Representatives from GRR (Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights) and the Mabel Wadsworth Center, a sexual and reproductive care provider in Bangor, visited the University of Maine to have a talk about women’s health on Feb. 5. In this luncheon talk, one controversy in women’s care carried clear outrage amongst the group. Stories of anti-abortion centers around Maine should be a horror story, not day-to-day shared experiences. Regardless of views of abortion, trickery and shame rituals have no place in any health-related office. 

Aspen Ruhlin, the community engagement manager from Mabel, teamed with Elayne Richard and Cait Vaughn from Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights to educate and raise awareness about tactics used in anti-abortion centers. These are not abstracted organizations that you only see as picketers in front of Planned Parenthoods, but full clinics camouflaged to be care providers for sexual health. Namely, First Step Pregnancy Resource in Bangor is marketed as a women’s clinic – and is also the root of many of the stories given in this talk. 

Reportedly, patients go there for free supplies and services but first need to undergo strenuous religious and right-wing lectures to steer individuals toward delivering the baby without education on other options. Ultrasounds are given to emotionally tussle the clientele and emergency contact information given in intake forms are used indiscriminately to harass family and loved ones. 

“They are a danger to our community and we need to do something about them,” said Richard.

Other clients report being given photos of ultrasounds that were from the internet – misleading women into believing different ages of fetal development. One woman was told she was 12-weeks pregnant, when she was actually eight-weeks pregnant. Another was given an ultrasound photo of her “child” while she was not even pregnant. 

“We don’t know whose ultrasound that was – they will give people random ultrasounds.” said Ruhlin. 

It is important to note the lack of safeguards in the medical oversight and equipment at these locations. There have been reports of unclean conditions, and unsafe disposal of hazardous items. This makes some stories even more horrifying. In another gut-wrenching story, a woman was given a transvaginal ultrasound in these conditions, when it was unnecessary. Transvaginal ultrasounds in unsafe conditions are demeaning, heartless and- point blank -assault. 

“There are no checks and balances… there is no oversight and no ability to check the validity of the information people are being given to make a life-changing decision,” said Ruhlin. 

These clinics are not only confined to states with conservative reproductive health laws. Maine has some of the most progressive views for sexual health, and yet they are widespread around the state. Even worse, they are funded so generously that budgets are allocated to disguise and trick women seeking care. 

“These places spend a majority of their budgets on trying to reroute people so that when they google ‘abortion clinics near me’ at least one of the top results is going to be one of their centers,” said Ruhlin.

So, how is this legal? These centers are unregulated and do not follow HIPAA protocols. The stories mentioned in this article are just a few that were actually reported. The shame beat into clients in places like First Step in Bangor dispel reporting and advocacy for these illicit activities. GRR and the Mabel Wadsworth Center work to educate women on the risks of going to these clinics and offer free supplies and treatments through reputable women’s centers. 

Organizations like NIFLA, Heartbeat International and Care Net funnel immense resources into the anti-abortion centers and promote shame-based care. Many who go to these centers are unaware of the actual standards and values. For those dealing with the turmoil of an unwanted pregnancy in Maine, Planned Parenthood and the Mabel Wadsworth Center offer a full consultation of options available. For those concerned about general sexual health, safe, regulated and comprehensive care are offered there as well. 

For more information about these centers, their sites are linked below. 

https://grandmothersforreproductiverights.org/ 

https://www.mabelwadsworth.org/ 

Fake Abortion Clinics in Maine: 

Abba, Women’s Choice: Portland

Alpha PRC: Sanford

Birthline Pregnancy Support Services: Portland

Carenet of Midcoast: Brunswick

Central Maine Pregnancy Center: Waterville

First Choice Pregnancy Center: Waterville

First Step: Bangor

Hope House: Mechanic Falls & Lewiston

Open Arms Pregnancy Center: Augusta

Pregnancy Care Center: Fort Kent & Houlton & Presque Isle

Zoe, A Women’s Center: Rockport

Real Abortion Clinics in Maine: 

Maine Family Planning 

Planned Parenthood 

Mabel Wadsworth

Some words and sentences linger for months after being read. For Jerzy Kosiński’s “The Painted Bird,” there are entire chapters that continue to haunt me years later. I first read this book in high school, unable to fully let it go. Over winter break, I revisited “The Painted Bird.” This ugly necessity is gut-wrenching. It pushes and pulls its reader into a constant dilemma of wanting to burn or bury the novel, while also being grossly captivated by its nearly pornographic nature of tragedy and violence. This distressful story of neglect, violence, hate and war that could be seen as a powerful piece shining a light on the evils of humans, or as a sick author relishing in deviancy. 

