Glue Issue

BUZZSAW DECEMBER 2016

Internship Insincerity pg. 14

November 9, 2016 pg. 24

IN A BIND

Review: Moonlight pg. 37

Buzzsaw presents...

EDITORS’ COMMENT

The Glue Issue

The process of sticking, the act of staying together.

Weaving out of division and into cohesion and harmony proves to be a difficult task. But not difficult enough to be impossible. Welcome to the world of ripping things apart, only to figure out better ways of situating them together to create something bigger, badder, and more beautiful.

Homeless families aren’t just in NYC, but in Ithaca as well.

Learn more about the parents and counselors at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School who are working to make a difference. (Children without a Home, p. 14.)

News & Views Upfront

Alexa Salvato Michele Hau Evan Popp Alexis Morillo Ministry of Cool Sophie Israelsohn Prose & Cons Lexie Farabaugh Sawdust Tylor Colby Jordan Aaron Seesaw Elena Piech Julia Tricolla Tatiana Jorio Layout Olivia Cross Tara Eng Brianna Pulver Art Claire McClusky Megan Banning Website Christian Cassidy-Amstutz Social Media John Jacobson Production Sarah Horbacewicz

The local maple syrup industry is embedded in identity of Northeast but with more and more businesses starting to industrialize, the consequences affecting smaller Advisor operations are unclear. (Sticky Situations, p.22.)

Jeff Cohen

Lastly, while women with eating disorders are a frequently discussed topic men with eating disorders are Founders often left by the wayside, a resulting in a denial that men can suffer from eating disorders as well (Eating Disorders Affect Everyone p. 32)

Divider and Table of Contents Photography

By Sam Fuller

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

BUZZSAW

Sam Fuller is a sophomore Cinema and Photography major with a still photo concentration. Using the camera as less of a replication device, Sam tends to create more abstract or conceptual art. She strives to see things in a different eye than most to create almost another world within her work. The images shown are real life landscapes and also landscapes created by the shape of the human body.

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Abby Bertumen Kelly Burdick Bryan Chambala Sam Costello Thom Denick Cole Louison

Buzzsaw is published with support from Buzzsaw is also funded by the Ithaca College Student Governance Council and the Park School of Communications.

Vanguard Printing is our press. (Ithaca, N.Y.) Buzzsaw uses student-generated art and photography and royalty-free images.

Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editorial staff or of Ithaca College.

Feedback and contributions should be sent to buzzsawmag@gmail.com.

Front cover art by Megan Banning Center art by Megan Banning Back cover art by Claire McClusky

Write Us

Our magazine exists to inspire thoughtful debate and open up the channels through which information is shared. Your comments and feedback are all a part of this process. Reach the editors by email at: buzzsawmag@gmail.com.

Table of Contents Seesaw ..........................................................4 Print media is dead, check out multimedia on the web.

News & Views .................................................5 Current events, local news & quasi-educated opinions.

Upfront ........................................................17 Selected dis-education of the month.

Ministry of Cool ........................................30 Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.

Prose & Cons .............................................39 Short fiction, personal essay and other assorted lies.

Satire threatening the magazine’s credibility since 1856.

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BUZZSAW News & Views

Sawdust .......................................................45

You’re Wrong: Multimedia (Photos, Videos and Interviews)

BUZZSAW: Dunk Issue

Pictured: “Multiple Intelligences” “Untitled Photo” and “College Kids Make Crafts.”

Not Pictured: “When We First Met” — A Music Video for Alex Di Leo Contributors: First-years — Peter Champelli, Tara Eng, Andrew Hallenberg, Kevin Swann, Hudson Payer, Elise Korfonta, Mystikal Scalzi and Audrey Warner. Second-years — Sam Fuller, Elena Piech, Steven Stewart and Julia Tricolla. Fourth-year — Alexa Salvato.

Visit: buzzsawmag.org/see-saw Subscribe: www.vimeo.com/buzzsawmag www.youtube.com/buzzsawmag 4 www.soundcloud.com/buzzsawmag

Black Churches Still Burning

Acts of hate surface after election of President-elect Trump

By Meredith Nash, Staff Writer

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tified and “brought to justice” U.S. look: In 1829, white mobs rampaged Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat through Cincinnati’s African Ameriwhose district includes Greenville, can ward, setting fire to churches, had a different opinion in mind. He schools, businesses and other signs said, “The poof black prosperlitical message “This is an act of vio- ity. Black Philaof the vandaldelphians enism is obvi- lence. And not only did dured six similar ously an at- it occur, but Trump failed attacks in the 25 tempt to sway years between recognize the hor- 1825 and 1850. In public opin- to ion regarding 1834 riot, two rors of his following.” an the upcomblack churches, ing election,” one Methodist, he wrote in one Presbyterian, a statement. “I encourage all citi- were burned down. In 1825, a gang zens not to be deterred by this of young ruffians poured red pepcowardly act and exercise your per into the stove during a service. right to vote at the ballot box.” A stampede ensued, as worshipDue to the fact that this incident ers struggled to escape the choking occurred before the election many smoke, leaving four people to die. people still had hope in the town of And although no lives were Greenville. Even their Mayor, Errick taken in this specific inciSimmons, confidently said, “Nov. 8, dent, it’s no less horrific. it’s going to be a safe place here in Inside the Hopewell MissionGreenville.” Little did he know, right? ary Baptist Church of GreenAs of now, the criminal who ville, Mississippi the ashes of the committed the hate crime has pews, organ, and windows prove not yet been identified. But the how powerful anger in politics can FBI and local authorities are fuel. Whether the arsonist trustill in the process of searching. ly is a Trump supporter or simIf you’re not convinced Trump may ply a terrorist at their worst, they have had the slightest amount of in- should be treated just the same: a fluence on this hate crime, yet an- criminal influenced by prejudice. other act of anti-Semitism was com- ___________________________________ mitted at a playground in Brooklyn Meredith Nash is a first-year Heights. A swastika and the phrase writing major who really hates “Go Trump” was spray-painted onto hate crimes. You can contact one of the playground’s equipment. them at mnash2@ithaca.edu.

Not to mention, the swastika was almost humorously poorly drawn.

In retaliation, many cities and states, including Ithaca itself, have staged “stand up against hate” rallies. In response to the vandalism, even New York state senator Daniel Squadron and congresswoman Nydia Velázquez came together to support this rally.

Although this isn’t exactly the burning of black churches, that act in itself has been going on for longer than you have been alive.

Here’s a timeline to give you a better

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News & Views

hether you’re terrified, angered or thrilled with the news, Donald Trump has been elected president. Despite that headline taping itself all over every news agency back on Nov. 6, a tragic backlash of the insanity in this election occurred. A 111-year-old primarily black Baptist church was not only burned down but “Vote Trump” was painted on the side of the incinerated building in Greenville, Mississippi.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for freedom of speech, and to those who want to tear up their lawns with Trump signs, all power to you, but this is an act of violence. And not only did it occur, but Trump failed to recognize the horrors of his following. He couldn’t even castigate words that were written in his own name of pure terrorism.

Even Hillary Clinton, his opposing candidate, took to Twitter and wrote, “This kind of hate has no place in America.” Tell me again why she lost in the electoral college?

If you want to get obvious, let’s start with race. Not only was this a primarily black church, but other locations such as communities in North Dakota were targeted as Somali immigrants. When Donald Trump declares these immigrants should be deported he plants seeds of racism in our minds, or those of us who actually want to listen. This uproar of violence against minorities is only beginning as several shootings were also recorded on Election Day. Trumps silence following this — let’s call it “Trump-related violence” — proves he condones this sort of terrorism. I guess his promises to “Make America Great Again” just keep falling through.

Following the incident, a few state authorities from both sides of the political spectrum were interviewed.

While most of the Republicans focused on the criminal being iden-

Journalists Under Surveillance Amy Goodman and Patrick Lagacé’s pursuit of media activism

By Maddison Murnane, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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ccording to the So- violated through the police depart- administration in response to the ciety of Professional ment’s actions and called for a meeting 9/11 attacks as a way to protect Journalists, “It is the with Lagacé to explain the procedure. the American peoples. However, in role of journalists Lagacé did not embrace the ex- its given state, it has the power to to provide informa- planation that was fed to him, limit First Amendment rights, spetion in an accurate, but instead spoke out to de- cifically in Section 215 of the act, comprehensive, timely and under- fend his rights as a journalist. over which the ACLU has had two standable manner.” Today, it is “I don’t care about cour- major lawsuits. It gives U.S. intelnearly impossible for a journalist to tesy, I care about freedom of ligence agencies more power and pursue this mission while they are the press,” he told CBC Radio. oversight over the American people. constantly facing surveillance, perLa Presse’s staff stood behind When the PATRIOT Act first besecution, censorship and even be- Lagacé in his pursuit of journalism came law, most American meing arrested. It is no longer possible as well as his reactions to the Mon- dia outlets did not question it, or to actively and accurately practice treal police. The vice president of in- America’s entrance into the “war balanced journalism as has be- formation at La Presse, Eric Trottier, on terror,” which set the stage for come evident through the cases of spoke out against the police’s actions. the beliefs of the American people.

Patrick Lagacé and Amy Goodman. “[It is] an unequivocal atWashington Post columnist DaFrom January to vid Ignatius sums July of 2016, Patrick “Charging a journalist with criminal trespassing up Bush’s intenLagacé, columnist tions well in saystory ing, “The Bush for Montreal’s La for covering an important environmental Presse newspaper, of significant public interest is a direct threat to a d m i n i s t r a t i o n was under surveilwas working to lance by Montreal freedom of the press and is absolutely unaccept- sell the wars and Police. The police programs able in the country of the First Amendment.” covert obtained 24 warto journalists.” rants during this Another case in time for the purwhich a governpose of activating the GPS chip on tack on the the institution that ment has tried to halt the pursuit of Lagacé’s phone in order to track is La Presse and against the en- honorable journalism is Amy Goodhis location and obtain the cell tire journalistic profession.” man’s reporting on the North Dakota phone numbers of people that NSA whistleblower Edward Access Pipeline. Goodman and her he was in communication with. Snowden also responded to the situ- team at Democracy Now! did what Montreal police chief Philippe Pi- ation through Twitter, writing “Are any journalist seeking the truth chet attempted to justify his de- you a journalist? The police spying would do: They traveled to North Dapartment’s actions by stating that on you specifically to ID your sources kota to report from the field and were the mission was an exception to isn’t a hypothetical. This is today.” answered with an arrest warrant. their usual actions and was necSnowden is completely accurate The Dakota Access Pipeline is a essary in order to gain informa- in his warning to journalists. To- project that was imposed by Energy tion on a police department em- day it is more difficult than ever to Transfer Crude Oil Company, LLC ployee. The information that they become a journalist who reports on in order to construct an oil pipeline were looking for was in regards to important information without be- spanning 1,172 miles, connecting internally fabricated evidence, ac- ing censored or stopped by some North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. cording to the National Observer. type of authority. The Montreal po- If it is completed, it will transport “This operation targeted one of lice department is not the only es- approximately 470,000 barrels of our officers and not Mr. Lagacé … tablishment infringing on the right crude oil per day. The issue with the The SPVM [Montreal Police Depart- given to Canadian journalists in construction of such a ginormous ment], and myself, we are very con- the Canadian Charter of Rights and project is not only the effect that scientious about the importance of Freedoms, as well as to American it will have on climate change, but respecting the freedom of the press. journalists in the First Amendment. the land that they are destroying However, the SPVM also has the Since 2001, with the passing of during the pipeline’s construction. responsibility to carry out inves- the USA PATRIOT Act, journalists The construction of the pipeline tigations on criminal acts – even in the United States have been si- is tearing through the reservation against police officers,” Pichet said. lenced, prevented and persecuted. of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Pichet urged that no laws had been It was written by George W. Bush’s destroying their sacred ground. The

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This is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and a fine.

Partially due to Goodman’s intensive coverage of the North Dakota Pipeline, the Obama administration surprisingly delayed the construction of the pipeline and will “invite tribes to formal consulta-

The protesters no longer only include Standing Rock Sioux tribe members and members of other tribes, hundreds of activists and other groups of people have now joined in support of the Standing Rock and their rights. On Dec. 1, U.S. military veterans joined in the effort to act as a human shield for the protesters against the police forces.

Matthew Crane, a 32-year-old Navy veteran arrived at Standing Rock with a one way ticket with no plans to leave until the protesters were successful in their mission.

“I bought a one-way ticket,” he told Reuters. “Hopefully we can shut this down before Christmas.”

It will be interesting to see what unfolds next at Standing Rock, but it is evident that Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! Will be the first to cover it.

In a 2003 interview with Anna Wilde Mathews of The Wall Street Journal, Goodman references the way she pursues journalism.

“Reporters have opinions, we have to be honest about them,” while providing fair and accurate coverage, she says. “...I am an antiwar reporter,” or a “media activist.”

Maybe instead of attempting to pursue journalism the way that is taught, journalists should join Lagacé and Goodman in their pursuit of media activism. ______________________________ Maddison Murnane is a third-year journalism major who does not want her future career co-opted by the Patriot Act. You can contact them at mmurnane@ithaca.edu.

Image by Claire McClusky

tions” about federal rules, reported Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic.

Since then, however, things have escalated once again. The protesters are now facing freezing temperatures and snowstorms to stand up for what they believe in. They have changed their quest to focus more on the protection of the groundwater that the pipeline will run through and police have become more brutal. In the past few weeks police have utilized rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, water cannons, tear gas grenades and concussion grenades, according to Democracy Now!. These heinous acts have injured hundreds of people.

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destruction of their lands is unlawful according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Article 27 of the Declaration states: “States shall establish and implement, in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned, a fair, independent, impartial, open and transparent process... to recognize and adjudicate the rights of indigenous peoples pertaining to their lands, territories and resources...”

But as we know from past experience, the United States government likes to go back on its promises.

Goodman believed so strongly in the Sioux Tribe protest that she did not waver in her coverage. An arrest warrant was sent out for her after she was charged with “criminal trespassing” for getting too close to the scene and interviewing those affected. Goodman, however, did not break the law; she was doing her job as a journalist which is protected, or should be protected, by the First Amendment.

“Charging a journalist with criminal trespassing for covering an important environmental story of significant public interest is a direct threat to freedom of the press and is absolutely unacceptable in the country of the First Amendment,” Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, said.

However, the nonsense did not end there. Goodman’s charges were upped by Morton County, North Dakota to a riot charge.

Oil, Imperialism and Indigenous Rights Pipeline protests gathering national attention

By Mila Phelps-Friedl, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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pdate: On the day of printing this issue, it was annouced that the Dakota Access Pipeline, the subject of this piece, had officially been rerouted thanks to the hard work of protestors and water protectors.

“The demand is straightforward: The Army Corps should not grant the final permit, the one required to put the pipeline under the Missouri River. If the company insists on finding a new route, then the whole project should undergo a rigorous environmental impact review … Things should be done properly for once.”

These are the words of Bill McKibben, journalist for New Republic and co-founder of the climate group 350. org written on Nov. 6, 2016 from the midst of the Standing Rock protest taking place in Central North Dakota.

While this protest has only garnered mass attention in the past few months, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been openly against the plans for the Dakota Access Pipeline first proposed in 2014. However, the Standing Rock Protest that has amassed national attention started in August of this year when the Sioux Tribe set up at the Sacred Stone Camp. But what exactly are the impending circumstances that the Sioux Tribe are protesting with such determination? And why only now has this issue come to the national stage?

The issue begins and ends with the plans for construction of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline which, according to NPR reporter Leah Donella, “would have stretched 1,179 miles from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.” The pipeline, which is being funded by Texas-based Energy Transfer companies, would be utilized to send oil between North Dakota and Illinois.

So, where do the Standing Rock Sioux fit into the picture?

The answer is the Missouri River, where the main water supply for

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the tribe which has been settled on land in North and South Dakota for several hundred years.

The significance of what the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has set out to protest, gathering support from celebrities, environmental groups and the heart of the masses alike, is that they are standing up to a significant injustice. Maura Stephens, a journalist and activist, spoke about the

Pipeline having a positive impact upon the Standing Rock Sioux.

Worland continued to describe how many environmental groups who have joined in action against the pipeline are bringing possible climate implications into the discussion. According to InsideClimate News reporter Phil McKenna, many of the discrepancies lie at the heart of the project. The EPA, Department

“Love is the glue that holds the place together, love and a strong commitment to peace is what’s holding these camps together with all the challenges they are facing.” environment at the camp while she was there up until Nov. 8. “Love is the glue that holds the place together, love and a strong commitment to peace is what’s holding these camps together with all the challenges they are facing.” Stephens traveled from Ithaca with supplies from locations around Ithaca, Elmira, Allegany, Yates County and Watkins Glen.

For the four days she was present, she described the frenetic energy between the number of people taking part in the protest, standing by the Missouri River and the rest focused on frantically “winterizing” the camp for the cold weather front that hit the day after she left.

Not only is the tribe protesting this on the basis of land rights and deep sacred cultural connections to the surrounding area, but there are a great many protestors who are specifically worried for the implications of an oil pipe running beneath their water supply.

TIME reporter Justin Worland writes, “The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has reported more than 3,300 incidents of leaks and ruptures at oil and gas pipelines since 2010.” This is a statistic that definitely does not lean in favor of the

of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation who were commissioned to respond to the original drafts for the pipeline deemed there to be multiple risks to environmental justice features as well as the tribe located in the area.

An official letter drafted by the EPA to the United States Army Corporation of Engineers on March 11, 2016, explained, “We recommend that the Draft EA be revised to assess potential impacts to drinking water and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.”

McKenna says, “The Army Corps instead published its final environmental assessment four months later, which constituted final approval of the project,” stipulating that the environmental threats of the pipeline were not, “injurious to the public interest.”

When Bill McKibben was asked about this discrepancy he responded, “Often the lead agency ignores the wise cautions of other agencies that happened during the Keystone pipeline battle as well. This pipeline is a perfect example of environmental racism, and that should have been obvious to those in charge.” If those in charge are following self interest to the construction of this pipeline who is looking out for the interests

upon not only the environment but the Standing Rock Sioux culture and their connection to the land?

