The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, M arch 19, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 39
Community gathers after firebombing
R.I. cities should merge, former mayor Cianci says By George Miller Senior Staff Writer
U. could have informed people faster, Carey says By Sam Byker Senior Staff Writer
In the wake of the unsolved firebombing of a Brown/RISD Hillel employee’s apartment Saturday, members of the Brown community gathered last night in Alumnae Hall’s Crystal Room to discuss the attack and its aftermath. “This gathering is an opportunity for members of the Brown community to receive information, ask questions and share concerns and ideas about the incident this past weekend and the issues it has raised on our campus and the surrounding community,” Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 told the audience in his opening remarks. He began with the facts. At 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning, two Molotov cocktails — glass bottles filled with gasoline, stuffed with rags and set on fire — were thrown at the off-campus apartment of Yossi Knafo, an emissary from the Jewish Agency for Israel employed at Hillel. One explosive struck the side of Knafo’s apartment and fell to the ground, leaving scorch marks on the house’s siding. Another flew through a window and landed in Knafo’s bedroom but failed to ignite. In the intervening days, an investigation launched by the Providence Police Department has grown to involve the Department of Public Safety, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rhode Island and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Israeli reaction to the attack has been swift and severe. The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday that Israeli officials are investigating the incident and believe that it was “most likely spontaneously perpetrated by a local group,” and that hundreds of Jewish Agency employees in the U.S. and Canada have been “briefed on the event and its security implications.” A $10,000 reward has been offered by Hillel, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island for information leading to the conviction of anyone responsible. Knafo has been moved to an undisclosed location. “There will likely be more questions than answers at this time about what happened and why,” Carey said. “What we do know is that this was a serious and reprehensible act of violence that affected a member of our community. It is important that we acknowledge that and in doing so stand together as a community and repudiate any acts of violence in any place at any time, on our campus or off.” “We all have a responsibility to stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong,” Carey concluded. “I encourage all of you to engage in discussion tonight and beyond continued on page 4
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YOu’VE HAD ENOUGH Hoping students will eat less, schools are getting rid of trays in dining halls
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Kim Perley / Herald
Buddy Cianci, former mayor of Providence, talked about his experiences and the future of the city in a lively lecture to a capacity Salomon 101.
Providence should “seriously consider merging” with its neighboring cities, former mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, Jr. told a crowded Salomon 101 Tuesday night, in a speech in which he recounted the history of Providence and his more than two decades of service in the mayor’s office. Cianci served two terms as Providence’s mayor, from 1975 to 1984 and 1991 to 2002, making him the city’s longest-serving executive. He is widely credited with facilitating Providence’s 1990s “renaissance,” though that work hasn’t saved him from controversy and criticism. During his first stint, he resigned from office after pleading no contest to assaulting a man he said had been having an affair with his wife. His second term came to an end when he was sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiracy. He
was released last year, and since then has been hosting a weekly radio talk show. Or, as Cianci summed it up: “I was mayor for a while. Then I stopped being mayor. Then I was mayor again.” But he saved the boldest part of his speech for the end, when he called on the city to merge with its neighbors — including Warwick, Cranston and North and East Providence — into “a union of equals.” Cianci called Providence “a city divided,” and added that it is also the seventh-most crowded in the nation, occupying the same 18 square miles it did 100 years ago. Providence and the surrounding cities currently work as a single city even though they are separate politically, he said. Rhode Island was once called a city-state, he said, in the days when a few cities held almost all of its population. He sugcontinued on page 4
Liberal bishop questions literal reading of Bible By Connie Zheng Contributing Writer
The Rev. John Shelby Spong, a retired Episcopal bishop from Newark, N.J., and the author of books such as “Jesus for the Non-Religious,” delivered his modern interpretation of Christianity to an audience of about 40 in List 120 last night. In “The Christian Church and the Sexuality Debate,” Spong addressed homosexuality, abortion,
sexism and racism from a reframed Christian viewpoint, as he offered an analysis that emphasized a nonliteral interpretation of the Bible. “There’s a difference between an experience of Jesus and an explanation of the experience of Jesus,” Spong said during the question-andanswer session after the lecture, which was hosted by Students for Choice. The lecture was sponsored by the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, the Office of Institutional Diversity,
Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom and the Kaleidoscope Fund, a fund created by President Ruth Simmons in 2005 in order to promote intellectual diversity on campus. Spong, who is “pro-a woman’s right to choose,” said that he is excited about the American public slowly overcoming its prejudices toward homosexuality. He said he hoped to see homophobia, racism and sexism “exorcised” from Ameri-
1,500 more packages may be sold for Spring Weekend ‘Go early,’ BCA chair advises ticket-less By Caroline Sedano Senior Staff Writer
The Brown Concert Agency will sell an additional 1,500 tickets for each Spring Weekend concert if weather permits, the group announced today. Good weather will also allow the Friday event featuring Lupe Fiasco to be held on the Main Green. The tickets will go on sale on April 9 for seniors and April 10 for all other students. “After demand was so high this year, there couldn’t be any other option for us — we had to sell more tickets,” said Cash McCracken ’08, the BCA’s administrative chair, who added that he’s been working to get Friday’s concert outside all year. “There’s such better sound and experience being outside,” McCracken said, adding that, if it rains, the concerts will be held in Meehan Auditorium, which seats 3,500 students. Students who can’t be seated in Meehan will be offered
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full refunds. In addition to allowing Friday’s concert to be outside, administrators increased the designated capacity of the Main Green from 4,500 to 5,000 people, McCracken said. Moreover, the BCA will not sell tickets to the general public, freeing up more tickets for students. Students must pay in cash and will only be able to purchase one $20 package, which will include a ticket for both shows, though McCracken said students can buy one extra package with another student’s ID. In the first round of sales, students were allowed to buy up to eight tickets, or four packages. BCA has not set a limit on the number of tickets students could buy in the past, McCracken said. “Going off of feedback from past years, we started off with four packs per person, but once we saw the unbelievable demand, we cut that off,” McCracken said, estimating that only about 50 people were able to buy eight tickets.
JOY RIDE CUT SHORT Crime Log: Students’ drive around Main Green fails to amuse campus police
continued on page 4
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can life. Spong analyzed the racism and sexism that he said are persistent in attitudes toward the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. He asked the crowd why, after an 11-state sweep, Obama still had not clinched the nomination. He also used the success of black politicians such as Secretary of State Condocontinued on page 4
E n o u gh i s e n o u gh
Kim Perley / Herald
Operation Iraqi Freedom, a campus anti-war group, and other Providence peace groups held a Funk the War dance event at Kennedy Plaza as a part of a week of anti-war actions to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.
Love, SWEDE LOVE Brown needs to support foreign languages, says Graham Anderson ’10
tomorrow’s weather Rainy and cold — maybe Buddy still has the sway to bring out the sun?
Rain, 52 / 29 www.browndailyherald.com
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