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October 16, 2008 By Bonnie Keane, Senior All-American Girls Playing the All-American Game: Understanding American Identity through the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954) Baseball, “America’s game”, generally has belonged to the realm of men. During World War II, however, women entered into this men’s world. Although short lived, the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which operated from 1943 to 1954, represented “All-American” ideals and brought the national pastime to middle America when the future of men’s baseball was bleak. Using a mixture of both primary and secondary sources, including an in depth interview with a former player, I examine the place of this unique phenomenon in American sports. The AAGPBL sought to highlight many attributes that defined “All-Americanism”, including feminine beauty, wholesomeness, hard work, patriotism and hometown pride, creating a prime example of an attempt to showcase American ideals. I look at how this novel league emerged, its place in post-war society, and how participants viewed it. Also, because appearances and regulations were crucial to the League’s success, I pay careful attention to how fans regarded the spectacle and how those impressions changed over time. Nevertheless, the United States returned to normal after the war, men came home, and Rosie the right fielder returned to the kitchen; thus the both the roar of the crowds and the lights dimmed in 1954.
______________________________________________________________ “Which Life Would You Choose?”: A Pithy Treatise on the Love of Wisdom in Plato’s Republic When seeking to discover the structure of Plato’s Republic, many “Word and Image” students (among other philosophical neophytes) are left in a state of intellectual limbo, I unsure of how to proceed. In this paper, I provide the following suggestion: “Begin again, but this time, starting from the end.” Book 10 of the Republic, and particularly the Myth of Er, at first present the reader with a confusing, and seemingly contradictory, set of arguments. Why after decrying the dangers of poetry and exiling the poets from the city does Socrates tell, of all things, a story? I argue that the Myth of Er not only reveals the true trajectory of Plato's Republic as a text concerned with justice in the soul, but also provides an exemplary "chooser" of the philosophical way – Odysseus. In selecting the life of a private individual who does his own work, Odysseus demonstrates how wisdom, that which is sought after like a lover by true philosophers, not only informs but forms an entire way of life. As Pierre Hadot suggests, "wisdom is nothing more than the vision of things as they are…and also nothing more than the mode of being and living that should correspond to this vision." Only upon such a reading of the Myth of Er, and in turn the Republic as a whole, is the beauty of Socratic storytelling and the importance of Odysseus's choice for our own lives most clearly revealed. Excerpts from Windstruck: A view of Chicago from the sidewalks By Lilia Oakey, Sophomore As an avid people watcher, I have always been amazed by homeless people. And, because of growing up in Chicago, there has never been a shortage of subjects to observe. When I decided to start writing a collection of creative works about Chicago, I was eager to talk to my favorite Chicago inhabitants. After approaching a homeless man, buying him lunch, and discussing my home city with him for over an hour, I couldn’t wait to ask another. Three years and many “lunch talks” later, I have composed a collection of creative non-fiction works, short fiction stories, and memoirs about Chicago through the eyes of the homeless and those that have had memorable encounters with them
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