In the most recent, and heartbreaking, development, the United States Army Corporation has issued a mandatory evacuation of the main Standing Rock Encampment known as Oceti Sakowin, as reported by The Guardian. Blaming it on the coming cold temperatures, the United States Army Corporation is acting against the peaceful protest of the tribes and the hundreds of people that have come to support them.

Grace Chadwick, a member of the feminist organization Tribe de Mama, is also taking part in the protest. “Lots is happening around here,” she said.

“Preparations are being put in place for the 5th of December. The Army Core has threatened the big camp Oceti Sakowin, saying; if you don’t evacuate we will be invaded. On December 4th there are 1,000 veterans coming from D.C. to head our frontline. Emotions are running high here.

It’s important that we stay focused on our mission, now more than ever.”

Stephens echoed this sentiment saying she considered this ultimatum by the Army Corps to be “obscene, inhumane, disgusting, military — all the things these people are not, it’s a very spiritual community. I have been a part of other war zones before and this is a war zone in our own country.”

These next few weeks before

Julia Carrie Wong writes for The Guardian, “The pipeline lacks a final permit to drill under the Missouri River. The corps of engineers has twice delayed issuing the permit, known as an easement. On 15 November, the pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, filed court papers asking a judge to force the army to allow drilling to proceed.”

So what can we do? While the Standing Rock Protest may not be able to withstand the harsh winds or the eviction notice of the Army Corps, the support for this cause has never been stronger. Anyone can donate to the protestors by going to their website, everyone is urged to contact the DAPL toll line to complain through a number listed on their website as well. This does not have to be the end for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe if we all take a stand against imperialism and conglomerates that is hundreds of years overdue. ________________________________ Mila Phelps-Friedl is a secondyear journalism major who wishes she could spend all Thanksgivings learning about indigenous rights. You can contactthem at mphelpsfriedl@ithaca.edu

“Emotions are running high here. It’s important that we stay focused on our mission, now more than ever.”

Trump’s inauguration will prove very telling for the future of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s access to their cultural land. Trump himself released a list, published by NPR, where the sixth thing outlined explains his intention to “lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward.”

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News & Views

of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe?

According to the official website, since they took a stand in August they have gained the written support of other tribes, political and environmental organizations, figureheads like Bernie Sanders and unions ranging from communication workers, to postal workers to even nurse unions. And yet despite the support, the Sioux have also been met with extreme violence in response to their stagnant protest.

NBC News reported that on Nov. 2, “ Police in riot gear shot rubber bullets and used pepper spray on demonstrators — who call themselves water protectors — on the shoreline of the Cantapeta Creek, just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation.” The most recent bout of violence took place on Monday, Nov. 21 when police officers chose to “douse protesters with water during a skirmish in subfreezing weather near the Dakota Access oil pipeline,” as reported by the Washington Post.

The significance of this protest, poised on the precipice of Presidentelect Donald Trump’s ascension to office, holds even more weight if one considers the circumstances that led to this face-off. The age-old fight of the indigenous people to protect their land from imperialistic, materialistic and corporate aims has spanned centuries. A lot went into the injustices of this pipeline even making it to the point of the construction that is being protested. McKibben summed it up well: “The permits were expedited by the Obama administration; Donald Trump owns lots of stock in the company putting it up; WikiLeaks revealed that Hillary Clinton’s handlers took a $2 million check (a $2 million check) from the union building the pipeline two days before the Iowa primary, and the money came with explicit instructions to back the pipeline against Bernie Sanders’s protests.”

This protest holds a candle to the kind of investigative journalism that works to hold people of power accountable for their actions in situations like these. Who is holding the Oil Companies accountable for proceeding with this pipeline despite it’s clear infringement

Children Without a Home

Ithaca residents’ effort to help homeless families

By Alexa Salvato, News & Views Editor

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number is substantially impacted

by New York City, with its population of 8.5 million people. However, of homeless families with children that are documented as such, “virtually all were staying in shelters (less than one percent was unsheltered).”

Despite the high rate of sheltering, the number of homeless children in New York State is still increasing. “New York had the largest one-year increase in family homelessness, with 4,168 more people experiencing homelessness as members of families with children, a 9 percent increase between 2014 and 2015,” the report stated.

When it comes to homelessness and housing insecurity, resources are low. The Rescue Mission’s Ithaca location opened in 2013 and provides 10 units for temporary housing for the homeless. Meanwhile, its Syracuse location has 183 beds.

As Nicky Koschmann, an Ithaca resident and Ithaca College’s Park Scholar Program Director, noted when talking about homeless youth in her Northside neighborhood, it takes a village to provide care for homeless children in Ithaca. Koschmann considers

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

ver her past four years at Ithaca College, senior Emma Grabek has encountered many homeless children in the Ithaca City School District.

She recalled one powerful experience when doing fieldwork in a second-grade classroom at South Hill Elementary School in Ithaca, New York for an education course.

“There was one girl in our class who was homeless,” she said. “She actually ended up leaving halfway through the school year because of her homelessness situation… Basically, Child Protective Services removed her from her living situation and she ended up having to move in with family in Florida.”

Unfortunately, cases such as this second grader’s are not exceptional.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of Nov. 2015, New York had the highest population of any state of homeless families with children.

That number, 52,115, is significantly higher than its runner-up, California, with 22,582. Of course, that

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Image by Cecilia Morales

herself a small part of an informal network of parents with children at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School in downtown Ithaca, cited anecdotally by both Koschmann and Grabek as the school with the highest homeless population.

“We live in an area of Ithaca that has become very gentrified in the last, say, five or 10 years,” Koschmann said. “It used to be an area that had a lot of housing for lowincome families, and now the housing is becoming more and more expensive as landlords are realizing they can charge a lot more.”

She said that some families, when pushed out of their housing, temporarily stay in a homeless shelter because their alternative housing options are limited, especially if they don’t have a car with which they could explore Ithaca’s neighboring towns, which are generally more rural and more affordable.

Koschmann emphasized that she does not consider herself an activist for this cause, but has gotten involved by “offering to sometimes open [her] house to have some of the kids stay with [them] for a while until the families get settled,” she said.

Outside of her neighborhood, Koschmann has been a part of the community of parents and educators of the children at BJM Elementary School for the past nine years.

“My experience at BJM is that the families really help each other out a lot, and stories get exchanged when there are families in need, that information gets passed in a very respectful way,” she said.

“I’ve had psychologists or counselors contact me, ‘This family needs this help. There’s this need. Can you fill it or do you know someone who can?’ That sort of network happens very seamlessly at BJM.” Melissa Ens and Edna Brown are two social workers at BJM who aid in facilitating those sort of interactions.

“Usually on our caseload, if I have two grades and the other two [social]

ingly expensive housing and increased older men walking around, and rates of homelessness in her Northside she’s scared of being followed.” community over the past five years. Lo“My experience at BJM is that cal research reflects the same sentiment. the families really help each othThe Ithaca Voice, a local news outlet, con- er out a lot, and stories get exducted an analysis changed when there are families in the winter of 2016 that implies that this in need, that information gets rate of homeless- passed in a very respectful way.” ness is substantial.

As founder Jeff Stein reported on Jan. 12, 2016, “An Ithaca Voice analysis shows Another student takes two TCAT that Tompkins County has a per cap- buses to school every day, a pubita homeless rate of five times that of lic transit system which Grabek Onondaga County, where Syracuse is noted can be unreliable. When she located.” However, according to Ithaca. is late to school, it is for good reacom, that report was based on counting son, but Grabek said it is dishearthomeless individuals on one night per ening that teachers claim that her year. This is how rates of homelessness lateness reflects indifference about are counted by many institutions, but her education. She said she wrote it is a system that has inherent flaws. an email to this student’s teach“Despite Ithaca’s relative affluence er, but did not receive a response. and prosperity, we actually have a Such experiences have changed worse homeless problem than some how Grabek perceives homelessof the other poverty-stricken cities ness altogether. She said that in upstate New York,” Stein added. before college, she thought of Grabek has not just worked with homelessness as “an adult male isIthaca’s youth as an education student, sue,” a perception that has since but also as a WyldLife leader, a position changed to include people of all she has held since her freshman year at ages and genders. The biggest revIthaca College. WyldLife is a program of elation, however, is how homeYoung Life, in which mentors work with lessness can be hidden, she said. middle school students to provide guid“It’s not necessarily as obvious ance through a Christian-based phi- in a town like Ithaca,” Grabek said, losophy. Grabek has worked primarily “who’s homeless and who is not, or with students at Boynton Middle School who is living in a situation that’s in Ithaca. She said that although the dramatically impacted by poverty.” students she works with are not speAdditional reporting by Cecilia Mocifically homeless or from low-income rales. families, many students in those popA version of this piece was origiulations attend WyldLife programs. nally published in Ithaca Week: “That is how I met a lot of kids who ithacaweek-ic.com have experienced poverty or are cur- __________________________________ rently experiencing poverty in the Ithaca Alexa Salvato is a fourth-year journalarea, mostly middle schoolers,” she said. ism major who is tired of the homeless Grabek linked students in unsafe or youth being ignored. You can conunstable housing situations to those tact them at asalvat1@ithaca.edu. who were homeless, identifying that as a segment of the larger problem.

“One of the girls [a middle school student] I hang out with lives in a part of Ithaca that is definitely rough,” Grabek said. “She lives only five minutes from Boynton Middle School, but she feels very unsafe [walking] to school, because there’s constantly just

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News & Views

workers have two grades each, we’re typically dealing with at least one homeless family among our group,” Brown said. “Sometimes we have five or six, up to eight maybe, a year in our school.”

This number is affected by the Advocacy Center’s shelter, which falls in BJM’s catchment area, Brown added.

This means that children staying at the shelter with an adult are enrolled in BJM rather than any of the other local elementary schools. The Advocacy Center’s shelter provides temporary safe housing for individuals escaping domestic violence situations.

Ens said that this can negatively impact how certain students perceive school holistically.

“When families don’t have stable housing, they often have to move around a lot, and so their kids move from school to school to school, and so there’s inconsistency with their relationship to school,” she said. “There’s a lot of interruption in education for children and that can be really challenging.”

However, there is also legal policy put in place for the education of homeless children. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, first enacted in 1987, was updated in 2001 with a new section entitled “Education for Homeless Children and Youths.” As a federal act, it included a stipulation that a formal place of residency should not be required for a child to attend school, as that would discriminate against homeless families. The act reads: “In any State that has a compulsory residency requirement as a component of the State’s compulsory school attendance laws or other laws [et al.]... the State will review and undertake steps to revise such laws [et al.]... to ensure that homeless children and youths are afforded the same free, appropriate public education as provided to other children and youths.”

The law also reflects the larger educational movement of mainstreaming, such that a child cannot be excluded from the general education classroom just because of homelessness.

Homelessness rates can vary for a variety of reasons, but according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, simply being unable to find housing one can afford is the central cause. Koschmann said she has noted an association between increas-

Post-Election Empathy One writer’s journey through election-induced emotions

By Tatiana Jorio, Seesaw Social Media Editor

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

T

he night of the election, I sat in the Terrace 11 dorm lounge in a room mostly of strangers and two friends. There was an eerie closeness in the room as we sat around eating Domino’s vegetable pizza; even though we were filled with anxiety, we had to eat. At 11:30, it seemed like we all clenched our fists as someone had reminded us that this is when we knew Barack Obama was the next president. In that moment I was transported to my bunk bed, age 10, and being woken up by the screams of joy of the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I remember the next day feeling like it was such a good day to wake up in America.

But in the T11 lounge, I wasn’t cheering anymore. Every time a state went blue, it felt like we had all taken a collective sigh of relief — like hope and humanity had been restored (melodramatic, I know.) At 1 a.m. people started to leave; the silent period had begun and for some, the process of mourning the America we thought we knew had, too.

At 1:30, I had to leave the dorm.

I walked through campus and I ran into people on my way down from Terraces. We hugged and said that we loved each other. I didn’t know then that an international chant at protests would be “Love Trumps Hate,” and how important and necessary actions like this would be moving forward. I arrived back to my room unlike I had after any awful exam or terrible night out to a laptop with the words “Trump Wins. Clinton Concedes Election.” I went to bed with tears in my eyes thinking about that phone call. That night I laid in fetal position and felt lucky that I was able to sleep, knowing that so many other people, maybe even my classmates may not have been able to.

That morning, everything felt still.

It felt like I was waking up in some sort of dream. I cringed when everyone kept saying the rain was the metaphor for the universe crying. I

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was surprised when people asked me how I was and I was genuine. I ranted when I saw my friends, and we hugged. I lied on the floor in acting class and we focused on our breathing. Only no one could really focus on their breathing over the sounds of a broken classroom made up of mainly women. I got angry when people in my politics class told me to “give Trump a chance,” and I was disappointed to the point of tears when I heard people joking in a class that I had respected about moving to Canada, not realizing the immense amount of privilege they had to be able to even have that possibility — but also not recognizing the importance of fighting for your rights, or your loved one’s rights, people’s rights. I began to analyze and organize and I read, and being the millennial I am: I shamelessly posted. I sometimes posted meaningful content, and I sometimes posted clickbait articles. I attended a protest and chanted the words “Climate Change is not a Hoax” and “Love Trumps Hate” along with “Fuck Donald Trump.”

And then over Thanksgiving break, I went to Trump Tower. Not long ago I had walked past it and entered it as a shortcut to hide away from the hub of people on 5th Avenue in New York City. Of course, what I saw recently was a completely different 5th Avenue, and an entirely different Trump Tower. The streets were blockaded with silver metal bars that seemed never ending and policemen with machine guns. I was shaken up by the change in my city as I realized we would probably never be able to walk right past Trump Tower again.

The most overpowering emotion throughout this entire process has been confusion. How did this happen? How am I here, standing outside of the President-elect’s penthouse? As I walked down the block I saw a woman protesting with the sign “I’m afraid” and two young boys with posters reading, “The adults let us down.” While those posters made me feel emotional, they also

related to me and made me feel proud. But when I turned around I saw a man across the street with a sign reading, “Get over it.” It was in that moment that I became angry, as I stared at a white man holding up a poster to tell this beautiful group of protestors to get over it.

I don’t hate people that voted for Donald Trump, but I do have a difficulty empathizing and understanding the people like this man, who tell people how to feel. While I may not cry every day, while I may not be as a emotional as I was the night that Trump was elected, I can recognize that there are people who still cry every day. I will not critique them for not “getting over it,” because everyone heals differently, and processes differently- and frankly, certain people have more to be upset about and more to fear than others. A young mother might be more angry than I am because she might feel we let her daughter down; a black, Muslim or LGBTQ person might fear for their life. There are people who will continue to feel emotionally paralyzed for the next four years, and that is valid. Everyone is allowed to react in the way they need — and although I realize this may sound hypocritical, that is exactly what this man was doing across the street.

I just don’t agree with the protestor telling people to stop caring.

And while I found myself preaching to the choir (or politics class) about how I didn’t think people had the right to tell people how to respond to the election, I also found myself agreeing with the people on my Facebook newsfeed who were telling Trump supporters to stop sharing their posts about a more prosperous America. I felt like a hypocrite — but this was another thing I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand because I thought about every bad thing Trump had said over his campaign trail, regardless of whether or not he now chooses to run the other way from his statements. (And don’t get me wrong; I

for not giving me the chance to see outside my bubble. I also blame the media for not taking Trump seriously, for giving him too much air time for the sake of their ratings and profit, and I blame certain media outlets for criticizing Clinton’s likability while they praised Trump for “saying what he felt.”

This election has created extreme household divides for many people I know. This Thanksgiving I felt lucky to be able to eat with people that shared my beliefs. But I also felt fearful. Listening to my parents and friends’ parents say this was such a scary time and that the word was really a mess frightened me. These were the people who had always told me everything was going to be okay but now they looked at me saying that I would have to change the world I was about to enter my adult life in. This memory is and will be ingrained in my mind hopefully for forever. People continue to say that Trump is “more liberal than we thought” or he doesn’t “actually believe” the irrational comments he made, but I think about the people that Donald Trump is appointing, and the people who are already on his team. I think about the KKK celebrating Trump’s presidency, and I think about a Republican majority and I realize that my parents are right: this is going to be four years of fighting for our rights.

Of using our passions and crafts to respond to the hate, of four years of constantly reminding ourselves that love will always trump hate.

Please remember that while things may have calmed down for you since Election Day, they haven’t for so many people. Please remember that Donald Trump isn’t President yet, and it is then that the fight for our rights will become all the more important and frightening; it is then that the momentum and outrage so many shared the day after the election will be important every day in order to drive change. ________________________________ Tatiana Jorio is a second-year film, photography & visual art major who can no longer eat Domino’s vegetable pizza. You can email them at tjorio@ithaca.edu.

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News & Views

will not question Trump for deciding to change his mind or be more respectful, or appoint a head to the EPA that knows what climate change is, an attorney general that isn’t racist…

The list goes on.) But he still made racist, sexist and xenophobic comments. He made comments that criticized more marginalized groups than I can list. This isn’t what a great, or prosperous America looks like to me.

My anger rumbled in my stomach when I saw a pro-Trump Facebook post because I thought about Trump’s comments. My stomach turned when I heard about people laughing about Trump’s comments, not recognizing that their ability to laugh at comments that threaten someone else’s livelihood is because of their privilege. It’s easy to laugh about a man threatening to grab a woman by the pussy when you are a white male. It’s easy to find humor in Trump’s comments that all Mexicans are criminals and he is going to build a wall if you aren’t affected by those comments. And even if Trump chooses to flip-flop on his comments, he still made those statements and ran on a hateful platform, and millions of people voted for him, and he was elected into the most prestigious office our country has. So when I saw people discussing how Trump was going to make America great again, even though I wanted to lead by example and let people have their opinions, how could I when they became in direct conflict with my and so many others’ human rights?

