Field Hockey: Kaars Sijpesteijn receives additional honors
Junior Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn, a 2006 First Team All-American, was honored again this week as ACC Player of the Week. She was also named to the National Honor Roll by the Web site womensfieldhockey.com.

Kaars Sispesteijn scored one goal and was a significant part of Virginia’s defense in its 5-2 victory against Duke last weekend.

Men’s Cross Country: Team earns national ranking

After racking up its second ACC title in three years, the Virginia men’s cross country team earned the No. 9 ranking by the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches’ Association.

The top-10 ranking is the first for Virginia coach Jason Dunn and the highest for Virginia since 1984, when the Cavaliers finished fifth at the NCAA Championships.

Swimming and Diving: Lewis named ACC Performer of the Week

Senior swimmer Jessica Lewis was named the women’s ACC Performer of the Week for her first honor of the season. Lewis won the 100 and 200 freestyle relays and claimed the best times in the league last week.

Football: Miami game set for 7:15 p.m.

Miami’s last game in the Orange Bowl, against Virginia, will take place at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 10 and will be broadcast nationally by either ESPNU or ESPN2.

On an already star-studded Cavalier men’s tennis team, yet another standout distinguished himself last week.

Junior Dominic Inglot defeated Virginia Tech senior Albert Larregola to claim the ITA Mideast Regional Singles Championship. Inglot became the first Cavalier to claim the title, and qualified for the ITA National Championships match, to be held Thursday to Sunday at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Dominic was born in London,where he played high school tennis at St. Benedict’s School. Athletics are in his blood; his father, Andrei, played professional soccer. Inglot also has a film credit to his name; he served as a tennis double for Paul Bettany, who played Peter Colt in the 2004 movie “Wimbledon.”

“In London, the attitude is different,” Inglot said. “In the U.S., players are much more confident, aggressive and positive. Players are much more expressive with their body language. You’re supposed to show everyone else how much you want to win. English players are much more introverted.”

Inglot sat out his first year because of NCAA rules. Though many players would be frustrated by having to sit out, the year off provided Inglot with a low-pressure transition period during which he could get used to playing in the States. The 2006-07 season was his first year competing at the collegiate level. It was a successful start to his career, as he finished the season in the ITA Singles Rankings with a 16-13 record. He also joined forces with sophomore Houston Barrick to form a successful doubles team, compiling a 27-6 record and reaching as high as No. 40 in the ITA Doubles Rankings. Inglot’s biggest strengths are his big serve and his ability to tighten his game up and play the percentages, according to coach Brian Boland. His mental makeup is also very good, as he doesn’t let adversity affect his game. Inglot also exemplifies the scholar athlete ideal.

“Dom is a tremendous student-athlete,” Boland said. “He has managed to play good tennis and earn good grades in the Commerce School.”

Inglot said he is excited about the chance to play at the National Championships.

“I feel very confident,” he said. “I put in two or three solid weeks of training before the Mideast Championships, and they’re paying off. I can’t wait, especially since I really like playing indoors.”

Inglot also talked about several players from other schools that could have a big impact on the results of the tournament. Ole Miss senior Erling Tveit finished last season ranked No. 8 in singles and made the quarterfinals at the national tournament. He also said that he could end up facing senior teammates Somdev Devvarman or Treat Huey, and that they could provide the stiffest competition of all.

“Playing against a teammate is a bit weird, because no matter what, someone that you want to do well will lose,” Inglot said. “But I’m not going to let it faze me if it does happen. At the end of the day, it’s just a match. Afterwards, we go home, and we’re back to being friends again.”

The Virginia club soccer team is back from this weekend’s National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Regionals in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where it tied two matches and an opponent forfeited in the last. The team has secured a spot in the Open Division Championships.

Steep competition

Each year, between 100 and 120 men try out for the Virginia club soccer team, and roughly eight to 15 make the team, according to club President Russell Korte.

“Anywhere from five to 10 percent make it,” Korte said. “It’s pretty tough, and even harder to evaluate all the people.”