Kosiński was a Polish-American who lived through World War II as a Jewish boy, writing in his adulthood to process such trauma. While “The Painted Bird” is largely fictional, Kosiński attributes it as semi-autobiographical – making each page of horrors more striking. I would summarize some of the scenes in the book that particularly gnaw at me, but the raw detail, shock and torture-porn nature of the words should be reserved for the writing of Kosiński himself. 

“There was no God, no Holy Trinity, no devils, ghosts, or ghouls rising from graves; there was no Death flying everywhere in search of new sinners to snare. These were all tales for ignorant people who did not understand the natural order of the world, did not believe in their own powers, and therefore had to take refuge in their belief in some God.”

The basis of the book is a young child who becomes abandoned by his family after the Nazis attack his city, left to wander the Eastern European countryside to be corrupted by the sight of evils. The boy is tousled and pulled and strewn through traumas for the entirety of the book, witnessing cruelty of all kinds:d violence, murder, incest, bestiality and rape. “The Painted Bird” title itself comes from an early chapter of the novel where a bird catcher paints a bird in beautiful colors to release it back to its flock. However, the flock no longer recognizes the bird as one of their own, maliciously and grotesquely ripping it apart. It starts and ends with misery. 

“It was also believed that sharing fire, especially borrowing it, could only result in misfortune. After all, those who borrow fire on this earth might have to return it to hell.”

Seeing a dark world through the eyes of a child makes the work grudgingly sorrowful to get through. This Odyssey-like story is heightened by the spoilment of innocence – innocence that may have not been a luxury to begin with. The work is flowered with authenticity that I think holds a unique power. While difficult to read, it is absolutely impossible to not be moved by it. Its shock tightly holds a power over the reader, showering us with an unabridged deluge of despicability that makes the small pockets of hope even more righteous. The book shows the capacities of human evil and the greater power of human resilience. 

“I was wondering why, if God could make sinners into pillars of salt so easily, salt was so expensive. And why didn’t He turn some sinners into meat or sugar? The villagers certainly needed these as much as salt.”

This book and its respective author have been drenched in controversy. For the harsh depictions, for the nihilistic views, the discussions on government and the suspicions of truth being bent surrounding the author’s personal experiences. Regardless of this controversy, however, the point of the book is made. Humanity is often lost in the wake of war just as resiliency is made. 

From Jewish tradition, a niggunim is a spiritual prayer through repeated melodies and sounds that act as a way to ground the group and move between worlds. There are four distinct spiritual “worlds” in the Kabbalah: the Atzilut, the world of emanation, the Beriah, the world of creation, Yestzirah, the world of formation and Asiyah, the world of action. Throughout life, the world of action leads our bodies and thoughts. It is the “to-do” list of our understandings. But in times of meditation, it is important to escape this and move to more formative, emotional and creative worlds to find peace in the hectic. 

Jack Leopold, the program director for Unifying Meditation in Boulder Colorado and a longtime Wilson Center participant, led the Nov. 22 “Dinner and Dialogue.” The Wilson Center organized “Dinner and Dialogue” sessions are held weekly to serve home-cooked meals to the community and engage civic minded discussions or thoughts. The Wilson Center itself is a multifaith, spiritual non-profit organization on College Ave. Their mission statements are to encourage peace, build interfaith programs, celebrate religion and spirituality and create healthy communication beyond borders of sexual orientation, ethnicity, culture etc. 

These weekly dinners have been immensely popular within the community, providing home cooked meals and a safe space. While there are scattered University of Maine students as participants, there are many who are not affiliated with the University but wished to participate in the dialogues. With the Friends and Family Feast being organized at the same time, the turnout at the Wilson Center was particularly intimate. 