How could I when doing so would validate Trump’s comments further than the election had for millions of Americans? And there I was, confused again with how to move forward. With how to understand and empathize.

But why was I confused? Because I didn’t see the people who were voting for Trump. I didn’t understand why someone might vote for him so I never expected this to be my reality. I didn’t see the people that lived in rural areas who planned to vote for Trump because Trump had promised them employment. What I saw were polls showing Secretary of State Clinton in the lead by no less than 30 percent.

I watched my bubble become more and more confident of Hillary Clinton as they watched Trump’s outlandish statements. I blame the media for not showing me Trump’s supporters,

Internship Insincerity

The hypocrisy of ‘progressive’ but low paid internships

By Celisa Calacal, Staff Writer, and Evan Popp, Unfront Editor

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

A

little over $50 mil- issue on both sides of the aisle, with The full-time work requirement lion. That’s how much conservative think tanks and politi- also made it difficult for interns to revenue the Center cal organizations also often paying find a second job to bring in extra for American Prog- their interns a paltry wage or simply cash and because of the think tank’s ress (CAP) reported not paying them at all. However, it is location, many interns needed more for the year of 2014. extraordinarily hypocritical for a pro- than a $4 an hour salary. In 2016, 175 dollars. That’s the amount of gressive organization like CAP that Washington D.C. was ranked the fifth money per week each of us received favors a higher minimum wage and most expensive city to live in by an while working as full-time interns at claims to advocate for economic jus- Economist Intelligence Unit report.

CAP. When broken down, we were tice to pay its interns just $4 an hour. Duncan Weinstein, another intern each making about $4 an hour — Sydney Pereira, a fellow intern at CAP during the summer of 2016, even though the minimum wage in at ThinkProgress during the sum- said CAP doesn’t pay its interns Washington D.C., where CAP is lo- mer of 2016, said while she appre- enough to live in the nation’s capital. cated, is $11.50. While we both also ciated that CAP’s pay was better “It’s not enough to live on and … received a generous $350 stipend than what many interns are paid for people like me who are from othfrom the Park Center for Indepen- — nothing at all — it was frustrat- er places, I had to use my own savdent Media, that still didn’t bring us ing to not be paid a living wage. She ings or ask my parents for money to even close to making minimum wage. said the pay was particularly aggra- be able to make that work,” he said.

CAP is an ostensibly progressive vating given CAP’s outspoken supSome organizations that have think tank founded in 2003 by John port for upping the minimum wage. been called out for not paying inPodesta, the chairman of terns minimum wage Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presargued they sim“I feel like I was doing basically what a have idential campaign and the ply can’t afford such star of a Wikileaks email full-time employee was doing — at least expenses because of release. Along with Podesta, budget constraints. many CAP employees — in- a part-time employee — and I wasn’t be- While being a small cluding President and CEO ing compensated as I should have.” budget organization Neera Tanden — have deep doesn’t necessarily ties to the Democratic Party. excuse not paying inAs interns working for terns well, CAP is anyThinkProgress, an editorially inde“You’re asking people to work 40- thing but a shoestring operation. pendent news site housed at CAP, plus hours a week for $4 an hour,” The organization has a budget in the we wrote several articles on a weekly she said. “And I find it completely millions each year and receives genbasis, conducted research and tran- contradictory to everything progres- erous donations from deep-pocketed scribed interviews — tasks full-time sive institutions [advocate for].” Democrats. Tanden alone was paid reporters in the same office also Additionally, as summer interns $301,274 during the 2014 calendar did. While there were distinctions at CAP, we were expected to work year, according to CAP’s 990 form. between interns and staffers, the full-time. That means CAP interns Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of amount of work interns contribut- contributed heavily to the think the Economic Policy Institute — a ed to the site was not insignificant. tank’s operations but were paid far left-wing think tank — said large orCAP bills itself as an organization less than our contributions were ganizations like CAP have no excuse dedicated to “improving the lives of worth. For example, Lee Mengitsu, a for paying interns a paltry wage. all Americans, through bold, pro- summer 2016 CAP intern, said the “CAP is a 20 million dollar a year gressive ideas.” In that spirit, it amount of work she was doing — es- or 40 million dollar a year operastrongly supports initiatives like sentially being the only person doing tion,” he said. “A lot of money flows raising the minimum wage. Despite video work on her team — was not through that place and a lot of peothis, CAP does not pay its own in- reflected in the money she received. ple are paid pretty well, and there’s terns even close to a minimum wage, “All of that responsibility was on no reason on earth that interns asking them to survive on just $4 me,” she said. “So I feel like I was couldn’t be paid a minimum wage.” an hour. CAP did not respond to a doing basically what a full-time emrequest for comment on whether it ployee was doing — at least a partbelieves interns deserve a fair wage. time employee — and I wasn’t beTo be fair, low intern wages are an ing compensated as I should have.”

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CAP is not the only culprit

terns at least a minimum wage.

However, these organizations aren’t the norm. Too many progressive groups don’t practice what they preach when it comes to intern labor, instead taking advantage of the pressure students feel to get an internship.

One example of this is Kaitlin Logsdon, a senior communication, management and design major at Ithaca College who interned at what she described as a progressive organization focused on sustainability efforts. She said she felt obligated to take that internship even though it paid less than minimum wage. (Logsdon declined to name the organization she interned for.)

“I felt like I had to take that internship in the city because of what’s pushed within our major — that you need to do an internship in the city in order to make those connections,” she said.

Unpaid internships While CAP and other progressive organizations hypocritically ignore their own edicts by not paying a minimum wage, there are many in the intern economy who have it worse, receiving no pay at all.

Unpaid internships have become increasingly prevalent across many industries, Sheryl Swingley, a journalism instructor at Ball State University and former internship coordinator at the institution, said.

“Part of it was due to the fact that we had the Great Recession — that didn’t help things,” she said. “When we went through that, people who had paid [their interns] quit paying during that time. And then afterward they didn’t start paying again.”

Eric Glatt, a participant in the group Intern Labor Rights, said the number of unpaid interns is an elusive number because when the Bureau of Labor Statistics does population surveys of the workforce, it doesn’t ask whether interns are paid or unpaid.

The best estimate, he said, comes from the book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy by Ross Perlin.

In the book, Glatt said Perlin estimates the number of unpaid interns each year to be one or two million.

Swingley said every organiza-

tion should pay its interns because not paying them is illegal. And in fact, Glatt said even interns who are paid, but at below minimum wage, have a legitimate legal case against employers. However, he said in addition to the courts, students should push their colleges and universities to provide for more oversight of internship programs.

“There’s a built in challenge for students who do oppose this in principle, which is most of the students are in a position to try to push their schools for change,” he said.

When it comes to unpaid internships, however, Glatt said small organizations without much revenue that can’t afford to pay their interns should call their internships what they really are.

“If you’re a non-profit and your reason for having people work for you unpaid is simply that you need the extra labor and you don’t have the budget for it and your mission is worthwhile, I think it’s a mistake to call it an internship,” he said.

“Call it what it is : volunteering.”

However, organizations that use unpaid intern labor would likely argue that unpaid internships are permissible under the Department of Labor’s six criteria for a legal unpaid internship.

But Swingley said organizations aren’t fulfilling these benchmarks.

She said the criteria are that the internship must be similar to training in an educational environment; the intern experience has to be for the benefit of the intern; the intern can’t displace regular employees; the employer must not gain any immediate benefit from the intern and in some cases is actually impeded by them; the intern can’t be guaranteed a job after their internship is over; and the employer and the intern must both understand there is no monetary compensation involved.

Swingley said whether employers fulfill the first three criteria is questionable. But she said the fourth criterion — that the employer doesn’t gain any immediate benefit from the intern and its operations are in some cases impeded by the intern — is laughable.

“I have never had an employer

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News & Views

It’s important to note CAP is not the only progressive organization paying its interns below minimum wage.

Left-wing organizations such as the Democratic National Committee, the National Employment Law Project, Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Americans for Democratic Action either do not pay their interns or pay them below minimum wage.

Each of these organizations supports an increase in the minimum wage. And each, similar to CAP, is not a small operation. They have large budgets and are not suffering from financial hardships that would prevent them from being able to compensate interns fairly.

Many progressive politicians also don’t adequately pay their interns.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a progressive superstar and an ardent supporter of raising the minimum wage, does not guarantee her interns a fair wage. Students who are not receiving academic credit or outside funding are eligible for a stipend, not the fair compensation that is reflective of Warren’s own political views.

Hillary Clinton, who in her campaign supported raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour, did not pay the interns who worked for her.

And most members of Congress who support a minimum wage hike don’t pay their interns, according to a USA Today article from July 2015. The White House also has unpaid internships, despite the fact that President Barack Obama supports raising employees’ pay.

Progressive journalism outlets also offer low paid internships. Publications such as The American Prospect, The Indypendent and In These Times have championed labor rights while not paying their interns at all or offering only a stipend below what they advocate other employers pay workers.

But not all progressive organizations forget their principles when it comes to interns. The Nation, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Brennan Center for Justice — to name a few — all pay their in-

call me up and say, ‘We want an intern, we know how much trouble they are. We know that they’re probably going to cause us to miss a deadline,’” Swingley said.

“No, it’s always the other direction. ‘We need an intern because we have all this work that needs to be done and we need the help.’”

The race and class dynamics of internships

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

The consequences of unpaid or underpaid internships have become apparent. These kinds of internships are difficult for young adults from low-income backgrounds to take, which perpetuates the insidious cycle of inequality in this country.

Many internship opportunities, particularly those in politics, policy and communications, are located in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. — places that have high costs of living. And for college students or recent college graduates looking for internships in these areas, an unpaid or sub-minimum wage internship makes it virtually impossible to feasibly support themselves on a daily basis for several months. Those who aren’t of a middle, upper middle or high economic class, or whose families can’t afford to provide them financial assistance, often can’t take such opportunities.

Mengitsu ties the ability to take unpaid or underpaid internships like those at CAP or elsewhere to privilege. She said she could intern at CAP and live in D.C. because of her access to many resources that other qualified students may not have had. Mengitsu added that many in the summer 2016 CAP intern class

things,” she said. “But a lot of well-deserving students could’ve been there but weren’t able to because of the pay.”

Pereira said this continuing trend of unpaid or underpaid internships disproportionately impacts people of color whose parents may not have the means to cover their rent or pay for their groceries. She said this puts these young people of color at a disadvantage when trying to enter the professional workforce, leading to a lack of diversity in those spaces.

“If they are just as smart and just as capable and can’t take the internship, you’re putting them at a disadvantage,” she said. “Because they have to go to industries where they will get paid, and then you’re keeping people of color out of lower-paid industries.”

Nonprofits are one example of this, as such organizations are not known for their high pay and subsequently have a lack of diversity. A study conducted by the Diversity Journal in 2010 showed that only 18 percent of staff in nonprofit organizations are people of color. The same problem exists in the media industry as well. According to the Radio Television Digital News Association, in 2014 only 22.4 percent of television reporters were people of color. Newspapers were not much better — minorities made up just 12.76 percent of the staff in 2015, according to the American Society of News Editors.

Unpaid or underpaid internships push out these students, instead favoring those who can afford to shell out thousands of dollars to live in the expensive cities where many internships are located. In the case of government internships, Eisenbrey said unpaid or underpaid internships in the government sector can

“According to the Radio Television Digital News Association, in 2014 only 22.4 percent of television reporters were people of color. Newspapers were not much better.” were in similar privileged positions.

“I got the impression that a lot of us were there because we were able to, because we had access to certain

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lead to a government that doesn’t look like the entirety of the U.S. “If those doors aren’t open to

them then we get a non-representative government and that’s a bad thing,” he said.

Congressional representation is still not proportional to the makeup of racial minorities in this country. According to the Pew Research Center, a miniscule 17 percent of Congressional representatives are non-white people of color, even though minorities make up 38 percent of the U.S. population.

Many young adults today are constantly bombarded with professional advice that tells them that experience and connections are key. As a result, internships are promoted as avenues to achieve this experience and these connections. But when people of color and those from lowincome backgrounds cannot afford to take an unpaid internship in an expensive city, Pereira said they are already put at a disadvantage.

And for think tanks like CAP, Glatt said this disadvantage negatively impacts the organization itself.

“That’s a tragedy when it comes to policymaking,” he said. “Because you’re not hearing from the full breadth of the electorate.” ___________________________________ Evan Popp and Celisa Calacal are both third-year journalism majors who go to together much better than progressive organizations and not being compensated. You can contact them at epopp@ithaca.edu and ccalacal@ithaca.edu.

FRONT. UPFRONT. UPFRO

Upfront

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back How lack of rehabilitation leads to a vicious cycle of recidivism

By Catherine Colgan, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

T

he Clink. The Big House. The Slammer.

There are many names for prison. Yet, with significant recidivism rates and overpopulation, perhaps “Revolving Door” would be a more appropriate choice. While prisons are a staple of the justice system, the incarcerated are often pushed out of the public eye once the harrowing drama of a trial is over. A sentence is given out and the perpetrator is imprisoned. But what happens after that? The main purpose of prison is supposedly to take in felons and then release them back into society as reformed individuals, but many prisons do not provide the rehabilitative services necessary to do that.

Prisons originated in the 14th century, according to the Crime Museum. Structurally, they were a very far cry from the brutal institutions they are today. Instead of long-term holding facilities, prisons were originally used to simply detain someone awaiting trial. As sentences back then were usually comprised of brutal physical punishment, fines or death, there was no need to provide a living arrangement for a prolonged period of time. However, in the centuries that followed, the Crime Museum noted that campaigns against the death penalty revolutionized prisons as places for extended incarceration.

For most of the 20th century, a majority of prisons operated on the basis of a “rehabilitative ideal,” according to the U.S. Library and National Institute of Health. Under this belief, correctional facilities pushed inmates toward reform by creating dignified and humane prison environments. Inmates were aided in resolving psychological problems, overcoming addictions and adapting to work environments along with a number of other preparations designed to reintroduce them into society.

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However, a crime spike in the 1970s led to a pivotal point in U.S. prison history. According to a 2015 Washington Post story, the rehabilitative focus of prisons was reduced in the 70s in the absence of any perceived benefit gleaned from this approach. Beth Huebner, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Mississippi-St. Louis, said pressure from the public and growing frustration with the justice system subsequently changed the prison dynamic.

“During this time, there was definitely a political shift where you had more people saying that rehabilitation doesn’t work,” Huebner said.

“And this, combined with an economic decline, narrowed [rehabilitative] efforts.”

The effect of decreased rehabilitative programs in prison has taken its toll. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, according to BBC News, which estimated that the U.S. imprisons 737 people for every 100,000 residents — more than any other country. While imprisonment may occur for a number of reasons, it is important to take a closer look at the internal structure of prison and how it doesn’t prepare inmates for life beyond bars, leading to the potential for reincarceration.

Those who serve their sentence and are released without receiving much rehabilitation often face grim prospects after leaving prison. Radio station WBHM named unemployment, difficulty finding housing and ongoing legal battles as some of the most pressing issues facing ex-prisoners upon release. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) attributed some of these challenges to a lack of “correction” within facilities. And this lack of rehabilitation has grave consequences. In 2016, The Huffington Post estimated that 76.6 percent of prisoners returned to prison within five years of being released, often for more serious offenses.

Unemployment is one of the most

serious issues facing ex-prisoners.

The prisoner advocacy website Prison Fellowship, reported that up to 60 percent of ex-prisoners are out of a job one year after their release.

This has serious ramifications, as the freed prisoners are unable to support themselves or their families. The site also mentioned that ex-prisoners who are unemployed may also fall back into drug habits.

Unemployment is often a result of lack of focus within prison on how to succeed in the workforce after release, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, which also noted that many re-entry programs offered do not include training beyond minimal preparation for low paying, blue collar jobs. When ex-prisoners cannot find a job or can only find one that is low-paying, they may feel they need to break the law to provide for themselves, leading to the possibility they will land back in prison.

Along with the technical complications of re-entering society, such as getting a job after being released, it is also clear that many inmates suffer from mental health issues. A study conducted by Oxford University in 2015 discovered that 42 percent of male prisoners suffered from some sort of mental illness while incarcerated, and 25 percent of those committed violent crimes after they were released. Additionally, The Guardian estimated in 2015 that one in seven prisoners has a mental illness. However, what is most troubling is that most of the mental illnesses, such as depression and bipolar disorder, are described by The Guardian as common and treatable.

Maurice Chammah, who frequently writes for The Marshall Project — a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal justice system — said the difference between what prisons were originally intended to do and what they have become is another reason for rehabilitative failure and the lack of resources dedicated to treating mental illness in prison.

ical harm, but what the administration is not talking about is the harm that isolation can do to a person’s mental, physical and emotional health,” Law said. “It’s an easier way to keep control, but it’s very much designed to incapacitate.”

The Scientific American noted in 2013 that those kept in isolation suffer from hypersensitivity to light, paranoia and hallucinations. In addition, the site also found that in 2007, 69 percent of prisoners in Washington state who were released directly from solitary confinement were back in prison within three years. Conversely, the rate of recidivism was lower for those who were allowed to integrate back into the prison community before being released.

To combat the brutality of prisons and high rates of incarceration and recidivism, it is necessary to take a closer look at alternative structures that are based around ideas of rehabilitation, not punishment.

According to the NIJ, there are a plethora of benefits reaped by prisoners who receive the appropriate amount of rehabilitative attention behind bars. Those who are allowed to earn a high school equivalency diploma and receive vocational skills are more likely to get a job and earn higher wages after their release than prisoners who do not. In terms of effectiveness, methods like isolation and physical punishment were also reported by the NIJ to have been less effective at reducing recidivism rates than community service, drug and alcohol programs and employment workshops.