A significant proportion of the 33-member team, Korte said, are players who had to try out more than once.

“There are eight fourth- [and fifth-] years on the team, and four of us have been on the team since first year,” Korte said.

One reason the team is one of the most competitive club sports on Grounds, senior forward Billy Butler said, is the presence of ex-varsity team players on the club team.

Korte, who has been on the team since he was a freshman, said the team has played in nationals every year in recent memory.

This year, the Cavaliers will head to Pensacola, Fla. in mid-November to play in the Open Division of the Club Soccer Championships.

The Open Division includes teams that did not advance to semi-finals during regionals, according to Korte.

“We didn’t get through because the other team in our bracket had three wins,” Butler said. “But after this tournament, we know what we are capable of and we know we can compete on a big level at nationals because we saw a lot of the competition at regionals.”

Butler said the team saw a number of opponents at regionals that it will face in Pensacola.

Korte said, in his experience, Virginia has played in both the Championship Division and the Open Division, and both are extremely competitive.

Getting their heads in the game

Club soccer operates as a well-oiled machine both on and off the field. The squad has three two-hour practices a week and organizes fundraisers to supplement contracted independent organization funding from Student Council. The team works concessions at various University and John Paul Jones Arena events for additional financial help that allows the team to travel to competitions, Korte said.

The Cavaliers usually play other club teams in Virginia before heading to out-of-state tournaments, including regional and national competitions. Club team members are confident in their team’s ability to face both local and out-of-town opponents.

“We are easily the best team in the state,” sophomore goalie Kevin Russell said.

This year at regionals, Butler said he expected the team would perform better but noted, however, that the team did not lose any matches after the 10-hour drive to the tournament.

“It was rough timing,” Butler said. “We had two games the night we got there. We tied the top seed, Auburn, and then we almost squeezed a victory out of George Mason University but we ended up tying them.”

The other team forfeited, he added, so Virginia did not have an opportunity to push through to the semi-finals.

Bonding and brotherhood

The club soccer team has given its members not only the opportunity to engage in intercollegiate competitive sports, but members of the team said they also have found a family within the team.

“Whenever we’re not on the field, we’re laughing and having a good time, doing stupid things and making fun of each other,” Butler said.

Butler said the team even has a social chair, senior midfielder and defender Will Kearns.

“When we meet outside practice and games, we really get to know each other and become better teammates on a different level,” Kearns said.

Sophomore defender and midfielder Eric Scofield said he was new to the team this year, yet had no problem fitting in with older members of the team.

“Being a new person, camaraderie is very important,” Scofield said. “We gelled very quickly.”

Russell said he agrees that finding a bond on and off the field helps the team’s performance.

“To do well, you have to gel,” Russell said.

Russell said he made the team as a freshman, noting the efforts of the team to include him in social events made him feel more comfortable with the team.

The older guys “made it a point to invite me out outside practices,” Russell said. “There is a huge effort to get younger guys involved.”

For some team members, playing club soccer has provided an opportunity to get to know former opponents.

“Some of us competed against each other in high school,” Butler said. “For example, the last time I saw [Kearns] before U.Va. was in a high school state championship semi-final match.”

Kearns also said it was fun to see familiar faces as a freshman on the soccer field.

“It was good to play with the people I had competed against in high school,” Kearns said.

Irreplaceable

Team members said club soccer has been an unbeatable aspect of their college careers.

“Club soccer is such a big part of my University experience that I want to continue to play soccer down the road,” Butler said. “I’ll definitely teach my kids how to play soccer as soon as they can walk.”

Korte said the team has also been a positive experience for him.

“When I left high school, I thought my career was over,” Korte said. “I couldn’t have imagined anything better than playing with this club team.”

Russell and Scofield said they plan to continue their club careers in the next two years, adding, however, they cannot imagine what the team will be like without the current seniors.

Scofield said Korte’s “word is law,” and that “as an older presence on the team, Korte can get you pumped up.”

