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October 25, 2002
Front-Page
News
Pilot Program
When the Pentagon agreed to provide sophisticated surveillance
planes to help catch the sniper in the Washington, D.C., area,
journalists turned to Christopher Pyle, MHC professor of politics,
for an analysis of how the case relates to a federal law governing
the involvement of the military in law enforcement. Pyle, who
teaches constitutional law and civil liberties, was interviewed
on Democracy Now, a Pacifica public radio network program;
Family News in Focus, a syndicated program produced in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, and KPSI Newstalk 920, an ABC
affiliate in Palm Springs, California. Pyle told listeners that
the federal Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878 to bar soldiers
from civilian law enforcement, allows the type of cooperation
envisioned in the sniper case. "This is a kind of a loan
of equipment, a loan of expertise, a so-called passive role"
for the military "that the courts have generally upheld,"
Pyle told the host of Democracy Now. Pyle is the author
of Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics, 1967–1970.
Rowing on the River
The Boston Globe of October 19 featured a piece by
staff writer Tony Chamberlain on G-ROW, the nonprofit program
launched in 1998 by Olympic gold medal rower Holly Metcalf '81
that gives girls in Boston public schools the opportunity to row.
In the article, Metcalf says that in starting the program she
was "determined to break the reputation rowing had for being
a rich, white people sport.'' The twenty-six girls participating
in G-ROW this year are mostly African American, Latino, white,
and Asian and range from seventh graders to high school seniors.
The program stresses teamwork and extends beyond the water—offering
girls tutoring, mentoring, and "help with every phase of
life," writes Chamberlain. The impetus for the Globe piece
was the participation of G-ROW's youth eight in last weekend's
renowned Head of the Charles Regatta. Last year, Sabina Yesmin
'06 of Somerville graduated from the G-ROW program. This
year, she is rowing with MHC's novice team and has already
raced twice this year. Writes Chamberlain, "Yesmin, who came
here from Bangladesh a decade ago, credits G-ROW with much of
her early success, including admission to one of the best colleges
in the country, from which she would like to emerge with a degree
in English—her adopted first language."
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