These rehabilitative programs are similar to methods of “restorative justice” which are used in 80 countries around the world, according to a 2005 paper by the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation. Norway, in particular, has a robust restorative justice program. Humane prison conditions, reduced sentences and the transformation of prisoners are the objectives of Norway’s criminal justice system, according to a Business Insider article from 2014. In this system, inmates are given responsibilities such as cooking and cleaning to better prepare them for life after prison. Restorative justice programs also include surprising

elements such as friendly relationships between guards and inmates.

While it may sound like a liberal fantasy that could never possibly satisfy the need for repentance, according to Business Insider, Norway boasts one of the lowest incarceration rates at just 75 for every 100,000 people, a far cry from the 737 per 100,000 jailed in the U.S. The mindful treatment of Norway’s prisoners is something the U.S. could certainly learn from. Implementing a similar scheme in American prisons could bring about a reduction in incarceration rates and a better general well-being of inmates as they re-enter society, giving them a higher chance of staying out of prison.

Certainly, some people belong behind bars. Yet, when it comes to locking people up with increasingly obscure cause, the end result — a prisoner coming back to the same row of cells every few years — seems to be a waste of time, money and energy. With a change in tactic and structure, social rehabilitation could be reintegrated into prisons for the benefit of those involved, providing them with a better future. ___________________________________ Catherine Colgan is a first-year exploratory major who had Orange is the New Black playing on repeat while writing this article. You can reach them at ccolgan@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

“The whole model of American prisons is centered around basically housing people,” Chammah said.

“Treating them is not what the system was designed to do. Now that prisons have to do that, due to the large number of mental cases within, you can really see the strain.”

Chammah added that prisons have often become the new mental hospital in the absence of hospitals specifically dedicated to mental health, many of which were shut down in the 1960s and 70s. But prisons are not a particularly hospitable place for those with mental illnesses. In 2015, the Huffington Post noted that guards receive minimal training in handling mental illness and that, due to the severe conditions brought on by punishments like solitary confinement, those who enter prison with a mental illness often leave in a worse condition than when they got there.

When it comes to prisons as a whole, Chammah blames insufficient funds as well as administrative problems for the dearth of rehabilitative opportunities.

“Lack of funding is often the product of political gridlock,” Chammah said. “When people are setting budgets and making decisions about prisons, there’s a tendency to avoid giving privileges to prison inmates.”

Chammah added that when faced with taking a stance on rights for prisoners, such as education or other rehabilitative programs, politicians will often choose not to support such causes in order to gain public favor and appear “tough on crime.” But all this serves to do is deprive prisoners of opportunities to work toward stability in their lives when they are released.

It is becoming clear that today’s prisons are crafted in an image of fear and cruelty, not rehabilitation.

Segregation and physical retribution are among the various disciplinary actions used in prisons, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Solitary confinement is another popular but flawed form of punishment. Victoria Law, a freelance author who reports frequently on the prison system, said isolating prisoners for long periods of time can have a detrimental impact. “[They] are not able to cause phys-

Invisibility After Integration Why multicultural education misses the mark

By Isabella Grullón, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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e all used Elmer’s school glue on our cute arts and crafts projects in elementary school. It left a sticky mess on our fingers and clothes and made our projects look crooked and crinkled. The worst thing about Elmer’s school glue is it only worked with a few materials, and it would crumble apart after only a few days. Elmer’s gave your five-year-old head the illusion that you could use it on anything to create projects your parents would be proud of, but in reality, only a few things like paper or glitter would still be on your project at the end of the day. All other materials and details would slowly fall off because the Elmer’s could not hold everything together.

Multicultural education — to a certain extent — operates in the same way. Paul Gorski, founder of EdChange and associate professor at George Mason University, said multicultural education came about in the 1960s with the goal of incorporating the art, history, authors and values of different races into education. Gorski noted it was done because historically marginalized groups were treated poorly by the education system. However, he believes that multicultural education today does not provide a space for conversations on discrimination to occur or for there to be an understanding of how that discrimination manifests itself.

In the same way that Elmer’s provided a base for your project but left many materials behind, multicultural education provides a start to these spaces but “does not lend itself to creating a truly integrated society,” Gorski said.

Multicultural education is taught in such a way that it separates the history of different cultures from what we traditionally think of as history, which is usually centered around white, male perspec-

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tives. Every so often, professors and teachers celebrate the “holidays and heroes” of different cultures, but don’t delve deeper into the actual history and contexts of the people of that culture. This practice leads to a shallow recognition of difference, Gorski said. He added that this type of approach makes difference into a spectacle, allowing educators and students to only truly understand certain parts of a culture while leaving other aspects behind.

Carmen Munson, a therapist in Ithaca, New York specializing in Myers-Briggs — a training that allows people to understand where an individual’s perceptions come from and how it affects their actions — said although there are problems with it, multicultural education does have some benefits.

“The beauty of multicultural education is that it brings different perspectives and histories forward,” Munson said. “It gives minorities a space in a classroom.”

However, on the flip side, she said that teachers trying to use tactics of multicultural education should be cautious of calling histories about white, western civilization simply history while having a specific designation for history about nonwhite cultures. Doing so “makes people think [the non-white] perspective is not theirs so why should they care,” she said.

In her 1990 book Comprehensive Multicultural Education, Christine Bennett — professor of social studies and multicultural education at Indiana University — wrote that focusing on cultural differences between people could create negative prejudices and stereotypes. Bennett added that it is “human nature to view those who are different as inferior.” She went on to explain that stereotyping happens because most of the time the approach to teaching multicultural education is not the right one. Like Gorski, she believes that simply introducing a different culture is not enough. Classrooms

need to open themselves up to be spaces in which professors can address issues like the racism those cultures have experienced.

Eunhyun Kim, professor of English at Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea, addressed the shortcomings of how multicultural education is taught in a 2011 article titled “Conceptions, critiques, and challenges in multicultural education: Informing teacher education reform in the U.S.” She said that by making multicultural education simply a celebration of culture, it can take “the form of adding the history and cultures of ethnic minorities to the dominant curriculum without addressing racism and critiquing school structures.”

In her article, Kim observed that one of the most concerning shortcomings of multicultural education is that it does not engage in enough critical thinking. While she noted that multicultural education does introduce different viewpoints, it does not integrate them into what Kim referred to as the “official narrative,” which is usually associated with Eurocentric male history, making it difficult to address racism, marginalization and inequality in schools.

Instead of the way it is currently done, Kim said impactful multicultural education would aid students in becoming active and aware members of a democratic society. For her, the way to do this is by putting the perspectives of marginalized groups at the core of the curriculum, instead of having them be in the periphery behind the dominant, white Eurocentric narrative.

Initiatives, such as Gorski’s EdChange, are trying to address how multicultural education does not teach students how to truly understand other people’s cultures, deal with racial, sexist or homophobic slurs or create an environment for social justice. For Gorski, these are the issues multicultural education should be addressing.

“The goal of EdChange is to move

“Instead of the way it is currently done, Kim said impactful multicultural education would aid students in becoming active and aware members of a democratic society.

For her, the way to do this is by putting the perspectives of marginalized groups at the core of the curriculum.” of others’ values, cultures and perspectives.

Another way of developing the type of curriculum that promotes social understanding of marginalization, oppression and change is through the transformation approach to multicultural education.

James Banks, professor of multicultural education at the University of Washington, described the transformative approach in his 2012 book Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives as a pedagogy that makes students look at the material they are learning from a perspective that is not their own. Minority students do this all the time when looking at history, literature and politics from the viewpoint of the conquerors; it’s just flipping the roles.

The transformation approach starts with the “knowledge construction process,” which is where teachers are tasked with helping students understand, investigate and determine how implicit cultural assumptions and biases can influence the ways knowledge is constructed. Then, students are encouraged to think about knowledge and view ideas from the point of view of other societal groups rather than from their own point of view.

This approach depends on professors to create an environment where differences are welcomed, not stigmatized, and to teach others to be respectful and understanding of different backgrounds.

Cynthia Henderson, professor of theater for social change at Ithaca College, implements this type of pedagogy in her acting classes by offering her students the chance to “walk in the shoes of other cultures.” She does this by having her students explore characters from all different backgrounds and learn as much as they can about their situation to create an understanding of

all the different people who make up the United States.

Henderson also seeks to normalize the multicultural aspect of education, framing her course in a way that makes her students learn about the U.S. from another group’s perspective. For example, she encourages her students to pick a monologue or scene they think is powerful without focusing on whether the character is a different gender, race or sexuality than the one her students identify as. This forces her students to learn and understand what it was like to be a female African-American opera singer, for example, even if they are a cisgender white male.

Henderson said the way to bring effective multicultural education to other fields, like history and politics, is to stop separating history by race.

“Instead of saying we’re going to talk about black women’s history say we’re going to talk about U.S. politics and tell the story of Shirley Chisholm: the first black candidate for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States,” Henderson said. Because, for Henderson, when we make that a part of a history lesson, then it becomes part of everyone’s history and culture.

Multicultural education, as it is currently done, does give us the base and ground needed to not only embrace diversity but learn to understand it. It has opened up a space for conversations on differences to occur. It’s just time to make the glue a little stronger. It’s time to move from Elmer’s school glue to big kid E60 metal adhesives. ___________________________________ Isabella Grullón is a third-year journalism major who has written several poor reviews of Elmer’s Glue. You can reach them at igrullon@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

from more fluffy or surface level conversations about diversity and multiculturalism and sort of pivot people into a more serious conversation about education equity and justice,” Gorski said. “It’s getting beyond celebrating diversity and getting to more directly talk about racism and sexism and homophobia and heterosexism, among other things.”

Through his organization, Gorski hosts workshops that teach educators to notice and address biases in textbooks and pick up on racial slurs students might say. He also teaches educators to change their curriculums to improve multicultural education through five stages of learning.

The first stage is shifting away from status quo education, which is when we see material largely based on Eurocentric, male perspectives, Gorski said. He said the second stage is when teachers introduce holidays and heroes of different cultural groups. While Gorski said this stage is needed, he added it is dangerous when professors do not move past this stage, and the reality is that most do not. The danger of staying in stage two is that although it invites and recognizes diversity, it doesn’t go in depth about different cultures or address issues of racism and discrimination.

The third stage is having educators understand where their students come from and teach material in a way that can relate to the minority students in the classroom.

The next stages are about understanding each other’s backgrounds, finding connections with people of different identities and moving towards an institution that does not make multiculturality a section or a celebration month, but a constant conversation. The end goal is to create an environment that promotes social change and an understanding

Sticky Situations When maple tradition and modernity collide in the syrup industry

By Evan Popp, Upfront Editor

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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ou wake up on Sunday morning to the smell of pancakes. Or maybe it’s waffles or french toast. The smell grows irresistibly stronger as you make your way downstairs.

After anticpating the riches of food, you head to the table. What to put on your feast? Butter? Too boring.

Jam? Meh. You reach instead toward a large container. A river of thick liquid flows onto your plate, submerging your breakfast in its amber hue. The first mouthful is an explosion of flavor as the sweetness spreads to your tastebuds. You take another bite and then another, marveling at a taste that is both familiar to you and like nothing else you’ve ever had.

Maple syrup is a tradition in the Northeast region of the United States (and in Quebec) that dates back centuries. It was discovered by the indigenous peoples of North America, who made sugar from the sap of maple trees as early as 1609 — if not earlier — according to the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association. Since then, syrup has become a staple of both the New England and New York economies. But it has also become part of their cultural fabric, as the tradition of boiling sap from maple trees to make syrup has been passed down from generation to generation.

However, since its inception, the way maple syrup is produced has gone through a myriad of changes. And now it appears to be going through yet another evolution.

Timothy Perkins, director of the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center, said the maple syrup industry has become increasingly industrialized in recent years.

Perkins also said there has been a growth in the average size of syrup producing operations.

“There are some operations that are just tremendously large now and I guess the number of operations that might be defined as industrial is increasing,” he said.

Technological innovations are largely seen as being responsible for the growing number of larger, more

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industrial operations. Advances like vacuum pumps that remove more sap from the tree, increased sanitation of the tap holes through which sap is extracted, and reverse osmosis systems are among the technologies that have led to the changes in the industry.

These technological advances, and the resulting industrialization of the industry, have spurred an explosion of syrup production.

In the 2016 syrup making season, production in the U.S. was up 23 percent over the previous year to a record 4,207,000 gallons, according to a Food Business News article from June 2016.

Perspectives vary on whether the changes in the syrup industry are beneficial in the long run, with some saying the industrialization is corrupting the spirit of maple syrup production while others point to the positive effects already reaped by the shifts to the industry. Perkins largely focuses on the positives, saying the industrialization of syrup making and the increase in the production of syrup that goes with it means the U.S. doesn’t have to import as much from Canada, the world’s largest syrup producer. He said this will be beneficial for local economies.

However, Perkins did acknowledge there is the potential that the increased, industrial-style production of maple syrup will create a glut on the market, driving down prices and costing producers money, although he said that possibility hasn’t manifested itself yet.

This is the concern of Steven Gorelick, the managing programs director for Local Futures — an organization that advocates for a shift away from globalization and toward localization. Gorelick, a homesteader in Vermont who makes maple syrup, wrote a piece in March 2016 titled “How Capitalism is Changing Vermont’s Maple Syrup Industry for the Worse.” He said in an interview that he’s worried the maple syrup industry is on what he calls “the technological treadmill.”

He said this refers to a trend

that has appeared in every part of the agricultural industry in which a new technology is introduced that increases efficiency and production, benefiting the first farmers to invest in the technology. But as more people begin using the advances, prices fall because of overproduction, Gorelick said.

“Initially they may have seen a return, but as everyone embraces it the price goes down and they’re back where they started from,” he said. “Only now, they have a much bigger investment in technology and the only way they can pay for that is with larger production.”

In the end, farmers don’t end up any further ahead than they were before the technological advancements, Gorelick said. And those who don’t invest in the technology are often pushed out of the business by the rising costs, he added.

Michael Farrell, director of Cornell University’s Uihlein Forest, a field station for maple syrup research, has a different perspective.

He said the changes to the industry have made syrup production more efficient. Additionally, Farrell said the technological innovations have made maple syrup making more environmentally friendly by reducing the amount of energy needed to convert sap into syrup.

Environmentalism has been on the minds of syrup producers in recent years, as scientific research has pointed out the dire impact climate change could have on the maple industry — which has historically been reliant on certain temperatures that are conducive to sap runs. Farrell said the technological advancements in the industry could help producers work around some of the impacts a changing climate will likely have on syrup production.

“With the vacuum pumps and with the new types of spouts and tubing, we’re able to continue to collect good yields of sap even when the temperatures are unfavorable,” he said. “So technology can ameliorate some of the negatives of climate change.”

Farrell added that even with the industrialization of syrup production and the increased size of sug-

tive when discussing the industrialization of the U.S. syrup industry.

Childs said that despite the growing number of U.S. syrup operations that are increasing in size, most are still dwarfed by syrup producers in Quebec.

Childs said he doesn’t know of more than one syrup maker in New York that exceeds 100,000 taps.

“That would be a typical operation in Quebec,” he said.

There aren’t a lot of downsides to the technological advancements in the industry and the industrialization that has resulted, Childs said. He said the yield per tap now is much higher than it was in 2005 and those who use the new technology shouldn’t have a problem making a profit.

One producer who’s happy about the new technology is Dan Beasley, owner of SweeTrees Maple Products in Berkshire, New York. Beasley said the technological innovations have made syrup production more efficient by upping the amount of sap that can be extracted from the tree.

“There’s some traditionalists that say there’s only one way to do it,” he said. “And in some ways I think the old ways are pretty neat, but I think the technology has been very positive overall. There’s a lot more syrup available now… Everybody keeps putting taps in every year.”

Not all syrup producers are hopping on the technology train and the industrialization it has spurred. Doug Bragg, owner of Bragg Farm Sugarhouse and Gift Shop in East Montpelier, Vermont, said he still uses buckets instead of the new technology.

“To me, people sugar because they like to,” he said. “And we certainly get more enjoyment out of buckets and doing it the traditional way than we would having to have a lot of equipment and technology that breaks down and has problems.”

Overall, no matter what one thinks about the industrialization of maple syrup production, it is clear that the industry is going through a dramatic shift. And — as Gorelick fears — that shift has the potential to mirror the changes that have occurred in the agricultural industry as a whole, with small family farms rapidly disappearing and large agricultural behemoths like Monsanto monopolizing the market. Granted, plenty of small maple syrup producers still exist and some, like Bragg, are not

going along with the technological trends of the industry. But while the large syrup producers aren’t yet big enough to control the market, there are certainly signs that the syrup industry could be headed in that direction, with large producers like SweeTree steadily increasing in size.

“It’s a trend that you can see in every part of agriculture,” Gorelick said.

In many ways, the industrialization of syrup can also be thought of as a microcosm for the triumphs and pitfalls of globalization. The world’s economic integration has undoubtedly led to technological advances and the ability to produce at a higher and more efficient rate. With that, as seen in the maple syrup industry, has come increased production and monetary gain.

But the advancements of globalization come at a cost, as it’s not clear that small and medium size businesses even benefit in the long run.

While it’s true globalization leads to increases in efficiency and technology, those gains may be offset by the costs of the technologies and sinking prices due to overproduction. Additionally, with the ability to increase production at an efficient rate often comes the loss of something else: a way of life, a sense of community and an intimate connection to one’s work. It becomes impersonal — just a means of making a profit rather than an element of a community’s social fabric.

In the context of maple syrup production, it remains to be seen whether the industry will fully embrace the Faustian bargain offered by globalization and industrialization, with all its advantages and disadvantages, or if it will be able to retain some of its quaint charm. For now, the forces of industrialization seem to be winning. And while the industry has benefited in the short-term, the impacts down the road may not be as positive. The only certainty is that the direction the industry will go from here is uncertain — its future as murky as a pancake soaked in maple syrup. ___________________________________ Evan Popp is a third-year journalism major who is still waiting for Buzzsaw’s maple syrup issue. You can contact them at epopp@ithaca.edu.

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Upfront

aring operations that has resulted, the big syrup producers aren’t huge businesses.