After being served with butternut squash pasta and ambient lighting, the close-knit community gathered in a circle for the dialogue portion of the event. Led by Leopold and his acoustic guitar, the pointed arches of the Wilson Center echoed back the charming chant of the niggunim.  

“We are often very stuck in the world of action and the conscious world, worrying about the past and the future and we rarely allow ourselves to experience our emotional worlds and feel the processes of our emotions,” says Leopold.

These worlds are important to the understanding of the Kabbalah in general, but their power is also understood through the lens of grief. Niggunim as a practice can come in three general types. The deveykut niggunim is traditionally in a slow tempo, performed by individuals to focus on reflection. Dance tunes are more simple with faster paces organized by groups. Finally, the tisch niggunim are slower and complex, used during events such as holiday dinners or at Sabbath. Regardless of the types, the melodies are used for the same purpose; to elevate the soul in a form of devotion or meditation. 

“We move ourselves into that body through prayer and meditation and music, singing and dancing,” Leopold says

In order to feel a little deeper, Leopold began the rhythmic chants of the niggunim, lulling the participants of the circle to join in. The repetition and swaying was a sort of trance, clearing the mind and welcoming peaceful somber.                                                                                       

The process of healing grief through meditation is particularly poignant for Leopold at this time. As the world gets more scary and unknown and divides of opinions and beliefs spur violence and hate, the daily grief of the intuitive modern American is harder to process. Living in a state of sorrow without output is painful, so Leopold offers the niggunim as a method to release the harbored negativity and begin the process of greater healing. 

A deep breath in and a half breath out. The mixture of oils, tallow and herbs- that aroma of the world around us. So many sweet fragrances that it would be a shame to exhale them. Intoxicated by the balms of 18th century Paris, Jean-Baptise Grenouille is holdfast on becoming the master perfumer of France, an obsession that ends in a murdering spree. Patrick Süskind’s twisted, depraved novel, “Perfume,” is a classic, dark masterpiece that should be on any reader’s bookshelf, tattered with annotations and re-readings. “Perfume” is not a passive indulgence, but should be consumed and digested with complete indulgence. 

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was brought up in the slums of Paris, treated like a dog more than a human. His uncomfortable upbringing left him with a distaste for humanity, or people – everything was displeasing to him. What sets Grenouille apart from others, however, is his unique and acute sense of smell. Overcome by the aromas of Paris, he found solace in smelling the brass door knobs and wooden bookshelves. Even though he relishes in the scents of the world, he himself is completely odorless. Grenouille discovers his new passion when he walks by a young girl and becomes enraptured in her scent. Defeated by his impulses, he strangles her and holds her dead body close to intoxicate himself in her aroma. He finds the perfect scent in the skin of virgins, to which he sets out to become a top Parisian perfume maker. 

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it,” Grenouille said.

Under the apprenticeship of the perfumer, Baldini, Grenouille concocts a recipe to extract the corporeal scent of a virginal girl. Using the classic method of enfleurage, a process that uses scentless fats to extract aroma compounds and oils from plants, he adapts the basics of this practice into preserving scents off of young women. He murders women, following them by their fragrance, then rubs and spreads fat over their skin, hair and clothes. He lets the engulfed bodies sit in the adipose for weeks, collecting their redolence. Grenouille uses the scents of 25 women, creating his ultimate potion. He pours it over himself, capturing the allure and love of the town. 

“For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn’t defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men” Grenouille says.

This book– while containing hard themes and times of vulgarity– is a story about love at its core. Grenouille is an outcast, hungry to be adored but only seen as a domesticated animal. He feels the beauty and love of the world through scent, but lacks one of his own. He is a tragic character praying not to become a tragedy. Grenouille shatters any moral device to achieve this goal of being loved. However, he is ultimately still unloved. Not only because his mother has thrown him away or that his associates loathe him, but that the love he manufactures at the end of the story is just that – an animation, a representation of a representation. Even in Grenouille’s capture of virgins, he desperately seeks to seize purity that was deserving of love. Yet, as his notions were tainted in bloodlust and hate, he was unrequited of it. He has found power where he searches for compassion, twisting the notion of love into commerce. 