Scofield added that all club soccer players are teammates now and “friends for life.”

For Virginia wrestling, the future is here. With a roster filled out by a consensus top-10 recruiting class in coach Steve Garland’s second season, the Cavaliers look to push themselves into the nation’s elite. Virginia will feature a nucleus of experienced upperclassmen constantly pushed by one of the most highly anticipated recruiting classes in program history.

“The first thing is the amount of talent, the amount of depth in the class,” Garland said about the freshmen. “Every single guy we’ve brought in is trying to vie for a starting spot.”

The returning starters cannot be overlooked, however, and they have gained national recognition as well. Among its returning starters Virginia has four wrestlers ranked among the nation’s preseason top 30 in their weight classes.

Junior Rocco Caponi leads the Cavaliers with a ninth-place ranking at 184 pounds. After a strong finish to last season, junior Eric Albright ranks 12th at 133 pounds. Sophomore Brent Jones, who redshirted last season, comes in ranked 19th at 197 pounds, and sophomore Kellon Balum is ranked 26th at 141 pounds.

“I truly believe that [Jones] is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the United States,” Garland said. Concerning Caponi, he added, “being seeded at Nationals as a redshirt sophomore is pretty darn impressive. He, honestly, legitimately should be an All-American.”

The incoming recruits will figure immediately in some of the starting position battles. Even if the freshmen do not start, their presence can serve as an added incentive for the upperclassmen to work harder.

Given the team’s depth of talent, the level of competition in practice will increase, and ideally, carry over into the Cavaliers’ performances on the mat.

“As far as talent goes, we do expect big things for them,” Garland said of the freshmen. “The key is to know they are going to make mistakes, and we have to be patient … but at the end of the day, it’s amazing when you do have an incredible resource to throw out there.”

Virginia returns two starters at 125 pounds who have 20 wins in a season, sophomore Ross Gitomer and junior Anthony Burke. Gitomer will be challenged by Burke, who redshirted last season, and freshman Wyatt Anderson.

Albright returns as the starter at 133 pounds after garnering ACC runner-up honors and winning three matches at the NCAA Championship.

Balum, the defending ACC runner-up, will face the toughest battle for the starting spot at 141 pounds against freshmen Scott O’Donnell and Nick Nelson. Both freshmen were top-five recruits coming out of high school and both won state championships.

“It’s amazing that we finally have depth but at the same time it poses some interesting problems,” Garland said, “You’ve got three unbelievable wrestlers.”

The Cavaliers have a four-way battle for the starting spot at 149 pounds. Sophomore Pat Riley has the most promise after a strong preseason, but he will be challenged by junior Peter Ferrara and freshmen Shawn Harris and Dave Ebbott.

Junior Drew DiPasquale, a former ACC runner-up who posted 17 wins last season, returns to the starting spot for the Cavaliers at 157 pounds. Redshirt freshman Beau Fisher and true freshman Danny Gonsor will battle for time behind him.

Junior Mike Sewell moves up from 157 to 165 pounds this season, where he will contend with redshirt freshman Brent Fiorito and true freshman Michael Chaires. Chaires, a two-time state champion and top-three national recruit, will give Sewell and Fiorito a run for their money.

Fifth-year senior Mike Grogan, a two-time ACC runner-up, and freshman Chris Henrich, last season’s National Prep Champion, will vie for the starting spot at 174 pounds.

As a two-time NCAA qualifier, Caponi retains the starting slot at 184 pounds and looks to repeat as ACC champion.

“The young guys are great. I like the energy they’ve brought into the room,” Caponi said. “The best thing [about the start of the season] is just getting that first match out of the way. I’m anxious to just get out there and compete.”

Jones returns to the 197-pound class from a redshirt season with some national attention but also a self-aware composure that should prove useful on the mat.

“Redshirt season is kind of hard. You get a lot better, you do a lot wrestling, a lot of working on your moves,” Jones said. “[But] going to the matches and watching the rest of the team when I’m not competing is hard. One of the biggest things I’m excited for this weekend and the season is coming back and representing the school.”