“Even what you might consider a mega operation is still a family operation, it’s still a small business,” Farrell said, adding that he doesn’t believe the larger syrup producers are putting small ones out of business.

While it is difficult to find out whether the number of small syrup producers has changed in the last few years, the number of total farms producing syrup went up in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, New York and Vermont between 2007 and 2012, according to the Proctor Maple Research Center.

However, despite the increased production and the upward trend in the number of producers in recent years, as well as Farrell’s assertion that the changes to maple syrup are not hurting small producers, there are concerns that traditional community-based sugaring operations may be adversely affected by the changes to the industry.

Gorelick said he has seen anecdotal evidence that, although the number of total producers increased between 2007 and 2012, some small-scale syrup producers have quit the business for economic reasons. Gorelick said as many syrup producers have scaled up, others have been priced out of the industry.

This takes a toll on small communities. Production of maple syrup has traditionally been a social event, Gorelick said, as neighbors visit each other’s sugarhouses to help out and catch up. But with increased factory-style maple syrup production — such as the giant industrial maple syrup producer Sweet Tree LLC with its 100,000-plus taps in northern Vermont — Gorelick said the community aspect of syrup making is minimized.

“If you did visit, it would not be the same kind of social gathering that you have at a sugarhouse,” he said. “So if that’s lost, you’re losing a big chunk of the cultural fabric that knitted these communities together.”

Additionally, Gorelick said not everyone is able to afford the equipment necessary to keep up with the industrialization of syrup, as some of the technologies are expensive.

However, Stephen Childs, a New York State maple specialist, said it’s important to keep some perspec-

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November 9, 2016 Grieving and gathering our thoughts after the election By the Buzzsaw Editors In the early hours of November 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. For most of us, this was the first election we’d ever voted in. And for most of us, this election hit much harder than we expected. With our myriad identities as well as our shared passion for media, reactions ranged. Some had intellectual responses, others reacted viscerally. And some were simply numb. Here are our thoughts on working through and coming to terms with a day we’ll never forget.

Upfront

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Woman, November

By Sophie Israelsohn, Ministry of Cool Editor “I look down at my body this morning and I see blood flowing from the same place someone once said to grab. And in this moment, I know even in my darkest of spaces that I will protect this blood, my blood. I will protect the most human element with my brothers and sisters of color, my family and friends and allies.

I will protect it until this blood becomes another human and I teach them how to protect theirs.

Grab a hold of that.”

Nov. 9, 2016 5:07 a.m.

I can count the times I’ve woken up screaming on one hand. I’m not sure I can really count this one as waking up.

Use Our Words

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

By Tara Eng, Layout Editor I’ve been trying to come up with something to say to you about everything going on right now. I still don’t really know what that is yet. I am upset. I am crying, and I have been crying. Once I figure out what to say I’ll tell you. But for now, I will say this: I love each of you with all of my heart and being. I do not know what is going to happen over the coming years, or long term. I am very, very sorry that we now have a leader who does not stand for any of us. But more than anything in the past 12 hours, I have realized that, while we live in a country with people who will elect those such as Donald Trump, whose eyes are so blind and ignorant with privilege and whose hearts are so ingrained with racism, homophobia and misogyny; there are people who will stand with

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Open eyes does not always a conscious human make. It was the longest morning. I had five hours of life I could have lived before class, but I spent it making the most broken sounds with tears burning trails in my skin. And I wondered if I could let the salt settle that my body would become another dead sea and the rest of me could float above the day, the week. The next four years.

I knew in the darkness of 5 a.m. that the moment I stood up, the tears bleeding through the fabric surrounding my skin would be tears of two colors. One of the hardest days to be a woman, a human. And somewhere underneath for a brief moment, the pain was something I could take back. I could have drowned in my sheets, that’s what I wanted. But I stood, like a woman.

And between my guttural cries, blood cried between my legs.

At the peak of powerlessness, nothing mattered, not the stains I’d probably leave on my clothes if I didn’t change out of them. There’s a blood stain on this country that’s going to be harder to

you, who will fight for you, who will love you and accept you with all of their hearts. A friend’s mom texted this morning, “continue to exude your kindness, grace and love...”

You are safe with me, you are protected with me, and I love you so much.

I spent Nov. 9 trying to formulate a statement of some sort to share with three of my closest friends, a group of gay students enrolled in a homophobic high school, and my very best friend, who is black and had left me a voicemail sobbing at 2:47 a.m.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “My response was, in this moment, to write.

I was lucky I had even that. Most of us are forced to drink our travesties straight and smile about it.”

More than ever, it is important for us to use our words now. Grieve however you must and will, but use your words to support one another, to protect one another, to love one another. We must use our words to defend ourselves and each other, to challenge and change, and to stand up for us. I know that it might be difficult to try to articulate our feelings; it might feel

get out. In the great stretch of the country, the planet, the universe, I did the bare minimum as a small, emotionally defeated human.

I disappeared and then reappeared with the shower running, leaning against the crying walls to keep myself standing. The sounds that left my mouth, whatever could be released from the bind in my throat, echoed between the salt in me and the red that fell just as fast. My dead sea, my red sea would carry me through the day when my legs couldn’t.

I stood and the iron in my blood made my shield.

hopeless and useless to make bold statements — but we must try. It is imperative that we take care of each other.

I hope that, through our anger, our despair, our shock and frustration, that we remember to love. It is easy to get lost in those sinking feelings and forget that.

Image by Claire McClusky

I Don’t Like Donald Trump

By Claire McClusky, Art Editor “On November 9, I spent the day sleeping and staring at my laptop. I couldn’t eat or engage with people. I attended some sort of anti-Trump gathering downtown. Since then, my care for school and personal health has diminished. Certain things just seem less important. It has been frustrating and depressing to attend gatherings where this intensified and obvious form of hate is never mentioned. But I am just as equal to blame. It is on all of us to create the future by how we engage in the present.

Donald Trump is an image of toxic masculinity. This is different from people fighting for what is right — it is trying

Resist, But Understand

By Evan Popp, Upfront Editor

barrass themselves (and get documented and seen), the more we see them for the performers they are, the less we buy into their power or the system their power comes from.

If you have a vision, bring it forward. Don’t be scared to influence if you are presenting your truth and admitting your limited experience. Many of us are at a point where we have access to infinite information, can determine validity with our fingertips and can clearly see what systemic structures are oppressive. Others have an incredible interest or skill in technological achievement. We have the technology, imagination and resources to build and support sustainable living.

Come to each other looking to learn and understand. Know what you know, and know that you don’t know. Personally, I want to end capitalism, but if you think that it is here to stay, then know your spending influences the social and environmental situation on this planet. Your dollar tells companies how to take resources and what for. These are the same companies influencing policy makers. Don’t participate in something you don’t agree with.

it certainly wasn’t because all 62 million people who voted for the demagogic billionaire are vitriolically racist. Some of those voters undoubtedly are, but a significant portion actually voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Here’s what I believe happened instead. If we take anything away from this election, it must be that it was a rejection of the elite. A no-thank-you to continued globalization and neo-liberalism, to more free-trade deals that lead to losses of jobs, and to an economic recovery that hasn’t been felt by much of the working class. Hillary Clinton, in everything but her gender, was a personification of the establishment and of status quo politics. And whatever else he might be, the foul-mouthed realestate mogul was not. His very candidacy was a repudiation of Washington insiders and career, establishment politicians. And that, more than anything else, is why he will be sworn into office in January.

Does this mean his presidency will be good for those screwed over by the forces of the establishment he railed against? Of course not. It will be an unmitigated disaster, as the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and social

justice will be thrown out the window.

Nor does it mean that those who voted without any regard for how it would impact others should be excused. However, moral condemnation gets us nowhere. What does get us somewhere is understanding how a candidate so clearly unqualified for the presidency managed to get elected.

So resist, fight back, hold the incoming administration accountable.

But along with that, there must come a push for a sea-change in the types of candidates put forward in opposition.

No longer can they be representatives of the elite. They must instead give voice to a message of change, not to a continuation of the status quo. And they must push back against globalization and other policies that have hurt the working class while also retaining a message of social justice for all.

Only then can the forces of hatred and bigotry, thrust into the highest offices of government by the results of this election, be defeated

P

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Upfront

IThe unthinkable has happened.

Despite losing the popular vote, by virtue of the electoral college, a racist, misogynistic, hopelessly uninformed serial tweeter will — barring a revolt by the electors — become the 45th president of the United States.

My life, with its white male privilege, will change little. But for others, this is a disaster. That’s why it’s been so heartening to see a groundswell of resistance emerge, ready to fight the incoming administration at every turn.

But while resistance is important, it will ultimately be futile unless it’s coupled with an understanding of why this happened in the first place.

The reasons given so far by the Democratic establishment miss the mark. It wasn’t because of third parties.

It wasn’t because of James Comey. And

to prove that everything and everyone is rightfully theirs to control. This capitalist, white dominated patriarchy is not beneficial for the ideal image of human advancement. The system is failing the masses and those of us it still benefits are scrambling to scare everyone else into respecting its power to destroy. It isn’t real though. It is a performance to fulfill expectations more hurtful than useful.

Illness of the collective is more clear and present than ever. When I speak to older people, they have felt the rise in intensity. We are coming to a breaking point. Social structures can’t hold their pathologies infinitely. Eventually they build up so precisely that they are too fragile to survive. They crumble and we rebuild a new, more complex structure, more appropriate for those influencing its building and progress.

Only the weak need terror to keep some sort of social order. You and your community can create effective and beneficial structures to support one another. If someone comes around to stop you from doing something peaceful and productive, they will only embarrass themselves. The more these people em-

New Year’s Resolution

By Alexis Morillo, Upfront Editor My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 was to become more politically aware.

It’s important to note that this has been one of my resolutions for the past three years, but 2016 was the first year I would be old enough to vote and I wanted to know what I was doing in order to properly fulfill my civic duty. Unfortunately, like many of the years prior, I failed at my New Year’s Resolution about two months into the new year.

More unfortunately, the first election I was eligible to vote in turned out to be one of the most problematic.

As a journalism student, it’s impossible to look at situations so heavily reported on without thinking about the media’s effect on the public’s perceptions. I don’t want to use this space to discuss the outcome directly. I want to

Love is All You Need?

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

By Tylor Colby, Sawdust Editor “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” a 1969 single by The Rolling Stones, has always been one of my least favorite songs from the classic BritRock group. With every listen I imagine Jagger’s yelping is coming from some gross pervy dude talking to a woman he’s about to sleep with, as if to say, “I guess this is the best you’re gonna get, eh?”

The same tune played out over loudspeakers while President-Elect Donald Trump approached the stage to give his victory speech, and as I watched it all unfold on television I couldn’t help but think how fitting the song was for the situation our country

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be candid and honest and say that although this was the first election I could vote in, I made the decision not to. I feel guilty for not voting but I’d feel more guilty voting for a candidate I could not be completely confident in.

The fact that others shared this mentality is the sad reality of this election, but as an optimist, I feel that as a country we can learn and grow from the happenings of the 2016 presidential race. I knew the scope of the situation when I woke up on Nov. 9 to my roommate crying in the bathroom of our dorm room while on the phone with her mother. This feeling was only confirmed further when I couldn’t help but notice how much quieter campus seemed when walking from class to class that day or when my professors let us spend at least 20 minutes of class debriefing, or excusing us from class completely. I knew just how influential politics can be not only to those directly affected, but also to the families, friends, and allies of marginalized groups. I want those that are fearful and confused to know that despite my still developing political views — I am with you. This may have been the first election I was able to vote in, but it was not my last.

is now in. Except instead of an unfortunate one-night-stand with a regular everyday sleazebag, America has found ourselves in a four to eight-year marriage with one of our country’s most notorious slumlords and bigots.

I remember the pit in my stomach as my friends and I watched it all unfold, the zombified look on my face and the faces around me. In a fit of desperation, we ran downstairs to play music that was as loud and fast as possible.

After a few minutes we were tired out, the attempted catharsis a failure. Again we tried to let out our collective frustration by screaming as loudly as possible off the roof of a parking garage. Even as our collective cries echoed up and over the nearby buildings, I felt an emptiness.

Over the next few days, this unresolved, ambiguous sensation still remained. And with every bit of news about the soon-to-be Trump administration coming in, I feel the same as I did that day. The reality is our country and our government is in a lot of trouble,

Although I stand by my decision to not vote, it was a decision I will push myself to never make again by educating myself on the topics that matter to me and impact those I love. My New Year’s Resolution for 2017 will once again be to become more politically aware. But this time, I have full intentions to keep it.

Image by Claire McClusky

and there’s no feel-good way of wrapping that up in a bow. But what I have done instead over the past few weeks is work to build as much positive energy for those around me than ever before, because in these times that is the most crucial component. I’ve had enough of apathy, I’ve had enough of anger, I’ve had enough of division. Those of us with a real sense of the political climate need to band together in love.

As political talking head Stephen Fry said following the election, “You don’t convince anyone of anything by insulting them.” The demographics of this country are being swallowed up by our own bubbles, but we all suffocate the same. Let’s burst the bubbles of our culture with care, and communicate as clearly and earnestly as possible in the next few years, because this is the only way I can imagine we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess.

A Step Backwards

By Anonymous

I am a woman. I am a Mexican. I am queer. Despite those three identities, I acknowledge my privileges. I am cisgendered, college-educated, able-bodied and a member of the upper-middle class.

I have the ability to still be successful during these next four years. And I will use this privilege to be vocal and to help those who might have all odds stacked against them.

Image by Megan Banning

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Upfront

I struggled to hold her hand. In one of the biggest and most crowded cities in the world, I struggled to hold her hand. Just a simple action. The five fingers from two separate palms interlocking into one another. Really, it’s an action that all couples do. All couples do it, but heterosexual couples have an easier time doing this than queer couples — especially closeted queer couples. Whenever it came to publicly displaying our affection, she always misunderstood me. She thought my fingers never intertwined with hers because I was somehow embarrassed of her. I always felt baffled to hear her say that. I thought she was beautiful, intelligent and driven; however, I thought the world surrounding us viewed us as disgusting, abnormal and repugnant.

I wasn’t afraid to hold her hand; I was afraid for someone to see us. For someone to judge us. For someone to say something. It’s not as if my anxiety was wrong. During those rare moments when we took part in that simple action, my mind wasn’t fully focused on our conversation. Instead, my eyes would constantly pan and observe the world around me. I’d catch the quick glances and raised eyebrows from elderly men, busy mothers and fast-walking businessmen. My fears weren’t completely irrational. Despite all these disapproving looks from random strangers, it always felt assuring to know that these were issues of an older generation. Progressive millennials didn’t believe this bullshit.

I never felt nervous about the outcome of the 2016 election. I felt angry to hear the social platforms of the Republican candidates, but I thought their ideas were part of the minority. I believed the liberal media and those in my liberal town. I believed the narrative that chanted we were with her. After all, why would anyone not be?

When television reporters, online news outlets and states reported the outcomes, I didn’t believe what I was watching. The later the night grew, the more my hope dwindled. These support-

ers of the Republican ticketed elected a man and an administration that supports racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic and classist ideologies. I hate hearing the excuses of people who tell me that this man won because he connected to members of the lower-middle class that felt disenfranchised from their government. If you look at his First 100 Day Plan, the middle class doesn’t win. This man didn’t win the election because he finally gave the midwest and the middle class what they need to succeed. Instead, he fueled their unconscious and subconscious hatred. But thanks to this man, middle-class midwesterners believe they might achieve success because they elected a man who wants to make a mass amount of others fail.

I’m from the midwest, so when I went home for November break I talked to my friends about the outcome of the election. During this discussion, someone asked me if I believed supporters of the president-elect were racist or not. A couple of my friends said they didn’t think they were racist, and I said they were confusing the definitions for racism and prejudice. Prejudice is the preconceived opinion about others, but racism is what creates systemic oppression. Thus, a small portion of supporters of the presidentelect might not be prejudiced, but since they voted for a man who has openly admitting to wanting to ban immigrants, impose a system similar to Japanese-style internment, and other horrific policies, they are indeed racist.

I hope these discussions continue to happen. The day after the results came out, I attended a rally to discuss what we could do next. One of the rally leaders, Russell Rickford, a Cornell professor, said the outcome of this election can be our nation’s Emmett Till moment. And I agree with him. We need to follow up on this “administration,” talk to our local governments, stay engaged with others in our communities and keep up with current events. It’s not about looking forward to the next presidential election. It’s not about hiding your identity because you’re afraid of being judged. It’s about being active. Seeing what you can do to make change. It’s about voicing displeasure instead of being complacent.

L. MINISTRYofCOOL. MI BUZZSAW: Dunk Issue

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Arts, entertainment and other things cooler than us.

Highbrow

Eyebrows at the peak of cosmetics

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for the perfect brows can date all the way back to about 3500 B.C. when Egyptian men and women used carbon and black oxide to achieve eyebrows arched and shaped to their liking.

Now, people are using everything from brow primer, pencils, gels, shadows, stencils, microblading and even…glue sticks. This past October, “beauty gurus” on YouTube, like the new face of Covergirl, James Charles, used glue sticks as a technique to achieve their perfect costume makeup according to Teen Vogue’s “YouTubers Use Glue Sticks to Get Perfect Eyebrows”.

However, this cosmetology trend didn’t start within the beauty community on YouTube. In fact, it can be attributed to the drag community as it’s been a technique that is used to conceal one’s natural eyebrows in order to shape them for their drag makeup. The technique has been dubbed “brow blocking” and utilizes a glue stick to push the eyebrow hairs upward and create a smooth surface to be concealed using makeup.

Essentially, a blank slate is created for the drag queen to have full freedom in how they shape their brows. As stated in a RuPaul’s Drag Race Reddit thread, “Most men don’t have a whole lot of eyelid to work with, so, by covering the brow, it allows them to move the eyebrow up opening the eyelid.” So the glue makes it possible for drag queens to maximize the surface area available to achieve the dramatic eye makeup look of their liking. The concealing of brows can help a queen achieve a more overtly feminine look according to Reddit user @blogginglife on the aforementioned thread. “Men have naturally lower brow bones, so using your natural brows instead of bring your crease to your brow bone can make a drag queen look masculine.”