“He possessed the power. He held it in his hand. A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death: the invincible power to command the love of mankind” Grenouille says.

“Perfume” is a horror classic, nuanced with ideas of purity, love, obsession and hate. It argues for the innately flawed state of humanity, though ending its chapters with a level of catharsis for the reader. Patrick Süskind’s understanding of human nature is beautifully explained in this book. For those who are not readers, but enjoy dark and twisted media, there is the 2006 movie, “Perfume: Story of a Murder,” that brings the twists and turns of this book to life. If not a big mystery or horror fan, Alan Rickman’s portrayal of the antagonist, Antoine Richis, is worth any discomfort to visuals of body horror.

Veterans Day has rolled back around with the University of Maine allocating Nov. 8 to 19 for activities and events hosted by the Veterans Education and Transition Services (VETS) center. The observance will begin with a flag ceremony on the Mall and end with the Veteran Faculty and Staff Community Connection. Given many students’ emotionally charged and fervent relationship with the election just last week, it is important to remember that these observances honoring veterans is not an endorsement of U.S. politics in foreign affairs or approval of past and ongoing conflict but a recognition of individuals partaking in lifelong acclimatization back to everyday life. 

Nov. 11, 1918 marked the end of World War I, which eventually became the date of Veterans Day following a 1938 act from Congress making it a national holiday. Unlike Memorial Day, this day is meant to honor the service of everyone in our military, dead and alive. In practice, it is about sharing gratitude and love to our family and friends who served our country. Veterans Day is not only unique to our American military. Canada and Australia celebrate Nov. 11 as “Remembrance Day.” Great Britain holds their own parades and services on the Sunday nearest to Nov. 11. 

Veterans Day, as we define it, goes beyond our own politics and our own country. Not only do other countries have their own connections to the federal holiday, but it brings the idea of the individual back to what can often become a faceless venture. Soldiers can fall into a level of anonymity in their ranks, their objective being to follow orders. While this can be effective in achieving a greater military goal during active wartime, every soldier deserves to be their own person. 

A famous quote from American author Kurt Vonnegut states, “One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

In conversations regarding Veterans Day, there is often the topic of heroism. Some believe that serving time in our military in itself defaults the person to be a savior. Others argue that heroism is etched into sacrifice throughout service. However, finding ways to put people on pedestals for the industry in which they live, or devalue efforts for political ramifications may detract from what heroism is in its most raw form. This Veterans Day, heroism can have a more somber understanding. Perhaps it lies not only in the actions, the institutions or the surpassing of peers but also in the passion and compulsion to serve loved ones with full acceptance of the possible costs.

In its idealist form, Veteran’s Day gives an opportunity to give a face, a personality and a slice of empathy to people first. Students are excited to have a long weekend and take a break from university work. As the sun sets sooner, the weather gets more bitter and the workload piles up, Veterans Day may not mean anything more than a chance to catch a breath to students. Yet, most Americans either have family from the military or have some connection to those who were in service. A few words of recognition could mean the difference between the day of being a faceless soldier and being a person.

Nestled in the middle-of-nowhere-Maine, the first Amish community settled in the town of Smyrna. It was originally deemed a town when Nehemiah Leavitt inhabited it with his family in 1830. The Methodist minister created mills and made schoolhouses, but his efforts were futile. The ghost town went through phases of habitation, but was only truly settled by the Amish in the 1990s. It became the oldest Amish community in Maine. 

Seventeen miles away from Houlton, Smyrna is incredibly isolated. The stores, inns and shops it offers substantiate the lives of those who live there as horse and buggy prove too difficult a journey to make frequent trips to the nearby town. The technology of the modern day that has infiltrated towns in the U.S. keeps the Amish in small rural communities to consolidate a simpler lifestyle. However, this does not mean that given such isolationist tendencies, the Amish are unfriendly to visitors. In fact, Smyrna welcomes tourists. Its famous general store, The Pioneer Place, supports its population and caters to visitors of the farming town. According to Chris Hilty, the proprietor, more than 70% of the customers who come to Pioneer Place are non-Amish. 