At heavyweight sophomores Jack Danilkowicz and Calvin Cardillo will compete for the starting spot. Danilkowicz posted a 7-9 record last season, while Cardillo moves up two classes from 184 pounds.

The Cavaliers begin their season Saturday with the U.Va. Quad Meet at Memorial Gymnasium against Wagner, Anderson and Virginia Military Institute.

“I just want our guys to be aggressive. I want them to score points,” Garland said. “How you do on Saturday when the lights are on, and [there's] the referee and the nerves, that’s all that really counts.

The No. 14 Virginia men’s soccer team’s senior class improved its overall record to 57-18-7 last night with a 4-0 win against Mercer.

The shut-out victory, on the heels of last Friday’s unsettling 2-1 overtime loss to Duke, is exactly how the Cavaliers had hoped to finish up their five-game homestand before closing out the regular season on the road.

“Any time you get a win you are happy, but the energy level and the execution and the togetherness tonight reminded me of the beginning of this season,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “We have had a few bumps these last two weeks of conference play but it really feels like the start of a new season — the energy tonight, that is a good sign.”

Indeed the Cavaliers, dressed all in white, looked light on their feet and sharp on the ball as they pelted the Bears’ goal and out-shot Mercer 18-2.

Although it was senior night, it was sophomore Ross LaBauex who gave an MVP performance. Scoring twice in the first half, he not only got Virginia out to the early lead but also gave the team a two-goal cushion. Indeed, having lost their last three ACC matches 2-1, despite taking an early 1-0 lead in two of them, notching that second goal has lately proved nearly impossible for the Cavaliers.

“Its good to get it because it is just confidence for the team — score one than score another,” LaBauex said.

Sophomore Matt Mitchell also worked tirelessly on offense, controlling the right side, creating opportunities and waiting for a chance to score his second career goal. His efforts were rewarded in the 68th minute as midfielders sophomore Jonathan Villanueva and senior Chris Tierney worked together to feed Mitchell the ball.

“I am feeling confident now; I have been patient these last eight or nine games,” Mitchell said. “But now I am in a rhythm and I feel better since getting that first goal against Duke so hopefully I start scoring more and more.”

With 24 of the 28 Cavaliers on the roster seeing action last night, Gelnovatch showcased his departing seniors and managed his starters’ minutes.

“It was nice to get [Kyle] Rudzinski the start in goal, everyone was happy for him,” Gelnovatch said. “We didn’t want to look past tonight but it was nice to get some new guys in there while at the same time getting our starters some minutes and keeping them sharp.”

With less than two minutes to go and a 3-0 lead, Cavalier fans were relieved to know that unlike Friday, Virginia would not lose in the final seconds of regulation. Nevertheless, junior Nino DiMaggio refused to ease up on senior Bears’ goalkeepr Roberto Cronenbold. With just 20 seconds remaining, DiMaggio scored his first goal of the season and proved that the Cavaliers, like the Blue Devils, are capable of beating the clock.

“That [Duke] loss really took it out of us — we all took the weekend to look at ourselves in the mirror and we had a good meeting on Monday,” Gelnovatch said. “I really feel good about this team and tonight it showed.”

“I want President Bush to die in flames,” cries an energetic young Muslim girl in a school in Gaza. “I want to stab Ariel Sharon in the back because of the Palestinians,” exclaims another. This propaganda was broadcast to more than 100 schools in the film “Obsession,” as part of Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week.

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, commemorated during the week of Oct. 22-26, was the brainchild of David Horowitz and his Terrorism Awareness Project. The campaign’s Web site stated its two main goals. The first was to educate the community regarding the true nature of Islamic radicalism, which involved dispelling the leftist myth that linking radical Islam to the war on terror was “Islamophobic.” The second and equally important goal was to “rally American students to defend their country” and support the war on terror. In addition to being a hate-driven campaign, the movement actually undermined and contradicted its own goals of education and helping America combat terrorism.

