Ned Donovan - Ithaca ‘12

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been here at school freaking out about life and the things I have to do, because everything is so hectic right now.  It was only today, that I had a sort of epiphany, where I realized just how confined to my own program I am right now.  Looking at the trials and tribulations of my friends and family I realize just how much less stressful my life is than I thought.  Specifically my brother and my father have been having truly stressful and trying months.  We’ll start with my father. My dad (Michael Donovan, and no, not the director who is all over my resumé; they are different people) is a city councilman in Allentown Pennsylvania. Earlier this year he was assaulted by some teenagers he asked to stop go-karting in a park they were not allowed to be riding motorized vehicles in.  One kid punched him in the face and broke his cheek bone.  My father, did not push the full wrath of god upon this kid to make an example of him, instead he talked with the boy, the judge, and the boy’s father, and came up with a suitable juvenile sentence.  I can tell you if I had been hit, I would have gone after him in a heartbeat.  Later on this year my father went next door late at night to ask his neighbors to quiet down and to bring their barking dog inside.  When he knocked on the door, he was answered by an angry woman who was screaming at him, and she slammed her glass door in his face.  The door shattered, covering him in glass, and he (wisely) left the scene after calling the police.  Soon after he was served with two cases, one for criminal harassment, and one for destruction of property (she maintains that he broke her door).  The harassment case was thrown out by the judge at the end of the summer, and the DOP case was voluntarily removed by the complainant after receiving a letter detailing the penalties for the consequences of wrongful use of civil proceedings and abuse of process.  You can read the details here on Bernie O’Hare’s blog.  The time between the charges being dealt, and the dismissing of the cases was a few months, however, and over that time many biting personalities in Allentown were able to take potshots at my father over the case (Bill Villa being the #1 instigator).  These people have been coming after my father a lot recently, and this is the other trial my father is constantly facing.  On his public blog he hopes to allow a forum for people to get ideas through to the city council.  As with all political public blogs, these bring out the best and worst of people.  Recently he’s been getting a lot of the worst from Bill Villa and his supporters.  In that blog post I just linked, Mr.

Hey everyone,

I would just like to give a huge shout-out to my brother Will Donovan today.  It’s his 25th Birthday, so swing by his facebook page, shoot him an e-mail, visit his website (http://www.williamcurtisdonovan.com), and say happy birthday to him!
We’re going to go celebrate his birthday now here in Small Point.

All the best buddy, have a kickass birthday, and an awesome year.

~Ned

I’ve been trying for a couple weeks to address this issue here at IC.  Some background.  A piece was written by a member of the class of 2008 named Emily McNeil.  She wrote about her experience being a volunteer helping people in the West Bank, specifically she was supporting the Palestinian civilians who are being wronged by the Israeli citizens and military.  Her piece was published in the IC View, a monthly send out to parents, students, and alumni of Ithaca College.   Many alumni rose up claiming this was an anti-jewish piece, a pro-hamas piece, or many other awful things.  This pressured the President into writing a formal apology in the next IC View, as well as forcing the IC View editor to do the same, and creating a new review board for IC View submissions.  Many members of the student body have risen up about how this is essentially censorship.

The piece can be read here.  Please read it, it’s a great piece which really closely examines the awful circumstances these people are placed in.  There is also nothing inflammatory about it.  You can read the President’s apology here, and the editor’s apology here.  

I was torn as to how I felt about the piece, my first problem being that her point has been made moot.

Hey everyone,

my brother sent this to me, this is written by a friend of his.  He has a followup post in her honor on his own page.
Read and enjoy, it’s funny, and kind of touching in a way…it’s also completely false (my brother has not disappeared off the face of the planet…I talked to him earlier today)

http://13brokenpencils.blogspot.com/2009/01/did-you-know-him.html

Much love to everyone,
~Ned Donovan

Hey everyone,

I’m not going to do this every time my brother has an article, but this is freaking exciting!  Therefore I’m just going to post this one as well.  Check it out.  Again you can follow Will’s work on his website, and the original article can be found here.

 

BEIRUT: Agreements, not controversy, dominated a discussion at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Tuesday between Rami Khouri and Michael Young, the former a regular contributor to The Daily Star’s Opinion section and the latter its editor. The debate was sponsored by AUB’s Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR), and entitled, “The Middle East Policies of the Bush and Obama Administrations.”

Khouri and Young agreed in principal on a majority of subjects. The event largely focused on the realities of a post-Saddam Middle East, the persistence of Arab dictatorial regimes and their de facto support by America both militarily and politically, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Basic disagreement, which remained cordial and often unspecific, came in the form of Khouri’s optimism for the future Obama administration’s ability to achieve success in the Middle East, versus Young’s pessimism that the incoming president-elect will lack the means and the leverage to achieve much in the way of progress.

Regarding Iraq, Young’s perspective was that the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baathist regime in Baghdad was ultimately a positive event, both for Arabs and for the West.