Not all drag queens choose to use brow blocking during their makeup routine. Some go as far as shaving off their entire brows in order to have complete freedom with their looks. Famous drag star RuPaul even tweeted their advice in 2014, “First

Time in Drag: Shave your eyebrows off completely and paint them on properly!” Some queens choose to do exactly that instead of dealing with the sticky side effects of glue brow blocking, while others work with their natural brows and add makeup to achieve their desired look.

This makeup technique is not only used by those in the drag community. As YouTubers have shown recently, brow blocking can be useful when it comes to any special effects makeup or cosplay looks that call for an exaggerated or specific shaped eyebrow. Just be sure to use a washable glue stick before attempting brow blocking in order to avoid any accidental brow disasters. And if that doesn’t work, you can always just start off with a blank canvas and shave them off completely. No matter the case, as long as our society stays focused on the importance of perfect brows, there will always be a product — glue or not — that can be used to help one’s brows reach their full potential. ___________________________________ Alexis Morillo is a second-year journalism major who believes a brow is only as bold as the one who’s filling it in. You can reach them at amorillo@ ithaca.edu.

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Ministry of Cool

yebrows have arguably become one of the boldest aspects of the beauty and cosmetology industry.

Celebrities like Lily Collins and Solange Knowles have been praised for the bushier style brows in articles like Glamour’s “The Best Celebrity Eyebrows” listicle from Sept. 2016.

The fact that such a listicle exists, in itself, is a testament to just how obsessed our culture has become with brows of all shapes and sizes.

Big beauty brands are playing off of this obsession by constantly releasing new eyebrow products or amping up their old products. For example, Benefit is a beauty brand not only known for their makeup but also for their “brow bars.” Quite literally, the brand provides stand alone salons and those inside chain beauty venders like Ulta, that focus specifically on eyebrows. An expert guides customers to the brow shape that works best for their face and then helps them choose the products that will help them reach their full brow potential. On top of this, Benefit just released a line of exclusively brow-related products that included ten different cosmetics for people to choose from and for the company to profit off of.

Plucking and waxing are mainstream strategies to achieving artful arches, but a variety of new methods have gained popularity due to individuals looking to fill in their brows that they feel are too sparse. Besides traditional makeup techniques, a new trend, known as “microblading,” has popped up. An Aug. 2016 Grazia Daily article explained that though this method is most helpful for chronic hair loss sufferers, this tattoo-like process can be used by anyone to make their eyebrows appear more full yet still natural. The artist uses a pen-like needle tool which gives them more fine control to make thin, hair-like lines.

According to MarieClaire, the quest

Image by Francesca Hodge

By Alexis Morillo, Upfront Editor

Eating Disorders Affect Everyone

Why men should be included in the eating disorder dialogue

By Alex Coburn, Staff Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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ating disorders like bulimia and anorexia plague many women from puberty through adulthood. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), there are 20 million documented cases of women with some type of eating disorder — about six percent of all women in the United States. This percentage grows even larger among students, with 50 percent of women using unhealthy methods to control their weight.

However, while women with eating disorders are a frequently discussed topic, men with eating disorders are often left by the wayside. According to Eating Disorder Hope, about 1 million men suffer daily from clinical eating disorders across the United States, whether it be anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating. But unfortunately, the media often fails to normalize the idea that men can suffer from body image issues, too.

Enter Zayn Malik, former One Direction vocalist and now solo artist.

Malik is not only known for being a powerhouse singer, but also a teenage heartthrob. However, despite his success and popularity, Malik has recently come out about his struggle with anorexia via his autobiography Zayn.

“Something I’ve never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder,” Malik wrote. “I’d just go for days — sometimes two or three days straight — without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

Malik reflects in his book on how ill he became as a result, with his anorexia reaching an all time peak in Nov. 2014. Since dropping out of One Direction and becoming a solo artist, Malik has been able to start eating regularly again. According to his book, this correlates largely with the fact that Malik restricted his eating in order to have control over something; it can be insinuated that as a member of a boy band, he felt

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fairly micromanaged in every other area of his life.

Writing for GQ, Nathaniel Penn chronicled the lives of men like Malik who struggle with eating disorders in one form or another. They all cited different reasons: relationship troubles, self-esteem issues, depression, a need for control (a la Malik). But there was one startling thing in common: almost none of them received help and one even died from their disorder.

“Twenty percent and rising. More and more men are starving themselves to death in a pathological pursuit of perfection,” Penn said. “Male anorexics have much in common with women who suffer from the same debilitating illness, but there’s a striking difference: For the vast majority of men, help is not on the way.”

According to the NEDA, while eating disorders are more common among women, men have a higher mortality rate. They also are more likely to have comorbid conditions, like excessive exercise and substance abuse. So why is talking about male eating disorders in the media so stigmatized?

The main reason for this stigma is the notorious enforcement of gender stereotypes. Concerns such as one’s appearance and low self-esteem are often classified as “woman problems.”

too little muscle.” It’s well-known that unrealistic body expectations in the media correlate with the high number of female eating disorders, so it should be natural to grant males this same correlation.

As a celebrity, Malik is someone who helps set the media’s standards for what a male should look like, yet even he is affected by these standards. If a pop culture trend-setter, cannot cope with the pressure to be perfect all the time, then what does that say for all of the young men out there who don’t have million dollar record deals?

For the men interviewed in Penn’s GQ feature, it means frequent hospital visits, lying about their issues to their family, ruined relationships and worse.

But because male eating disorders are so rarely talked about in both research and the media, doctors don’t think to diagnose them even if a patient has all the signs.

“Certainly twenty years of lean, muscular male physiques in advertising, movies, sports, and of course, magazines like GQ — from Marky Mark to Brad Pitt to David Beckham — have changed the way both men and women regard the male body,” Penn said.

This chiseled masculinity that is insidious through film, TV, magazines and music shows young boys what it looks like to be a man.

Teenage boys who put on extra weight during puberty see this as wrong and unnatural just like girls do. Eating disorders know no gender, but the media only focuses on what it’s like to be a girl and affected. As a result, boys with eating disorders Image by Megan Banning think they’re anomalies even As early as 1689, researcher Richard though they’re not, feel ashamed and Morton studied two cases of anorexia: don’t seek help. It’s a vicious cycle: men a man and a woman. However, when don’t report eating disorders because eating disorder research became they’re not represented in the media, popular centuries later in the 1970s, 99 but the media doesn’t represent male percent of books about eating disorders eating disorders because men don’t developed a bias for women. talk about it.

If even researchers ignore the signs _____________________________________ of eating disorders in men, then how Alex Coburn is a first-year cinema is the media supposed to pick up the photography major who doesn’t buy slack, especially when they are the into gender-specific troubles. You can main source for how a man is supposed to look? NEDA reports that 68 percent contact them at acoburn@ithaca.edu. of college-aged males feel “they have

Golden Shoulders

Celebrities looked to as the carriers for social movements

By Tatiana Jorio, Seesaw Social Media Editor

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conversation Jenner was — intentionally or not — placing herself in, she instead chose to “clap-back,” a term coined by rapper Ja Rule, referring to returning a diss. Jenner responded by posting a tweet stating “Mad if I do...mad if I don’t...” The tweet, though shedding light to the constant celebrity criticism, serves in humanizing Jenner, and reminds her followers that at the end of the day, she is a 19-year-old girl capable of making mistakes. Ultimately though, it’s interesting to note that when Jenner was given a direct opportunity to speak up about Black Lives Matter and police brutality, or give support, she instead decided to clap-back, once again not realizing the potential power of her voice and failing to utilize her platform for good.

In contrast to Jenner’s silence on important issues though, are celebrities who attempt to join conversations through slacktivism, which may be equally if not more damaging. Beyoncé is a celebrity that young women think of when they think of female empowerment and feminism, but what has she really done to support women’s rights?

“How to Reclaim the F Word? Just Call Beyoncé ,” was Jessica Bennett’s headline for a TIME article about Beyoncé taking feminism to the stage, when at the 2014 VMA’s, Beyoncé preformed underneath the word “feminist.” Because of this visual, people had internalized Beyoncé as a champion of women’s rights, brainwashed to some degree by the shock-value of the performance.

However, Beyoncé has in fact actually contributed to shaming other women.

In her song “Partition,” Beyoncé sings “he Monica Lewinsky’d all on my gown,” shaming Lewinsky.

Lewinsky wrote in response to Beyoncé’s lyric in her Vanity Fair article. She criticizes Beyoncé because instead of blaming Clinton, Beyoncé shamed and blamed Lewinsky, although maybe unintentionally.

Lewinsky discusses in her TEDTalk, “The Price of Shame,” how difficult it was for her to become a punchline, and unfortunately Beyoncé’s voice, and lyric further perpetuated Lewinsky as a punchline, which

doesn’t align with feminism or female empowerment.

It’s hypocritical of Beyoncé to claim she represents feminism, and then contribute to publicly shaming a woman who has already been shamed internationally, it is also unfair of society to expect Beyoncé to entirely represent feminism. After Beyoncé sang underneath the word feminist, although she hadn’t necessarily done anything for women’s rights, she did raise awareness on feminism — but this is not enough.

When Laila Ali visited Ithaca College’s campus in late September, she was asked a question by a student about supporting Black Lives Matter, and in response she stated she was more of a fan of “All Lives Matter — Including Black Lives.” While Ali is entitled to her own beliefs, she shouldn’t be expected to speak for all black women. Her words faced criticism because, as a successful famous black woman, she also refrained from using her voice to shine light on the Black Lives Matter movement, especially on a campus that has dealt with many conversations and conflict on racial inequality and racial tension within the last year.

The students seemed more in awe

by Ali’s celebrity, that they weren’t able to critically analyze what she had said, similar to how the millions of people who watched the VMA’s were in awe of Beyoncé’s performance. They didn’t stop to think about what Beyoncé had actually done for women’s rights, or what exactly made Beyoncé a feminist; they just blindly accepted Beyoncé as a feminist. It’s important for people to call on celebrities to use their voices as there is so much more they can do with them. However, it is also equally important to not blindly follow celebrities’ voices, but analyze them as though they weren’t celebrities. It’s no longer enough for celebrities to merely raise awareness. __________________________________ Tatiana Jorio is a second-year film, photography & visual art major who think it takes more than one person to move a mountain. You can reach them at tjorio@ithaca.edu.

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Ministry of Cool

Image by Claire McClusky

eople often criticize celebrities for not using their status to discuss politics or important issues like women’s rights or gun violence, simultaneously criticizing them for the stances that they do take. Celebrities throw around phrases like, “I’m just a person,” “I’m just like you,” “I’m normal.” While this may be true in that celebrities are not necessarily built differently than other people, our culture isolates celebrities and examines them so closely that their actions and words are criticized in every capacity possible.

The Kardashians are celebrities who are often criticized for being unaware of how their actions might contribute to a conversation. The youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner family, Kylie Jenner, caused an international uproar when she posted Instagram photos sporting cornrows on July 11, 2015. The photo was liked by over 1.4 million people and commented on by over 176 thousand people.

Amandla Stenberg posted on her Instagram in response to Jenner’s braids.

“When you appropriate black features and culture but fail to use your position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards your wigs instead of police brutality or racism.” It’s important for celebrities to be aware that even though they are not using their voice to contribute to a conversation, their actions sometimes speak louder than words. In Jenner’s case, being a white woman posting a selfie in cornrows does make a statement, and it does contribute to a conversation about appropriating black culture.

Instead of acknowledging the

Dead Band Walking

The rise and inevitable fall of bands in the mainstream

By Amber Raiken, Contributing Writer

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involvement in turning Williams’ solo contract. The band had Taylor York take over the guitar duties that Josh had in their 2013 self-titled album Paramore. It’s still unknown if the band ever really broke up, since right now they’ve just been off the grid.

However, it’s very clear that what started the downfall, was Williams’s potential solo contract, which again shows how one member going on their own could be the fall of the whole band.

Outside the world of modern pop are The Beatles, one the most wellknown and still extremely loved bands today. The UK band obtained a great deal of success in the U.S. with record deals, tours, and even films. According to Rolling Stone, they created three films, one animated film called the Yellow Submarine, went on multiple tours, and produced extremely successful albums like Abbey Road. Even though John Lennon told the band privately about his interest to leave, the band didn’t officially end until 1970 when Paul McCartney announced his exit, which was also the year McCartney’s solo album and the band’s final album, Let It Be, were released. During 1988, eight years after Lennon’s death, the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which proved that their music was still appreciated and honored by millions despite their break up.

According to Billboard, Spice Girls reached the top of the European charts in 1996 before hitting America in 1997. Their hit song “Wannabe” was at the top of the charts during the summer of its release in 1996.

They were massively popular in the U.S. as well, which lead to the release of their album, Spiceworld, and later, their movie of the same name in 1997. By 1998, Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) announced her departure from the band, without citing any clear reasons. The remaining four then decided to take a break, but Halliwell continued making solo music. The

four reunited in 2000 and released Forever in the U.S., but announced their official breakup in 2001. All five reunited for one last tour in 2010, and their final performance was during in 2012 at the London Olympics. Despite how many times they reunited, the break up again began with one member going solo, just like The Beatles.

Pop bands nowadays seem to last between the span of five to eight years, while bands from the late ‘90s lasted from six to 10. As bands separate, at least one member decides to go solo after. However, there are still many bands that have continued to remain strong.

According to Reader’s Digest, beloved ‘90s bands are still working their way up today; bands like the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows. Goo Goo Dolls have been touring since 2013, with no intention to stop anytime soon, and the Counting Crows have continued to produce new albums since 1993. This shows that a band’s lifeline is only as long as the members want it to be. ___________________________________ Amber Raiken is a first-year writing major who has started to place bets after each season of the X-Factor. You can reach them at araiken@ithaca.

Image by Claire McClusky

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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ands have always been around before and even during this current generation.

However, not all bands can last forever.

Within pop music, some bands like One Direction and Paramore have simply ceased to exist after a matter of time. Bands of the past like The Beatles and the Spice Girls had a long run and are still remembered and loved for their music today. As bands continue to be remembered, one can’t help but wonder if they have a life expectancy.

One of the bands that had girls completely starstruck and head over heels ended up being the one to separate, that UK band being One Direction. According to Digital Spy, One Direction’s hit single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” went platinum in the U.S., selling over 1 million copies in 2012. They continued to make big breaks with performances at Madison Square Garden, their first film This Is Us, and many popular albums. Despite how successful the band was, Zayn Malik officially left in March 2015 and made a move to go solo. The band seemed to still have much success as a foursome. But in Dec. 2015, the band officially announced that they were going on a hiatus and did their final performance on the X-Factor.

Their popularity was quite long and immense, but their run as a famous band in the U.S. seemed fairly short, being less than five years.

Another well-known band that’s yet to confirm their break up is emopop/rock and roll band Paramore.

According to Billboard, Paramore’s debut album, All We Know Is Falling was released in 2005. From there Paramore had another platinum album and a Grammy nomination for Hayley Williams. However, tensions rose in 2010 when Josh and Zac Farro left the band. Josh explained the band’s unknown history with Atlantic Records, as well as Atlantic’s

RAW SAW

Conor Oberst

FROM THE

Ruminations Album Review

S. Makai Andrews Contributing Writer

the album, brings back the original Oberst, the one who focuses so deeply on internal suffering. “Be careful with your headphones on/ When you cross the FDR, don’t want to be a casualty before you make it to the bar/ And hide your shapes and worried face...” The entire album follows the same mood of pain and fear, but Oberst is able to twist his words and change up the melodies in a way that the message never feels tired or overused.

Ruminations is filled with some of his best, most imaginative lyrics yet.

There are constant shifts in story structure, melody and rhyme that allow the listener to feel as though they’re scrambling to get their head above water as much as he was at the time. The momentum remains throughout, despite the constant shifts between the main guitars and pianos. Oberst is a master of his domain, able to remain current in a career that spans multiple decades.

He has a talent for tapping into universal pain — whether it’s illness, suffering, or sorrow. Oberst has opened himself up to an even wider audience than before in Ruminations that recounts the experience of both mental and physical injury.

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Ministry of Cool

“We’re in a mass grave,” Oberst tells us, in the opening line to his new album Ruminations. The new album, consisting of 10 songs, was written by Conor Oberst in two days after moving home to Omaha, Nebraska from New York, New York. The first song, “Tachycardia,” perfectly sets up the Oberst music we’ve all come to know. “She spills the coffee grounds, and the same thought hits her like cinder block: Life’s an odd job that she don’t got the nerve to quit.”

The album was written while Oberst was recovering from a health scare — a cyst in his brain.

These songs allow the listener into his head at the time, with repeated mention of death, rain, sex and home scattered throughout the melodies. His typical scratchy pitch remains the same, but in this album is a very different setting than his previous. This time his lyrics feel more urgent, like if he doesn’t get his words out everything will end right then and there.

Ruminations tackles many elements of sickness and the emotional and physical toll it can take on a person.

Being an artist who has suffered mentally time and time again, Oberst uses this album as a look into the physical elements of health. In the seventh song, “A Little Uncanny,” Oberst sings, “I miss Christopher Hitchens, I miss Oliver Sacks, I miss poor Robin Williams, I miss Sylvia Plath.” These are all icons who died from an illness, some of the body and others of the mind. Hitchens and Sacks both had physical illnesses, while Williams and Plath both died by suicide. In Oberst’s old music of suicide and depression there was always a reminder that it was an internal illness. In this record we’re constantly reminded that there’s an even bigger threat, that a factor outside of his own head could kill him too.

“A Little Uncanny” also serves as the song on the album that’s even close to being upbeat. The rest follows the same plateau of Oberst’s classic drawl. A combination of harmonica, guitar and piano, Ruminations is able to remain in the same constant. It’s closer to Oberst’s older works in that he doesn’t play with synthesizers or big band instruments. He’s falling back on his early instruments, the ones that got him to the point in his career that he is now.

