On November 3rd at 4:30 p.m., Professor John O’Hara’s Dissent in America class performed a play in the Campus Center Theater. I went because a good friend of mine told me she would be in the play and had promised me that I would be entertained. As I sat there, I was beyond amused; I was being educated on an event that I had never known about. The play was about the trial of Catonsville Nine, where nine defendants stole a couple hundred draft files during the Vietnam War and burned them with homemade napalm. The play demonstrated only the key events of the trial, and on a screen behind the actors, there were pictures of the people who were tried and the memorable quotes that were said by them. The play was powerfully moving, and had me questioning whether or not I would support these people’s actions.
Once the play was over, the professor asked the audience what they thought of the play, and asked if they had any questions. Many had their own reactions to the performance, but one particular man stuck out to me. He was an elderly man, and he spoke quietly but with a voice that made it clear that he had some sort of connection/memory of the event. He explained why the defendants did what they did and how, during that time, it was not uncommon for the people to try and intervene with the war on a personal level. I never like to get involved with politics and I never shed my opinion of what I thought of war or goes on in the battlefield because I always felt as though I did not have enough information. Who am I to try and intervene with the drafts; who am I to say that war is a complete crime against humanity, who am I to make judgments when I never had any of the experience? I never fought in a war, I was never in a war-zone, and although I know that war kills more lives than it saves, I cannot say that it serves no purpose. I always remained neutral on such topics because I feel as though I have not yet been fully educated enough to make a proper decision, but the play had me wondering if I should stop stepping aside and start questioning what goes on beyond my small view of the world, and I should start demanding answers.

Georgette Delos Santos
October 13, 2014
Blog 2
Professor Rosner

On October 10th, the Stockton Entertainment Team (SET) held One Night Stand Up event in the Sports Center for Homecoming Weekend. The event included a comedy show featuring Nicole Byer, a star on MTV’s Girl Code and Kevin Barnett, a series regular on MTV2’s Guy Code. That night, my friend and I decided to go because we have watched these two comedians on television and they were one of our favorites from their respected shows. When I saw Nicole arrive on stage, I was shocked by what came out of her mouth. Needless to say, her jokes were wild from start to finish. There appeared to be no topic of conversation she was willing to censor out of her jokes. There were times when she tried to make people laugh with the racism and self-hatred she had for herself that made everyone in audience uncomfortable, especially when she jokes about suicide when, ironically, the college was having a suicide prevention week.
When Kevin Barnett came up, he lightened the tense mood Nicole Byer had left behind. Instead of touching on topics that would make people feel extremely uncomfortable laughing at, he made jokes that were somehow able to embrace people of different sexualities. Instead of making fun of men who were gay, he managed to create a message saying that gays can be powerful, etc. He was a bit inspiring, and he was able to joke about his life in way that felt relatable. As I watched him and listened to his stories, he made me feel as though I was actually there; it felt almost as if I was part of his life. I have not laughed so hard in such a long time, and his humor made me miss home a little. As strange as this may sound, I miss being a school of predominantly African Americans, Hispanics, etc. Sometimes, I can feel a strong racial barrier at Stockton; it feels as though you cannot simply be friends with everyone because of race, and that is never a problem where I am from. Kevin reminded me of the guys back home, and he joked about how he noticed there was some sort of divide amongst races in the South, and even though this is only South Jersey, I can feel it too.

On September 17th, The Office of Student Development and The Office of Service Learning were sponsoring a “Get Involved Fair.” The Fair took place that day and the day before, and I went with a couple of my friends. I stopped by as many tables as I could so I can get a better idea of what Stockton had to offer. It was just like freshman year of high school all over again; I wanted to join just about every single organization and club that I saw.
Some clubs that really stood out to me were The Stockton Quidditch Club, and Gaming Club, and most importantly, The Water Watch Club. The first couple of ones I named were some things that I would like to do for fun, but Water Watch really caught my attention. I remember that name being mentions during one of the Honors meetings, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Ever since I was in middle school, I have always wanted to get more involved in saving our environment and doing everything I can to help. The people at the table made me feel welcome, and I am looking forward to attending their interest meeting.
Going to this event helped me meet people who have the same interests as me, and I was able to find out more about the college. I found out that some of things I was embarrassed to love were actually embraced in this school, and now I feel more at home than I ever did before. The overall idea of this event is to “get involved,” as is apparent in its name, but I felt more than involved: I felt at home with the campus. Of course I picked some clubs that would be appropriate for my major and concentration, such as the Physical Therapy Club, but mainly, I chose to check out clubs that I would continuously look forward to attending and meeting new people. This event is extremely important, especially to incoming freshmen, because it helps us to get more engaged. It helps us to feel like we belong at Stockton, and I would say this event was pretty successful in doing just that.