The campaign’s proponents claimed that they engaged in an essential and rare educational exercise that furthered the community’s knowledge regarding terrorism in general and Islamic radicalism in particular. Marie Cohen, president for Hoos for Israel and co-president of Students Defending Democracy at the University, argued during the screening of the film “Obsession” that there was a “lack of understanding” about the terrorist threat, and that the activity was a means to “educate members of the University community.” Horowitz, in an interview with the Emory Wheel, suggested that sparking the divisive campaign had to be done because “the alternative of it is, you can’t discuss it. And I think that’s dangerous.”

But the logic behind this “education” argument is misguided. The question is not whether education is needed regarding radical Islam, but rather what form of education we should seek to promote and which form best achieves the goal of education. Horowitz and his minions make the false assumption that going on a week-long hate campaign against what they view as a monolithic religious force is the best way to achieve the goal of education. But there are more constructive ways to promote the same goal: At Harvard University, the Harvard Islamic Society discussed the differences between scholarly and misguided readings of the Quran to analyze where radical Islamists where manipulating or corrupting true religious orthodoxy.

On a related point, the content of this “campaign of education” was based on misguided conceptions relating to radical Islam and terrorism. First, as several others have pointed out, the film “Obsession,” screened as a main pillar of the week-long campaign, rejects a more academic, educational examination of radical Islam for a more propagandistic one. It neglects relevant facts such as how Ayatollah Khomeini actually created his own interpretation of religious authority in Iran rather than one based entirely on Koranic authority, or how colonial experiences and corrupt regimes gave way to populist Islamic movements like the Muslim Brotherhood.

This is because true education actually undermines, rather than promotes, the simplistic, monolithic view of Islam that Horowitz promotes. To say that Iran, the Islamic Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah are all members of one Islamic faith based on a deterministic conception of terrorism is much easier than straining to recognize that reality is far more nuanced.

The second claim is that this campaign would rally American students to defend their country and implicitly help further the war on terrorism that America is fighting. But if we assume our greatest allies against militant Islam and terrorism are moderate Muslims, then the campaign has actually alienated and angered them rather than brought them to our side against a threat they themselves consider sinister and destructive.

How would a moderate Muslim person respond to allegations that he or she is viewed in the same light as these radical, cold-blooded Islamic militants? That all their mosques are instruments for preaching messages to bomb the United States? That the youth are all being forcibly mobilized as part of this ideology of hate like Hitler’s Boy Scouts? This is hardly the best way to mobilize moderate Muslims to our side to win the war on terror. Horowitz and company are working contrary to their own goal of helping defend this country. A better strategy would contrast these radical views with grassroot movements by moderate Muslims to counter this emerging radical threat.

If ignorant individuals feel they should exercise free speech but refuse to exercise their common sense and rationality to ensure they are not contradicting themselves and undermining their own objectives, we should laugh and laugh hard, because Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is neither an educational exercise nor a benefit for America in its war on terrorism. In fact, it subordinates these two noble goals and seeks to propagate a false and narrow version of Islam that might actually harm the nation’s security, rather than promote it. And the only kind of awareness this week has promoted is a wider knowledge of these comical contradictions and ignorance.

Prashanth Parameswaran’s column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at pparameswaran@cavalierdaily.com.

TWO YEARS: That is how long it took our “justice” system to fix an atrocious sentencing that served anything but justice. Genarlow Wilson was finally released Friday after two years of a 10-year prison sentence. Though the end result was finally made right, his case demonstrates incompetence within the legal system. The sequence of events was not simply bad luck — it resulted from poor judges, lawyers and legislation when easy solutions were well within grasp.

When Wilson was 17, he and several others were caught on tape having consensual oral sex with a 15-year old at a 2003 New Year’s Eve party. Though she was just two years younger than him, because she was under the age of consent Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation. Provisions do exist for consent to be taken into account when the two parties are similar in age, but they only apply for sexual intercourse. Prosecutors offered plea deals to 21-year-old Wilson and his co-defendants, but while co-defendants accepted deals, Wilson did not want the label of being a “sex offender” or “child molester.” Instead he went to trial where he was declared guilty by a jury that did not know that aggravated child molestation carried a 10-year minimum mandatory sentence.