The final song on the album is “Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out.” St. Dymphna is known as the patron saint of all the nervous, emotionally disturbed, mentally ill, and all those who suffer neurologically. This song, along with containing some of the most beautiful lyric work in

Sleigh Bells Two Door Cinema Club

Sleigh Bells’ fourth studio album Jessica Rabbit was just the fit for the mood post-election: continually loud, sonic calls of darkness and anger. The band’s history of indie rage set this record up to be the perfect macabre musical lining to the looming storm cloud known as Donald Trump.

Jessica Rabbit retains the sound that Sleigh Bells has been experimenting with since the band’s debut album Treats dropped in 2010. The band has reportedly taken a more lyric-centric approach than in the past, with singer Alexis Krauss doing more songwriting and showing a wider vocal range. “It’s Just Us Now” opens the Album Review album with intensive beats and a chorus that opens with, “And when you die/ I wanna die, I John Jacobson wanna die with you.”

Social Media Editor “Lightning Turns Sawdust Gold” features the developed lyricism that the band has been evolving, with lines like “I’ll show you how to shake the pain like cinnamon” and “Take a deep breath before you do something drastic/ Knocking off heads with your military tactics.” Even when the lyrics proved themselves to be creative and Krauss’s voice rose above the din, the band’s signature clashing and raving overwhelmed the listening experience.

The music’s quick descent into anarchy and rage is the perfect auditory coupling to the country’s post-election emotions , but the problem with rage is that it can feel hollow if it doesn’t progress to something else. Jessica Rabbit’s songs – “Crucible,” “Unlimited Dark Paths,” “Hyper Dark” – move from rage and darkness to more rage and darkness. After four

Jessica Rabbit

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

Gameshow Album Review Katie Siple

Staff Writer

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Gameshow marks Two Door Cinema Club’s triumphant return to the indie music scene.

Released on Oct. 14, this is the band’s first studio album since Beacon in 2012. Two Door broke up shortly after Beacon was released because they felt uninspired in their music and had varying personal issues, which eventually caused the band members to turn to drugs and alcohol, according to DIY magazine. This was a wake up call for the band that can clearly be seen in Gameshow.

Turning from its traditional indie-pop sound, Two Door pulls a complete 180 and experiments in the electro pop music scene. After all, Two Door’s new outlook is that life is like a Gameshow — you win some and you lose some, but you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t take a few risks. It was definitely a bold move, but Two Door pulls off the electro-pop scene well. With strong guitar riffs and catchy, intense lyrics, listeners can’t help but dance to these catchy, upbeat tunes.

Highlights from the album include “Are We Ready? (Wreck),” “Bad Decisions,” “Ordinary,” “Gameshow,” and “Lavender.” Lyrics in these tracks showcase the band’s new sound and give listeners insight into their emotions and feelings of the past four years. Gameshow features beautiful lyrics reflective of the band’s time apart, “I’m like pinocchio, broken nose, let me go” in “Gameshow,” showing how the band felt like they were being controlled too much by others.

“Lavender” highlights the listlessness the band felt with intense lyrics. However, Alex Trimble’s lead

albums of developing a unique sound and infusing electronic and hip-hop elements, the band’s sound still feels like much of the same.

The album feels its most dynamic during songs like “Loyal For” and “I Know Not to Count on You.” These interlude-style songs are about two minutes long, and their sound comes as a relief to the boom and pop of electronic noise. In these interludes, there is a moment to breathe, to ponder where the clashing tumult of musical devastation has left us, something that seems to be a rarity for a Sleigh Bells album.

Post-election rage couldn’t sustain Jessica Rabbit throughout its full 14 songs.

By “Hyper Dark,” the chorus, “Hyper dark/ I think we have a problem,” sounds tired, as though the band was just cycling through feelings of hurt and neglect with no promise of a future. The rage had lost its momentum.

The sounds Sleigh Bells can create are industrial and unusual for the mainstream music industry, but their growing pains are evident by the way Jessica Rabbit tries new techniques only to continue to drown in the sound. Fans of the band will find it a worthy addition to their discography, but it remains to be seen if Sleigh Bells can take the creative leaps necessary enough to push themselves forward. Just as we want to search for ways to channel our despair into action, Sleigh Bells needs to channel theirs into music that feels like an evolution rather than a cycle of continuous noise. vocals often get lost in the midst of these new instrumentals. In past albums, Two Door let the vocals stand out from their music and that showcased Trimble’s complex range and falsetto. A lot of the tracks also seem to be very generic and indistinguishable from each other. Although the flow between songs works well, it feels incomplete. There are only 10 tracks on the album and they go by rather quickly. It comes across unoriginal as an album that could be by just about any hipster indie band people haven’t heard before.

Reminiscent of the ‘80s, Gameshow takes listeners back in time. Heavily influenced by the late-greats Prince and David Bowie, two extremely iconic figures of their time, Gameshow pays homage to these idols.

By switching over to electro-pop with glam rock guitar riffs and lyrics that show raw passion and dedication to their new sound, they reflect the flamboyant, in-your-face style of Prince and Bowie as they attempt a dramatic comeback. However, they do face a lot of staunch competition in the electropop genre. Bands like The 1975, Passion Pit, and Foals have dominated this music scene for years. It will definitely be hard for Two Door to make a name for themselves in this genre, but hey isn’t anything possible on a Gameshow?

Moonlight Film Review Tyler Obropta

Certain Women

Staff Writer

Film Review Tyler Obropta Staff Writer

Chiron’s teenage years, Jharrel Jerome enters as Kevin, with a surprising amount of screentime for his first major film role.

His character has a few great scenes with Chiron, particularly one beautiful scene on a beach. His first scene has Jerome energetically fast-talking his way through a story in a movie where everybody has heretofore either spoken very slowly and concisely or not at all, so Jerome immediately sticks out — in a good way, of course. He’s a magnetic presence every minute he’s on-screen. This second segment is also responsible for quite possibly the greatest smash-a-chairover-someone’s-head moment in cinema history.

Undoubtedly, many will flock to see this movie for Jerome. But this isn’t a traditional narrative, and it isn’t a traditional movie. Moonlight is a deep, intensely personal and spiritual film, one that leans more on Nicholas Britell’s ghostly classical score than on R&B tracks and has characters that wear gold chains and grillz, but aren’t defined by them. No matter what you’re expecting when you sit down in that theater, Moonlight will surprise you with its vibrant world, its deep exploration of what makes us human, and its rich, über-talented actors — who, thanks to Moonlight, are just on the edge of the limelight.

Certain Women is a movie with a narrow scope, small conflict and small rewards, anchored in the rustic naturalism of desolate Montana. Writer/director/editor Kelly Reichardt, who previously helmed Night Moves (2013) and Meek’s Cutoff (2010), delivers a raw, true-to-life look at the lives of three women, illustrated in three mostly separate vignettes.

In the first, Laura Dern is a lawyer dealing with an entitled man — played by an unrecognizable Jared Harris — who suffered an accident on the job and believes he’s been screwed over by the government. In the next two, Michelle Williams is a mother on a quest to get some sandstone to build a house, and Lily Gladstone is a rancher who develops an odd attraction to a school teacher/lawyer (Kristen Stewart) after seemingly-accidentally stumbling into her night class.

There’s no score, and very rarely does a song play on the radio or in a restaurant.

The cast is mostly subdued and there’s barely anything stylish to the direction, either; the shots are mostly long and filled with silence, and the characters more often speak with that silence than with dialogue.

The most exciting piece of the movie is a small, energetic farm dog that comes in during the third vignette, and the animal has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. (He did make the old people in front of me giggle

whenever he was onscreen, though.) He’s just a jumpy, little, brown ball of unconditional love and loyalty, chasing around the rancher’s tractor until he finds something better to do.

But there’s nothing that ascends to the high theatrics of typical small-family dramas in Certain Women. It’s the anti-August: Osage County, more interested in metaphors and character studies than in closeups of Meryl Streep bawling her eyes out.

The performances, though muted, are uniformly spellbinding. Dern especially shines here, her character frustrated by the incompetence of the men around her and her inability to reason with her headstrong client. But more surprising is Stewart, the school teacher/lawyer stuck with a four-hour drive to a nighttime law class she hates teaching. Stewart not only isn’t as awful as we’ve perhaps come to expect the former Twilight star to be, but she actually charms us. Her quietness and poise are the most striking elements of the final vignette — aside from the dog, of course.

There’s a charming simplicity to Certain Women’s naturalism, to its narrow ambition, to its tales of strong women who aren’t fighting for anything epic or glorious, but who are just living, floating by steadily day by day and law class by law class.

37

Ministry of Cool

Barry Jenkins’ second feature film is one-of-a-kind.

There’s only one Moonlight, and there are too few films with similar characters and similar scopes. Set in Miami, Moonlight is one African-American boy’s odyssey from childhood to adulthood as he grapples with his homosexuality and the adversity he faces because of it.

The first of three chapters follows our protagonist Chiron — unfortunately, he isn’t a centaur from Greek mythology — when he’s being bullied at school and his crack-addicted mother (a magnificent Naomie Harris) isn’t much help. He seeks solace and guidance in the crack dealer, Juan (Mahershala Ali).

And mercy at last, a great child actor!

As 9-ish-year-old Chiron, Alex R. Hibbert spends most of his opening third as a despondent kid, not talking to anyone. Most good movies, like good theater, are built around dialogue, so it’s understandably frustrating when someone acts mute. But Hibbert sells it, filling his eyes with weight and woe and holding his own against Ali. Ali is outstanding here with a calm, organic performance that feels at once soothing yet world-weary, and it’s the scenes between Juan and young Chiron that guide us through the rough waters of the following two reels.

In the middle segment, set during

Trojan House

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

Anonymous

It was senior year of high school and I was just learning about sex. My boyfriend at the time, Chris, and I were both extremely inexperienced. We had lost our virginities to each other, and were also both in the same health class in tenth grade where the lady who was supposed to come from Planned Parenthood to teach us how to put on condoms mysteriously failed to show.

Learning about sex and the dos and don’ts was not only an uphill battle, but it was a blindfolded uphill battle. Despite our inexperience and some technical difficulties, nothing could calm our raging teenage hormones, so we took every opportunity we could to touch each other and explore our sexual boundaries.

Chris and I were at senior afterprom, where many of the seniors in my grade went to the trashiest part of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, rented out an entire motel, and drank our livers away for a weekend. I got too high and fell asleep on the beach for four hours without sunscreen. My friend got a henna tattoo on her face days before graduation. A kid in my AP Literature class threw up all over his girlfriend’s car.

We were (collectively) what you would call a hot mess.

In our drunken states, Chris and

38

I were desperate to get away to do the dirty deed. We snuck off to his motel room that he was sharing with four of his friends while everyone else was at the beach and chain-locked the door.

It was a hot day at the end of June, and our bodies were slick with sweat from the heat as well as our nerves that were only slightly calmed by alcohol.

Clothes were flying off, and Chris, being the sexual novice that he was at the time, struggled (but was eventually successful in) unclasping my bra. Eventually he got the condom on, and we awkwardly adjusted ourselves so he would be on top, because in those days, that was the only position we could last in. Things were going pretty well.

And then the door started rattling. The bottom lock clicked, leaving only the chain lock holding the door closed.

“Guys, let us in!” One of Chris’s friends, Jake, who was also staying in the room, was trying to open the door. He pushed at the door, yanking the chain tight.

We didn’t realize that they’d be back from the beach so soon. In a frenzy, I hopped off of Chris and he whipped the condom off. We started pulling our clothes back on. I ran into the bathroom to cover myself and finish dressing

while Chris opened the door to let his friends in.

Chris and I were calm, cool and collected, although everyone could tell what we’d been up to considering a) how sweaty we were and b) the massive hickey that had begun forming on his neck.

All of Chris’s friends had come back to the room, and we were hanging out and drinking on the motel beds, laughing and talking.

All of a sudden, Jake and Chris’s other friend Max started laughing for seemingly no reason. It could have been because they were drunk, but it didn’t seem like it. I gave them a look.

“What?” I asked.

Max pointed behind me and Chris, to the motel wall. In our rush to get off of one another, Chris had flung the condom in a random direction, and it had stuck to the wall, displaying itself in all its floppy, latex glory.

His friends never let us live it down.

39

Prose & Cons

SE&CONS. PROSE&CONS. P

Short fiction, personal essay, and other assorted lies.

there is this moment just between waking and sleeping when you can feel everything. from the constriction and expansion of your lungs to the cotton fibers pressed against your cheek, the staleness of the air against your lips and the gum of mascara built up between the lash and the bleary blue of your eyes. this is the moment just before the shadow returns to the arch of your brow, before memories weigh heavier on the folds of your brain and the aches return to your bones. you turn over in your tangle, sheets twisted between your toes and a single socked foot. propped up on elbows, sinking into the double mattress stretched over the dusty blue of your dorm-issued bed. you can’t stay here for long because soon your head will loll onto your shoulder and back towards the bliss of your pillow. you stir again and swing both legs over the edge of said mattress, touching your toes to the coarse carpet, feeling the weight of your body shift your bones back into place. careful treads now, so as not to disturb your humming roommates in their vocal slumber — knees pop as you sit, placing elbows on a desktop piled with the tide of too many things to do. the wave has left a scattering of pens, bobby pins, and contact solution-splotched papers, bleeding the red ink of corrections into the words that had once been so focused. you clear a space, brushing aside makeup brushes and at least twelve crumbling maple leaves that you meant to press in that journalism book you never actually read. tingling fingers grasp for concealer and soon the strokes of flesh colored paint against your forehead matches the thrum of your heart in the morning stillness. in the half-light, filtering through the window behind you, your face looks haggard, as if the ten minutes of consciousness has already sapped you of all energy. thick slopes of eyeliner make your eyes seem wider, less cloudy amidst their bleary blue. a new coat of mascara slicks your lashes to your cheeks and when you blink you can feel them flutter on your face. you look at yourself all made-up, but suddenly things feel much too heavy. it’s as if you can feel the weight of the pounding, teeming universe in your bones. you get up and leave the room, a sharp left at the bathroom door and it only takes a moment to turn on the faucet and dash cold water over your face — BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

scraping off the last ten minutes of making yourself up to seem more alive than you are. you look up to black-ringed blues, your lashes no longer stiff but soft and light upon your cheeks. it feels so good to feel like yourself. give yourself a moment, to appreciate the blush of your cheeks and all the freckles, the ache of your bones and the beat of your breath. and then when the moment is over, you go and grab the Boston Red Sox hat from the hook in your room, who needs makeup anyway? and you leave.

40

Life in the Morning

by Mila Phelps-Friedl

Beautiful is Harlem

by Kecia Romiel

I lived in a one-bedroom polygon in a place where black was beautiful. Unless you didn’t have a pretty face. Unless you didn’t have manageable hair. Or you didn’t smack your Vaseline covered lips every time you finished a sentence. I was in-between. I was in between beautiful and sickly, when my siblings asked me, “What happened to the pretty little eight-year-old girl?” and then they laughed.

I was in-between with manageable hair and a jungle of knots, and then one night my father thought my hair was giving me nightmares and crept into the night with scissors.

Nightmares shaped themselves into sticks and stones. They chased me across my fingertips.

There was water, crusted blue jewels everywhere.

I wasn’t beautiful in school and I should stop talking the way I do ‘cause, I live in Harlem. Maybe then I’d be beautifully black in Harlem.

In school, I befriended the kid-that-peed-in-the-corner-of-the-classroom-that-onetime, ‘cause he didn’t ask questions about why I talked the way I do or why I didn’t talk the way I do all the time. He’d just tell me stories about how he sailed with pirates and blasted white heat out of his hands.

I wasn’t him, but I wish I was him, ‘cause no body talked to him. No one dared talk to him and that was better than hearing, “You’re sooo skinny.” “Why is your eyes like that?” “You aren’t black enough for us.” But wasn’t I black, too?

41

Prose & Cons

Wasn’t my skin dark enough for the kids that wore hoop earrings in middle school?

The problem must have been I wasn’t pretty enough to be beautiful in Harlem.

by Jonatha n Rob erts

I

t had been almost two years since I had seen Dalton Lambing last, and he looked skinnier than ever before. His once rounded cheeks were gone and his bones looked as if they

wanted to poke out from under his skin. The dark bluish bags under his eyes seem to engulf his entire sockets. I watched him tell the employee what he wanted in his plump burrito without looking at the menu above.

Chipotle always reminded me of Dalton. In my early years

of high school, he was one of the first people to take me to the restaurant. When ordering, it was always double. Double meat, usually chicken. If Dalton was low on money he would tell the worker that he wanted steak. He then would wait until they dropped the perfectly portioned spoonful into the bowl and then immediately ask if he could get chicken as well; insisting he only wanted half and half of both types of meat so he never had to

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

pay the extra charge for double meat. The kid knew what he was doing and he could always figure a way around any system.

Whether it was school, homelife, or Chipotle, he always seemed to work around the rules.

You can find the complete piece online at www.buzzsawmag.org.

42

“A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin

S

You can find the complete piece online at www.buzzsawmag.org.

43

Prose & Cons

character is controlling itself at this point, doing what it wants without regard to who is supposed to pull the strings. It blows up a helicopter that falls onto some houses.

“It’s the two extremes though, right?”

“Like tears of happiness or tears of sadness.”

“Destruction. Creation.”

“Deep Space.”

The character disappears as the screen goes blank, the lights in the apartment turning off as well. Grey gets up and looks out the window, rain coming down with streaks of lightening in-between the water. Sky also goes towards the window.

What looks like hail on fire also starts to fall down.

“Does the rain evaporate or run away from lightning?”

“I heard that getting struck by lightning makes you remember everything?”

“Is that worth the pain of being burnt?”

“Why not leave with something if you’ll get hurt anyway?”

“Is all lightning the same? Some probably hurts more than others and there’s no guarantee the memory thing happens.”