A road trip from Orono to Smyrna takes about an hour and a half. The drive follows Interstate-95 North and turns off before you hit border customs in Canada. An itinerary for the trip could start with a check–in at the Brookside Inn, a quaint hotel in the heart of town. While Smyrna is a place more commonly felt to be a town between towns, there are wholesome activities to be discovered there. In the beginning of the trip, set out for the natural beauty of Aroostook County, which includes the beautiful lake just a hop over from Smyrna, known as Meduxnekeag Lake. The area in and surrounding Smyrna is timeless and pristine, fantastic for nature lovers. The Meduxnekeag Nature Preserve is filled with trails to satisfy any hankering for hiking at multiple differing difficulties. After a day of amazing scenery, Smyrna has a must-try homestyle restaurant, Murray’s. The cozy atmosphere this time of year is something special, coupled with the changing of the leaves as well as holiday specials. 

The next day on a trip to Aroostook’s Smyrna should be filled with the core fascination of the town itself —its Amish heritage. While a traveler to Smyrna is destined to see (and perhaps meet) members of the community throughout their duration, the hotspot of the Amish town is none other than Pioneer Place. This is a little market in town that grew from a humble farm stand into what it is today. Raved about in Maine journals and reviews, Pioneer Place invites folks from all over Maine to buy products made by the Amish community. They offer fresh-picked produce, chicken, pork, raw milk, jams, jellies, pickles, butter, flowers —everything a farmers market should have. This general store is the heart of Smyrna, with the 24 families of the town aiding its thriving outputs. Usually, the stand closes sometime in November, but there have been recent rumblings in keeping it open year–round.  

For a modest road trip without the fast paces of a city or the chaos of a club, consider a trip to the Amish country. There is fresh food, interesting stories and a slow stride in attitude compared to anywhere else. The complicated life has no place in Smyrna. It is a place for fresh air, a deep breath and the slow canter of horse hooves. 

Søren Lessard is a philosophy student at The University of Maine, who hails from our New England neighbor, Rhode Island. For Lessard, Maine is “massive and sprawling” when compared to the more densely populated area he is from.

 “Nothing is like the small towns here in Maine.” Lessard said.

One difference between Maine and Rhode Island is the attitude of the people here. He attests that Mainers are incredibly friendly and better on the roads. He liked the distance of UMaine from his home- close, but not too close. These benefits of UMaine were part of the reason he decided to enroll, with the beautiful landscapes being all the more enticing. The shift to a more rural setting is a huge difference, but the natural appeal of Maine proves to be an ideal condition for wandering ponderers like Lessard. 

“I was always pretty philosophically minded, and my high school did not offer any philosophy classes, so I’m making the most of it here while I can. I think that the track here is very flexible which I enjoy,” Lessard said.  “Philosophy is a very broad subject, so it makes sense that people will want to pursue different fields and the school does a good job of not limiting that.”

Additionally, Lessard has his own interesting connection to this major that is quite unique. His parents named him after the famous father of existentialism, Søren Kirkegaard. 

“I am not sure if that really influenced me at all. I would consider it more of a coincidence. My father definitely talked about philosophy as a choice for me but he never pushed it too hard,” Lessard explains. 

Kirkegaard as a philosopher has a certain dark mystique reputation, honing in on themes of dread and anxieties of the human condition. While Lessard is a deep thinker and stays away from the commotion of fraternities and large gatherings, he is a much more friendly, outgoing person than his namesake. 

When not absorbing himself in literature and philosophical yearning, he spends time with friends and hangs around campus. His skill set goes beyond his academics, as he boasts a swell capability of licking his own nose, an expertise Kirkegaard has no evidence of accomplishing.

Mackenzie Reynolds, a McGillicuddy Humanities Center fellow, spoke on Sept. 17 regarding her project “Separate But Not Equal: Black Women’s Exclusion from Maine and Louisiana Suffrage, 1900 to 1925.” Her project delves into a comparison of the controversy regarding enfranchisement in the early waves of feminism between two distinctly different states. 

