1987

The assignment from the DAM editors this month was to celebrate "Dartmouth's Gifts to the World." It is challenging for me to write about our own gifts six short years after graduation. Yet '87s are out there giving all we have as teachers, doctors, manufacturers, craftsmen, attorneys, daughters and sons, even parents. How can we define who has "given" the most? I concluded that it is all of us, in our own way. (Perhaps this is an opportune time to remind you that I can only write about what I know and it is you who must write to inform me!) But philosophizing aside, I was still on deadline. So I thought I'd highlight some areas to which '87s have contributed as of late.

Sports: At the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, our own Liz McIntyre competed as a free-style skier and won silver in the moguls competition! That's got to be a great thrill. Congratulations, Liz.

Politics: A Boston Globe article describing the under-30 generation calls ours a culture of debt, one in which loans are a permanent fixture. In the decade we came of age, the public debt exploded from $1 trillion to about $4 trillion." Yikes! Jon Cowan is concerned about this huge problem and is doing something about it. His anti-deficit group, Lead or Leave, claims 15,000 members and 100-150 chapters across the U.S. Last summer a Lead or Leave demonstration called for the symbolic casting of 4,000 pennies, each representing $1 billion of the federal deficit, on the Capitol steps. Probably shook up some senators!

Publishing: Losing It: The Virginity Myth is a new collection of personal stories edited by Louis Crosier. I'll let you guess what the stories are about. A few years back Louis published a collection of stories told in a similar style, that one about boarding school life.

Parenting: Carolyn Negley Wester and husband Bill are the delighted parents of C. William, or Billy, born at the end of December. Carolyn then turned around to take her medical boards less than a month later, no small feat in itself. As a fellow alum said approvingly, "a true Dartmouth woman." Best of luck to the new family!

In parting, remember: as poet George Meredith said, "The sword of common sense is our surest gift." Hope you're having a lovely spring.

Six Vermont Avenue, Barrington, RI 02806

Jon Cowan's antideficit group, Lead or Leave, called for the casting of 4,000 pennies on the Capitol steps. MEG CRONE RAMSDEN '87