyan acts to play gigs on Wednesday bar nights:

I'm writing at the request of my middletown-ian friend, Rob Derosa. Rob runs a CT music label called Homegrown, and has a show on WESU (also called Homegrown) which features local CT artists. He also claims to have booked the first ever off-campus show for MGMT, for whatever that's worth. maybe you've met him-- he works at the Red and Black cafe and is often smiling.

Anyway, Rob is trying to organize a "Wesleyan bands" night of sorts at Public, the new bar down on Main Street. these would take place on Wednesday nights. He asked that i write to anyone who might be interested in playing gigs throughout the year. The gigs are potentially paying (although he didn't specify how much) and will definitely be pretty fun. Anyone with a band/act who is interested should email thinmanmusic@sbcglobal.net.

- Mary Longley '10

Anti-War Iraq Vet to Speak In Middletown

Hear former U.S. Marine Liam Madden speak on behalf of Iraq Veterans Against the War, this Sunday at the Church of the Holy Trinity:

Liam Madden will report back on the veterans protest activities at the Democratic and Republican conventions and will promote the New England Soldier Support Network here in CT.

Sponsored By:
CT United for Peace http://www.ctup.8k.com

Contact:
Christine Gauvreau
chris_gauvreau@comcast.net
860 478 5300

Date: Sunday, September 21st
Time: 2 pm
Place: Church of the Holy Trinity, 381 Main St., side door

Deja Vu: Anti-Wes-student comments from community re: Fountain

Possibly this discussion is tired by now, but an anonymous tipster points out the emerging comment discussion on the latest Courant article about the Fountain incident. Most of the comments seem to revolve around how we, as Wesleyan students, are over-entitled, privileged, whiny brats who only want to party and don't deserve to be in college (or gain the status associated with having attended such a college). I quote the first comment by "Wesleyan Embarrassment" as an example:

It is utterly absurd that a "student leader" at any university would not understand that part of growing up and becoming a contributing adult is to be able to recognize unacceptable, childish, and unruly behavior -- not to mention that this student leader is unable to recognize that it is outrageous to engage in middle-school-like antics such as throwing beer bottles at police cruisers, houses, and people.

The primary problem you have at a very-leftist university is that a disproportionate number of the rowdy participants think that they are subject to a different standard than everyone else. This condition is exascerbated by an enabling university administration that is afraid to enact and invoke even the most modest standards of control and enforcement.

When UConn students threw beer bottles at police cruisers, people, and otherwise misbehaved; they were arrested -- and later expelled from school.

On the other hand, when Wesleyan students -- on a public street -- throw beer bottles hitting people on porches, hitting police cruisers, smashing debris, etc., these students instead expect to be treated by a different standard -- involving huge bureaucratic policies outlining what constitutes unruliness when a Wesleyan student is involved.

The problem with being a trust-fund, spoiled brat is that it clouds reality -- not just in the present, but for life.

What I think is an intelligent response from a Wes student:

I would like to respond to these comments as a current senior at Wesleyan.

I think it is important to start by saying that I do not believe Wesleyan students were completely in the right during the incidents on Fountain Avenue. The report that a beer bottle was thrown at a police car is certainly inappropriate and inexcusable. I also believe that the Middletown Police serve a vital job in our community and should come when they are called by Public Safety or any other Middletown resident. I resent the mentality of many (but certainly not all) Wesleyan students who argue that Middletown Police have no right to be present on our campus.

That being said, I feel the need to express discomfort and sadness at the blatant resentment of and disrespect for Wesleyan students that is displayed in these postings and written in this article.

The Courant article writes: "When students refused to disperse after being asked to by Wesleyan public safety officers, the officers contacted Middletown police. Students reacted to the increased police presence by throwing bottles and getting more unruly, prompting city police to request support from state police and police in Cromwell and Portland. After the incident, Wesleyan students claimed the police used unnecessary force in dispersing them."

This quotation leaves out many important elements of the incident on Fountain Avenue. Never did the Courant article mention that police came with K9 units, whose dogs viciously mauled many students, more than one of whom was sent to the hospital. The article did not mention that multiple Wesleyan students were pepper sprayed and tazed by the police in attempt to get them to move off of their own street.

This was not a riot. It was not a protest or a giant drunken keg party with people jumping off roofs and fighting in the streets that needed to be violently broken up by police officers. I feel that it is very important for that to be understood. It is one thing for police to respond to a call and try to clear a party, it is another to unleash dogs on a crowd and pepper spray individuals standing in front of their homes.

To write that Wesleyan students "claimed" that police used unnecessary force in dispersing them delegitimizes the students and assumes that their side of the story is only a claim and thus false. By mentioning beer bottles thrown at police and never mentioning how the police chose to retaliate, Peter Marteka shows his disinterest in representing the full story for his readers.

The Fountain Incident is incredibly complex. It cannot be boiled down to finger pointing and a discussion of right vs. wrong and spoiled Wesleyan students vs. violent police. I would hope that as one of Connecticut's most well respected newspapers, the Hartford Courant would be able to see that. I also would hope that its readers wouldn't be so quick to judge Wesleyan students by an offensively written article and their own judgments of the Wesleyan community.

We are all residents of Connecticut. If this incident has showed us anything, it is that we need to learn to bridge the gap between what we expect from each other and how we try to get it. Poorly informed articles and verbal hatred from one group to the other, one both sides, is not the answer.

I personally think that what this points to, more than anything else, is a continued lack of ideal relations between Wesleyan and Middletown and the rest of the surrounding Connecticut community. I don't know about the rest of you, but in my three+ years here, I've grown to really love this city. How do we begin to repair - at least, from our side - this broken relationship?

Thoughts?

Army training base: public meeting

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building a 25-acre military training center in Middletown. Where should it be built? How will it affect our community? Why is this happening? What can we do?

For those who want to experience the interface of Middletown residents and federal power firsthand, there is a public meeting Wednesday night at 6:30 at Mercy High School, located at 1740 Randolph Road. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, will discuss the site suggestions submitted to them by members of the Middletown community.

If you would like to attend and need a ride, please contact me as soon as possible at jlaselva@wes. Include your name and phone number.

Date: Wednesday, Sept. 17
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Mercy High School (1740 Randolph Road)

Previous Wesleying coverage:

• Army base alternatives
• Mayor, environmentalist to speak on Army issue
• Army eyes M-town for new home

My Argus coverage:

• Middletown residents rally against proposed army base
• Up in arms: University, mayor oppose Army training base
• WSA passes resolution urging University to relocate army base
• Army considers nine other sites for base