    Reynolds boiled down the differences in the movement’s exclusion of Black women largely into implicit and explicit racism. While Maine has few archival mentions of Black women, little written evidence of outreach and deeply ingrained biases, Louisiana has records of direct written racism and outfront criticism of full female enfranchisement. According to Reynolds’ research, this can be attributed to the harsh differences of Maine and Louisiana’s histories with slavery and the proximity the two have to black populations. 

    Reynolds lived in both Louisiana and Maine, a large reason for the trajectory of this project and fuel for the clear passion that went into its portrayal. Kicking off this academic year’s presentations, Reynolds gave a thoughtful, well-researched and articulate synopsis of a complex project. Maine is often left out of important historical conversations in the US. Yet, Maine brings an important coalition to other “landmark” states as it shows how state history and demographic impacts social progress. A point to take out of Reynolds’ deep archival dive is that historical traumas are cyclical and not linear. New Orleans was one of the largest markets for trafficking enslaved Black people, and generational wealth still pumps through the veins of elite white Americans in Louisiana. 31% of Louisiana’s population is African American in comparison to Maine’s 1.4%; a point of reference for the attitude and approach to explicit/implicit racism. While Maine has little publication regarding Black women at this time, Louisiana had obscenities and slurs in large papers.

      Her project opens a conversation surrounding the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA). While this association had branches in Maine and Louisiana, the states’ stark contrasts of history, demographic and culture demanded self-made organizations for advocacy. As these groups came to fruition, the concept of “the good suffragette” became apparent. “The good suffragette” was married, white and valuing polite society which once again excludes African American and indigenous women. 

    McGillicuddy fellows such as Reynolds are tasked with the prioritization of the humanities. All projects in their essence are aimed to cultivate the values of this discipline: critical thinking, ethical insight and social value. While the roots of Reynolds’ project lay in her major and minor, history and WGS, the entirety of it perfectly encapsulates the embedded capstones of a humanities assignment.

The lesioned and cigarette-burned underbelly of the American Dream is swerving through the desert, 100 miles an hour, fueled on drug lust, blood lust and everything in between. After all, “There is no sympathy for the devil. Buy the ticket, take the ride.” 

The novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter Thompson blurs the line between reality and drug-induced paranoia. As journalist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo, the protagonists, make their way to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race, their hallucinations mold the reader’s way through an adventure poking holes into our notion of the “American Dream.” The reader is left in a state of distortion nearly to the extent of the intoxicated protagonist as they trudge across bloodied casino floors and have conversations with people who begin to look like lizards. This surrealist and brutalized Gonzo journalistic book-turned-movie carries clear undertones relating to the attitude of America at the time. In this novel, it is 1971. “Hippie” is the worst insult someone can say to someone, the War on Drugs begins and the Manson Murders have America in a chokehold. As the preexisting culture is upheaved, conservatives begin to question the validity of the American Dream.

The traditional idea of “rags to riches” seems like an American ideal — anyone can do anything or be anything with hard work. However, the author of “Fear and Loathing” not only challenges this, but attacks the less-considered other side of this American Dream. In this book, there are multiple times where this “rags to riches” idea is challenged. Circus-Circus, a casino in Las Vegas where parts of the book are set, shows time and time again that house always wins. The environment feeds off of financial loss and those more likely to win, or able to put their stakes into the games, are well off to begin with. The owner of Circus-Circus dreamed of running off with the circus when he was younger. Now, he technically does own his own ‘freak show’ making its fortune off stealing from others. This is a repeated theme, as odds are held by the prestigious people, the 1%. 

The American Dream is not only reserved for the elite, however. Duke repeatedly makes comments about his attorney and partner in crime, Gonzo, who is not white. 

“You Samoans are all the same. You have no faith in the essential decency of the white man’s culture,” said Duke.

Duke reinforces an undertone of the American Dream: Only white people can appreciate it and in that, only white elite men can achieve it in this new counterculture. 

The clearest and ugliest depictions of the dark Thompson representation of American ideals, however, is the theme of excess. 