Since then, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a decision Friday that Wilson’s punishment was cruel and unusual under state and the U.S. Constitution. After two years in prison, Genarlow Wilson was allowed to return home to his family.

Clearly, Wilson made a mistake. According to testimony, Wilson and his friends drank bourbon and smoked marijuana at the party. They may have taken advantage of the situation of an intoxicated, underage girl. Such crimes should not be taken with a grain of salt, but no one believes the crime deserved 10 years in prison — not even the state of Georgia. The year after Wilson was sentenced, the Georgia General Assembly changed the law to make consensual sex between teenagers a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison. Strangely, they wrote the law so it could not be applied retroactively to Wilson’s case.

Lawyers and judges in the state of Georgia failed to act properly in Wilson’s case from day one. The letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law, was applied in this case. The harsh mandatory 10-year minimum sentence was intended to keep child predators in prison, not to punish teenagers who had a lapse in judgment. The prosecutors in this case should not have applied these charges to Wilson in the first place and, instead, should have charged him more appropriately for the crime he committed.

The second error was the writing of the legislation. It is unconceivable to me what could have been gained (besides the avoidance of retrial requests) by not allowing the law to be applied retroactively. No justification of this aspect of the law has been made by legislators of that state through the media and, likely, none exists. If this act is only punishable by a year today, there is no reason it should be punishable by 10 years just a year ago.

Even the Georgia Supreme Court decision, the very decision that freed Wilson, makes one shake his or her head. In a case with well-documented injustices, the Georgia Supreme Court only ruled 4-3 to uphold a lower court’s ruling that the sentence was cruel and unusual. Justice George H. Carley argued in a dissenting opinion that the ruling would set a dangerous precedent. “Any and all defendants who were ever convicted of aggravated child molestation and sentenced for a felony… similar to Wilson are entitled… to be completely discharged from lawful custody,” Carley wrote.

To Carley, the potential of a bad precedent is more important than setting right Wilson’s case. That decision shows complete ignorance of the consequences of law. The 10-year sentence was clearly disproportionate with the crime, but it seems that Carley did not understand that a young man’s life hung in the balance of his opinion. Nor did he consider the emotional impact of the wrongful sentence within both Wilson’s family and the community. While Carley surely could recite the trivial details of Georgia law, he clearly needs to reach outside of himself to find an ounce of compassion.

Genarlow Wilson committed a crime, but became the victim. He became a victim of overly ambitious prosecutors, he became a victim of poorly written legislation, and he almost became a victim of judges without any emotion or sense of reality. Unfortunately, these judges or legislators face no retribution or prison time — they continue to live comfortably with neither chance nor hope of improvement.

Rajesh Jain’s column runs on Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at rjain@cavalierdaily.com.

“IF WE’RE an arrogant nation, they will resent us. If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they will welcome us.” – George W. Bush, Oct. 11, 2000.

Such lofty sentiments, such disastrous results. It’s possible that Bush didn’t believe those lines when he uttered them in his second debate against Al Gore, for he is an arrogant man and it’s difficult to see how he could have led America in anything but an arrogant direction. It’s also possible that he did believe in “strategic humility,” as he later put it, but that he abandoned that belief to the exigencies of the war on terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001. Or it could be that like his ideological forbear, Ronald Reagan, Bush is simply too detached from the everyday demands of his presidency to notice when policies carried on in his name contradict his previously stated belief in small government, balanced budgets and, yes, enlightened world leadership.

One way or another, America has become an arrogant nation under George W. Bush and the first task of the next president is to change that. And for that task, the best next president we could pick is Barack Obama.

The junior senator from Illinois brought his campaign to Charlottesville Monday night, packing the Downtown Mall Pavilion for a rally that was admittedly long on hype and short on substance. But he made quite clear his belief that American foreign policy ought to make a U-turn in both style and substance under the next administration.