In a world where more is better, and capitalism is idealistic utopia, Duke spends the entirety of the book displaying greed and eccentric excess. He sets out on his trip with luggage full of drugs and liquor. Duke says that there is no conceivable way he and Gonzo abuse substances to that extent, yet they continued the collection simply because they could. Again, the narrator points out that Duke has 600 bars of soap. He does not need it, but once again since he could have it, he might as well take everything. Even more generally, Duke is in Las Vegas in order to work on a very professional journalism report, yet he spends every moment intoxicated to the point of insanity. Why? Because he can. The author points out that Las Vegas is a smaller replica of American ideals — sin city. Even when Duke and Gonzo are overwhelmed with fear and hate fueled by bad highs, they continue their near-overdose. The overconsumption of drugs and liquor is not only a direct link to the ‘war on drugs’ or the drug counterculture of the 60s and 70s, but a portrayal of what American values can look like on the darker side. 

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is a pop culture cornerstone and a massively experimental work in narratology and how it is written. The themes Thompson presses are clear. Duke is seeing the traditions around him burn with the counterculture movement and values that were once norms being crushed. He begins to see how the American Dream has been rigged. Duke can see the world running off of exploitation, stealing and excess. But Duke is not there to turn over moral judgment or save others. After all, he is the same American sinner and degenerate as everyone else:

“I’m a f*****g sinner! Venal, mortal, carnal, major, minor — however you want to call it, Lord… I’m guilty.”

UMSG brought in new leadership April 16 with the official inauguration of Keegan Tripp and Memphis Peterson as next year’s President and Vice President. The ceremony was made full with friends, family, council, supporters and Dean Robert Dana alongside President Joan Ferrini-Mundy.

Tripp served as Delorge’s vice president this academic year as a second-year student. In fall of 2024, he will return to take over for Delorge. 

“I want to deepen the sense of connectedness within this university community and improve our advocacy efforts on behalf of our fellow Black Bears and continue our work on holding campus leadership accountable to the principle of students first, and students last,” said Tripp.

Unlike past years, Tripp went into the spring election with a running mate, Memphis Peterson The two are transparent with their duties for next year. Tripp hopes to foster an external, friendly campaign with an implied open door policy wherein students and faculty alike can come to UMSG headquarters for questions, concerns or just a talk. 

“Running together we had a general shared vision, but definitely in practice we will be achieving our own initiatives,” Tripp said. “We have a two-pronged approach, the internal and external. I will be taking more of the external roles and initiatives.”

Tripp plans to spearhead three particular projects next year as Peterson focuses on behind-the-scenes tasks. Club storage has been an issue for the UMaine campus for years, resulting in minimal space for the thousands of dollars of equipment that carries an exhaustive liability. Tripp plans on finding a solution for this problem as well as two other main projects to help the student body. He hopes to hold town halls to connect administration directly to student concern and dealing with cross charging at the university for facility use.

A recurring topic at both the inauguration and in interviews with Tripp and Peterson was the contrast between past and present leadership. Dana and present senators all attest that since Delorge and Tripp took office last year, there has never been such significant improvement not only in the initiatives taken by UMSG but also regarding student involvement. 

“We have the most senators we have had in years, roughly 22, while last year our maximum was 15,” said Tripp. “We have a great group.” 

The inauguration this year was embedded with a new sense of positivity and connection. 

“This past year we ended up getting the best exec team we have ever had. My first two years in student government, I’m not afraid to say, was kind of a mess and pretty dull and not a lot of initiatives were taken up,” said Peterson. “Last year there were a lot of layers and subtext of that inauguration. It was a little awkward and a little anxious. Not because of the leadership coming in, but because of the leadership going out.”

Due to such a tumultuous history of student leadership, there is particular stress on transparency and accountability at UMSG as to avoid executive controversy of stagnation and resentment. That being said, Tripp encourages a more inclusive student government going forward. 

“We are more than a poli-sci club,” said Tripp. “We are a group of Black Bears trying to make the experience here better, and you do not have to want to run for the president of the United States to be here.” 

The curtains close on a successful year, bidding adieu to Delorge and inviting in Tripp and Peterson to take over the UMaine General Student Senate.