“I do not accept that there’s a contradiction between our national security and our standing in the world,” Obama said. “Those things aren’t contradictory, they’re complementary.”

Sounds a bit like candidate Bush. But unlike President Bush, Obama’s policies reflect an understanding of the extent to which international perceptions of America as the benign superpower contributed to American security in the pre-Bush era. Monday, Obama reiterated his intention to withdraw American troops from Iraq in short order, ending a conflict that has been a political and strategic disaster for the United States, as well as his intention to close down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, which has become an international symbol of the moral bankruptcy of the Bush administration. He also declared a willingness to meet with any foreign leader, friendly or otherwise, and a commitment to ending the “climate of fear” that has informed American foreign policy under the Bush administration.

These days, Bush barely pays lip service to multilateralism and he can’t resist the urge to tear up a treaty, dismiss an ally or even start a war when he thinks he can get away with it. By contrast, Obama seems to recognize that the genius of American foreign policy has long been in using our superpower not to threaten other nations, but to create international systems of security and economy that other nations have a stake in preserving. “I want to go before the United Nations as the next president,” Obama said, “And tell them that America is back and America is ready to lead.”

Similar things have been said by most of the Democratic candidates, but what sets Obama apart is the fact that he is more a man of the world than any of them. The son of a Kenyan and a Kansan, Obama was raised in Hawaii and, for several years, in Indonesia, before moving on to California, New York and Chicago. It’s easy to overstate the value of international bloodlines or time spent living abroad, but it’s not farfetched to think that a president who has lived among the poor of other countries would have a nuanced understanding of their aspirations that would show up in his foreign policy. President Bush has encouraged the belief that our enemies are animated by some blind desire to harm America, but President Obama might realize that most of them would settle for security, stability and some measure of dignity in life.

Of course, Obama lacks experience at the high levels of government where big foreign policy decisions are made. But who cares? Few modern presidents have had meaningful foreign policy experience upon taking office and, as the Bush administration has taught us, experience is no substitute for good judgment. Obama has a short résumé, to be sure, but he has a mature vision for our role in the world that may yet fulfill Bush’s stillborn ideal of a humble America, strong enough to defend itself and smart enough to avoid giving needless threats or slights.

The single greatest failure of the Bush administration was to abandon America’s longtime commitment to peaceful world leadership for a foreign policy of fear and violence that inspires our enemies and alienates our most natural allies. As Gov. Tim Kaine said by way of introduction, “Barack Obama has a unique ability to send a message to the rest of the world” that the enlightened America is back.

Alec Solotorovsky’s column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at asolotorovsky@cavalierdaily.com.

Once upon a Lawn night dreary, while Bob pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of fundraising lore,

While Bob nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping the pavilion door.

“Tis some visitor,” he muttered, “tapping my pavilion door –

Drunken frat boys, nothing more.”

But then Bob flung the door wide, setting some donor biographies aside,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.

Not the least obeisance made he; not a penny wasted nor stayed he;

But, with mien of (rich!) lord or lady, perched above the pavilion door –

Perched upon a bust of Jefferson just above the chamber door –

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

But the raven, sitting lonely on the pricey bust, spoke only,

three words, as if from the Board of Visitors did his soul outpour.

Nothing further then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered –

Till Bob uttered “Lawnies protested once before for using pavilions clearly to whore

Jefferson’s dream in a clever scheme. My party pad this will remain as before.”

Then the bird cried, “Raise some more!”

“Profit!” said he, “thing of evil! — profit still, if bird or devil! –

Whether streaker sent, or whether Alumni Hall tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this Academical Village enchanted –

On this snazzy home by finances haunted — tell me truly, I implore –

Is there — Know you not the Capital Campaign? — tell me — pay me, I implore!’

Quoth the raven, “Raise some more!”

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is pitting

little holes hurling nickels, dimes and pennies at the pavilion door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of Casteen’s that now are dreaming,

of stacks of donor money casting one looming shadow on the floor;

And his soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted — Raise some more!

As a kid, my parents used to take me on day trips to places within a couple hours drive of the Washington, D.C. area. We frequently visited locales like Harpers Ferry, W.Va., famous for John Brown’s armory raid, and Berkeley Springs, Va., where I hunted for pet crayfish in George Washington’s outdoor bathtub. But for all my fond memories of these destinations, I remember most looking forward to visiting Amish country in Lancaster, Pa. for its Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

The foods prepared by the Pennsylvania Dutch, who colonized the southeastern part of the state in the 1700s, are characterized by their simplicity. The recipes rely on pantry staples — meats and dairy products — all of which were produced on local farms. Farmers’ wives capitalize on the seasonality of the farms by featuring homegrown fruits and vegetables — such as green beans, beets and cabbage — in the meals and various pickled condiments. I’d describe Pennsylvania Dutch cooking as somewhat akin to the so-called comfort food of the South in its heartiness and penchant for accompanying side dishes — in fact, the German ancestry of the settlers is readily seen in the wholesome fare. Yet with the farming influence, their cooking incorporates more than just meat and potatoes, which adds a lightness to these dishes rooted in German culinary tradition, long known to overwhelm appetites and fill stomachs to the brim.

One of these dishes is bott boi, the closest translation of which from the Deitsch language spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch to English is actually “pot pie.” But it isn’t your standard pot pie with a heavy lard crust. Instead, this “pot pie” lacks a crust, which is replaced by square egg noodles set amid a substantial chicken broth. Without fail, I would always order bott boi as my meal at the Amish Barn, our restaurant pit stop in Lancaster. After not having visited for several years, you can imagine my excitement to return last spring to order my tried and true dish. Sadly, someone didn’t do her research and ended up driving there on a Sunday — when Amish restaurants are closed. But this foiled plan spurred another one in its stead: I scoured the Internet for a recipe.

The first one I stumbled upon was a bare bones version that basically entailed putting a whole chicken in a pot and simmering it with some vegetables, then adding the bott boi noodles to finish. I kid you not, this was the Web site’s “recipe,” with no measurements to be found. So armed with these minimal instructions, I devised a recipe of my own, with a few caveats. First, in trying to speed up the cooking time, I used chicken thighs rather than a whole chicken. The bones and fat of the thighs create a rich stock in no time flat. The whole recipe shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes, start to finish. Second, real bott boi noodles are a homemade mixture of eggs, flour, butter and water. I have seen these noodles for sale at some of the Lancaster markets, but I substituted plain egg noodles as an easy and readily available alternative. So without further ado …

Chicken Bott Boi

4 chicken thighs, bones in and skin on

5 cups water

1 yellow onion

1 carrot

2 white potatoes, unpeeled

Plenty of salt and pepper

2 bay leaves

Half a 12-ounce bag of egg noodles

1. Place a large soup pot on the stove over medium heat. Add the chicken thighs and water (enough to cover thighs). In the meantime, chop up the onion, carrot and potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Add to pot, along with salt, pepper and bay leaves. Let boil.

2. Once the thighs are cooked through, after about 20 minutes, remove them from the pot. Once they are cool enough to handle, take off the skins and pick off the meat. Only put the meat back into the pot — throw away the skins!

3. Add the egg noodles. Once these finish cooking (about five minutes), it’s done! Remove the bay leaves before serving.

The success of this dish the first time around led me to believe that the instructions on the first Web site were deliberately sparse — this bott boi was so incredibly simple to make, it’s foolproof. I’ve since seen several variations, involving saffron and tomatoes or sodium-laden chicken bouillon cubes, but this recipe comes pretty close to the real deal served by the Amish Barn. With no frills and only one pot to dirty, what else can you ask for when preparing a hearty (and did I mention inexpensive? and fast?) fall meal?

Nora’s column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at nwhite@cavalierdaily.com.