“Then don’t go outside. Stay inside.

Interact with people on a video game.”

“After a while, don’t you want to try it for real?”

“Don’t we question if it was real after every time anyway?”

“Pain is very real.”

“I wonder, when I was born, what was my first and last decision?”

The lights come back on and Grey and Sky go back to their seats, both picking up a controller to prevent the other from controlling the character. The lights shut off again.

by Hakeem Anthony

[fore]playing gta v ky sits smiling in the seat in front of the TV, fingers pushing buttons here and there, but mostly the left thumb controlling the left analog which is steering the all-white car. The right hand presses A or B, controlling the acceleration.

Grey walks through the door and sees the back of Sky’s head underneath the screen showing a character that’s being controlled.

The character gets out of the car and walks into a place called “Vanilla Unicorn”.

“So, what are you up to?”

Inside the place, the character passes a few other people and walks up to a stage.

Grey starts walking over from the door. Sky’s hair spills over the back of the seat — the reddened dreads in a mix of free-form and braids. Grey playfully interlocks some fingers into the dreads — and the question again, “So, what are you up to?”

On the screen, Grey can now tell what place the Vanilla Unicorn is as the character takes a stripper into what looks like a VIP room for a private dance. Sky doesn’t reciprocate any of Grey’s advances and focuses instead on getting the character some pleasure.

After the dance, the stripper and the character decide to go back to the character’s house. The stripper puts a name in the character’s phone: Nicky.

“Is everything ok?”

After Nicky starts to leave the character’s house, the character pulls a gun out, aiming. The character starts to shoot random people. Grey stops playing in Sky’s hair and goes to sit in a seat, taking out a grinder and dutches to start making a blunt. Both contribute to the smoke now conditioning the air in the small apartment.

“Why does it seem like so much fun to fuck and then kill people?”

Both of them are looking at the screen, watching the character running amok with a grenade launcher. The sounds of the controller cannot even be heard, as if the

N

o

. N

o t

T

he chairs are arranged in an awkward semi-circle around the perimeter of the room. They’re mostly populated by younger people, late teens and twenty-

BBUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

somethings, but every now and then you notice an older face, tired and strained. This is obviously not their first meeting.

Will I be there when I am that old?

“We will now introduce ourselves by our first names only. Please remember to keep confidentiality. This is a closed meeting. You are welcome to stay if you have a desire to stop being in love with unrequited love. If you have fallen in unrequited love in the last twenty-four hours, we ask that you only listen during the meeting.”

I get up and leave.

I love him. I love him not. I love him. I love him not.

I miss the certainty. I miss the pain of unrequited love. As soon as someone expresses mutual interest in me, I run. I don’t understand it. Maybe I’m afraid to commit to the requited.

Maybe I need to long for something in order for my love to feel real.

And maybe.

Just maybe.

If I could stop being cliche for two seconds, I would realize how lucky I am. On the outside, at least. I am a candy-coated time bomb. The pastel outside hides the treachery within. I am a strawberry-flavored poison. My

44

Y

o u

by Alex Coburn

heart is full of soot.

Am I a good person or just a bad person playing at being good? I’m selfish. I’m moody.

I’m inconsistent. I don’t know how to love unless love is entwined with caution tape and barbed wire and padlocks. My love knows red lights. As soon as the light turns green, I balk. I falter. I hesi hesi hesitate.

What in my DNA makes me predispositioned to be this way? What’s the gene for inability to love mutually? If only the doctor had caught it sooner and told my parents I was a lost cause.

“Sir, ma’am, I’m sorry, but your daughter is an asshole.”

See how easy that would have been?

Instead, I have to get up every morning, look myself in the eye and say, “You are an asshole.”

Books love to talk about the scorned lover, but what about the one who scorned them?

You never hear about them because no one wants to. The ones who scorn. The ones who walk away. The ones who look someone they used to love in the eye and say, “No. Not you.”

I have never said, “No. Not you.” But I have crossed the street to avoid him.

Sawdust

AWDUST. SAWDUST. SAWD

Satire threatening the magazine’s credibility since 1856.

45

Glue Saves Man From Deadly Fall Maybe we should help him down?

By Alayna Vanderveer, Staff Writer

I

’m posting this message on Facebook from my phone in hopes that someone will read it and help me. All you people have done is like and share my posts! I’m not joking around on this one. I’m seriously hanging over downtown NYC right now.

I attempted to take a selfie of my once-in-a-lifetime one-handed handstand on the ledge of a 40-story building. Unfortunately, I slipped on some weird substance and wasn’t able to get the picture. My Instagram profile surely suffered, but I got a killer picture for Facebook of me hanging one-handed off of a building.

The only reason I’m not dead right now is because my hand got stuck in that sticky substance. It turns out that the building was a glue factory.

They put glue all over the ledges to discourage workers from jumping off.

I guess there was a problem in the

Cut and Paste

past. It’s kinda ironic because what caused my fall also saved me from falling, although, my arm did pop out of its socket. Yes, it hurt… a lot, but at least I can’t feel my arm anymore.

Initially, everyone on the streets just gawked, freaked out and took a ton of pictures. An enormous Twitter storm about the man hanging from a building began and lasted for a week.

Tweets like: “Holy shit! Did you see the guy hanging from the building!”

“Wow, glad I’m not that guy.”

“What an idiot.”

People were going to sue the glue company. The president gave a speech: “Today, we as a nation see the effects of social media and the competitive nature of sharing photos on such mediums as Facebook and Instagram. From now on, the United States of America will ban the use of social media.”

Every news station from 18WCC to Channel 7 came to cover the huge story. It felt good to be recognized.

This entire incident was huge. I thought getting a cool picture and showing everyone my athletic ability would make me a star, but celebrity from hanging off a building is okay, I guess. The whole thing was so tremendous that everyone forgot to actually help me down! Yes, I’ve been here for a week and three days. I guess everyone is just too busy to actually do something. I’m on Facebook posting this status in hopes that one of you will help me. My arm feels like it is about to fall off, so please hurry. __________________________________ Alayna Vander Veer is a first-year english major who loves parkour and climbing up buildings. You can email them at avanderveer@ithaca.edu.

Woman glues eyes shut, now happier than ever

By Emily Ehrenberg, Contributing Writer

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

R

ecently, a local Woman has discovered the positives of what initially appeared to be an unfortunate accident.

In an attempt to find some piece in her rather distraught world, Mia Smith sat down for a day of making model airplanes. When asked about the incident, Ms. Smith had some surprising feedback. “I thought making model airplanes would make me happy, but what really did the trick was when my eyes got glued shut in the process.”

It seems as if gluing one’s eyes shut would be a traumatic and daunting experience, but when asked, Smith didn’t seem to hold any lasting regrets.

“I was so enthusiastic about the idea of my eyes being glued shut; the only time I felt any trepidation was after I finished and realized how hard it was going to be to put the lid back on the glue and clean up after my models. That was my one moment of hesitation. But aside from

46

that, I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

She has even noted some positives: “All of my senses are heightened, which can be good or bad depending how you look at it, and the only horrors I have to face are my own. This again, I suppose, can be good or bad. I do often find myself smelling the horrors of the world now, which when coupled with my heightened senses, makes me consider gluing my nostrils shut next. But that begs the question, with less senses active, will my remaining ones be even stronger? Who knows. Any one of my orifices can be a receptacle for badness.

So I suppose there really is no avoiding all that’s wrong with the world is there?

But with that being said, I still stand by my decision to glue my eyes shut. It may not solve all of my problems, but it certainly is a good first step.”

Smith’s accident is beginning to gain traction among those who know her. “I told a few people about what happened,” she said, “And before I knew it, I was seeing all sorts of people with their eyes glued shut!”

Smith is not alone in her experience.

Countless others have now come forward to share their experiences of gluing their eyes shut. While all participants experience some minor setbacks (stubbed toes, uncomfortably heightened senses, etc.) the vast majority is quite pleased with their experience.

Spa manager Christy Bell has said, “Eye gluing is has become so popular. I’ve begun to offer it as a service at my spa as part of our “De-Stress” package. After a hot rock massage, the client has their eyes glued shut with our special blend of organic lavender aromatherapy glue.

People love lavender. It’s so soothing.”

Eye gluing is clearly catching on. Now, with more people gluing their eyes shut, what is now a fad may very well become commonplace in the near future. Who knows what holes on the human body will be the next to be cordoned off?

__________________________________ Emily Ehrenberg is a first-year integrated marketing communications major who was still eating glue in middle school.

You can email them at eehrenberg@ ithaca.edu.

Ithaca On Top

Ithaca is a gorges place to raise your child into a crumbling system

By Jordan Aaron, Sawdust Editor

T

he hit liberal political website Vox released a list of the best towns in America to raise children into a crumbling system and Ithaca got number 1! They cited Ithaca’s great amenities such as the Commons area and the gorges as some of the reasons why Ithaca is just the most splendid place to raise the youth in the wake of these dire times .

Vox said the presence of vast higher education in the town, between Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Tompkins County Community College present options for kids to be taught the crippling truth about the nature of the American system.

“While society burns around you, enjoy great scenic views of farmland from beautiful vantage points on Ithaca’s East and South Hills,” the website said. Commenting on the

article, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said, “It’s truly an honor to be named the best place in Ithaca to raise your children into a troubled country.

Even though we are living in a broken political structure, at least we have a festival every week! This week is Infinite Jest Fest. Is the world too dark for you? Distract yourself with the infinitely darker novel by David Foster Wallace — see what I did there?”

This news brought great joy to the citizens of Ithaca who felt disappointed by the results of the 2016 election on Nov 8. One Ithaca woman, Lisa Corduroy, said, “At first I thought I’d dread raising my daughter into the current American system but now I can look forward to having to answer her questions about how a man could rise to power, even after saying ‘grab them by the pussy’ to imply his own actions in a town with some of the

most beautiful gorges in the country!”

Another resident, Lionel Train, told Buzzsaw, “I’ve been so cynical about my inability to find a job lately that I completely forgot that even though my unborn children will one day be stuck in the same conundrum of unemployment, at least they’ll be able to play on that weird playground in the Commons in front of Moonies.”

Indeed there are somber times here in lovely Ithaca, New York, but at least we have such great options at our disposal to help people forget about the disastrous situation that their children are doomed to be raised into. __________________________________ Jordan Aaron is a third-year writing for film, television, and emerging media major who hopes the system will be done crumbling by the time he has kids. You can email them at jaaron@ithaca.edu.

Child Sucks at Using Glue Sticks May also be a terrorist

By Alexa Salvato, News and Views Editor

D

ear Mr. Miller,

and

Mrs.

want to scream: “But have you seen Ayesha use a glue stick?” She got the corner tactic on the first try. We have nothing to worry about with her.

I know this must come as a shock, but it’s always better to be prepared.

For tips on how to deal with this new information, please check out my dissertation e-book: “On the Lookout: Spotting Terrorists in Early Childhood Education.” I can give you an offer code if you have a Kindle.

With concern, Karen Robinson-Stewart Founder and director of Silver Spring Nursery School Former NSA Specialist __________________________________ Alexa Salvato is a fourth-year journalism major who is proficient in all glue stick related skills. You can email them at asalvat1@ithaca.edu.

47

Sawdust

We hope you and Kevin have enjoyed your first few months at Silver Springs Nursery School. As you saw from Kevin’s progress report, quantitatively, he is succeeding in almost all regards. He can count some things, he can pretty much hold a marker, and, on good days, he can practically write his first name.

Yet there is one strong worry we have about Kevin: his use of the glue stick.

As you may recall from your own nursery school days, the rules for using a glue stick are oft-stated and simple. You apply a small circle of glue to each of the four corners, connect them, and make an X across the middle, essentially connecting the corners diagonally. This has been proven throughout various studies of early childhood pedagogy to be the best way to instruct children to utilize a glue stick, a vital aspect of the “arts

and crafts” portion of each day here.

Kevin has a frighteningly blatant disregard for the rules of the glue stick. He scribbles all over the back of the page, creating clumps of purple dry-clear Elmer’s Glue. A few other children had this problem — in fact, according to our records, your older daughter Emily struggled for a week or so, but quickly caught on — and all corrected their mistake. Kevin will not. He essentially plows through a glue stick a day.

Why does this matter? Because it’s the one thing we nursery school practitioners are taught to look out for. Misuse of the glue stick in pre-K is the most likely predictor of a child becoming a terrorist as an adult.

Kevin is a bright-eyed blonde-haired sweet-looking kid. His closest friend at school, I would say, is Ayesha P. Due to racism and stereotypes, Ayesha, with her brown skin and hijab-clad mother, is going to have to go through life being profiled, pulled aside at airports and made fun of for her un-WASPy name. It makes me

Talk It Out

Republicans seek counseling to patch rifts from election

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BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

By Tylor Colby, Sawdust Editor

ccording to reports by our Buzzstaff, key members of the GOP have recently been seen checking into family counseling together, in what can only be taken as a last-ditch effort to patch things up for the age-old political party. In the midst of differing views and a divisive campaign by one presidentelect Donald J Trump (the J stands for joke-that’s-gone-on-far-too-long), Speaker Of the House Paul Ryan decided to give therapy a try while their insurance still covered it under Obamacare. Fox News anchorwoman Megyn Kelly agreed, saying it helped her family when her son came out as a liberal.

Sporting mom jeans and a yellow polo t-shirt, Ryan approached the office of one Dr. Nassder, tugging Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell by the hand as they entered. Normally, these kinds of meetings are kept in iron-clad doctorpatient confidentiality, but one staffer who chose to remain anonymous (It was Evan, totally Evan) snuck into the meeting, dressed as TV sensation Geraldo Rivera. The following is a rough transcript of how the appointment unfolded Nassder: Hello and welcome, I’m happy to see you all here today. Let’s just get a head count, can y’all give me your names?

Ryan: Uh, I’m Paul Ryan.

McCarthy: Kevin here.

Kelly: Hi I’m Megyn. That’s with a Y. Rivera: Hey guys, Geraldine – I mean Geraldo. Yeah, Geraldo’s my name!

Nassder: Okay… are we missing anyone? I counted five people.

Ryan elbows McConnell in the rib, and he flinches. McConnell rolls his eyes.

McConnell: I’m Mitch. And I’m addicted to Hentai.

Ryan: *whispers* This is couples counseling, you idiot! That was yesterday’s appointment!

McConnell: Oh thank god. Sorry, it’s been a busy couple weeks, what with

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the election and all.

Nassder: I’m glad you brought that up, actually. How do you guys feel about Trump being elected? *awkward silence* Ryan: Well, if we’re being honest here— Kelly: He’s a buffoonish blowhard with the nuclear codes! We’re kind of freaking out here, doc.

Nassder: Is this how you all feel?

The group nods unanimously.

Nassder: Right. How about we do a little exercise in collective hopefulness? I want each of you look to the person on your right, and give a reason why you have faith in them.

McCarthy, you’re not really that important, let’s start with you so Paul has a chance to make something up.

McCarthy: Right. Here goes. Geraldo, I have faith in you to always connect with the thirty-something housewife in Illinois who thinks gerrymander is an ice cream flavor.

Nassder: That’s sweet, Kevin.

Geraldo?

Rivera: Okay, um… Mitch, I have faith in you to speak the truth about how you feel, no matter how bizarre or disturbing it may be.

McConnell smiles, a single tear sliding down his face McConnell: Thanks, G, I always wanted someone to say that to me.

McCarthy: We were all thinking it.

Kelly: Oh it’s my turn isn’t it? Paul, I have faith that you will keep those abs all the way through the Trump administration.

Ryan: Gotta look good for swimsuit season, Meg. Can’t let the terrorists win.

Nassder: Paul, what can you say to Kevin?

Ryan: Kevin, I have faith that you will continue to do whatever it is that you do.

McCarthy: When I figure out what that is, I’m on it!

Nassder: Beautiful. Didn’t that just make everyone feel good?

McConnell: I haven’t felt like this since we prevented Obama from

closing Guantanamo.

Kelly: At the end of the day, all we’re trying to do is continue our platform of moderate intolerance. Do we believe in saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? Yes of course! Do we believe in deporting all Muslims? Most certainly not, especially not around the holidays.

Ryan: Hear hear!

Kelly: We’re the party of light unscrupulousness, dammit, and if Trump can’t handle that then we’re gonna form our own party!

Ryan: Wait, what?

Nassder: No no no…

Kelly: Yeah, and it’s gonna start now.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for years, Paul. You know I’ve had it with your spinelessness. I’m running in 2020 under the Moms4Guns ticket.

You with me Geraldo? Wait where did he go?

At this point our correspondent was hiding outside the window, continuing to take notes.

Kelly: Fine, I don’t need that two-bit reporter. How about you, Nassder?

Nassder: Actually, I was going to ask you to join my party…

Nassder takes off his wig, revealing himself to be Bernie Sanders. Get it?

His alias was an acronym!

McCarthy: No! We’ve been BullMoosed!

Sanders: Not so fast there Kev, the Democratic party could really use some tough nuts like you guys right now. Times are tough, and I say this country– Ryan: He’s a socialist!! Get him!!

Ryan, Kelly, McConnell and McCarthy chase Sanders out of the therapist’s office, proving that even amongst factional disputes, there’s always one thing the GOP can always count on – their hatred and ignorance of socialism. __________________________________ Tylor is a fourth-year writing major who is worried the GOP’s problems are all his fault. You can email them at tcolby1@ithaca.edu.

Pans, Plates and Passions

When a Sodexo employee meets the woman of his dreams

By Sarah Horbacewicz, Staff Writer

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sure he saw a breadstick fall to the floor on the other side of the metal wall.

Arnold looked down at the girl’s plate and noticed her silver ring had been left behind. “Wait!” he called out, but to no avail, the girl was gone and new dishes needed to be cleaned, so Arnold placed the ring in his pocket, determined to return it one day soon.

“I think I just met the girl I’m going to marry,” Arnold turned and boasted to his fellow Sodexo employees. “It’s her, I just know it.”

However, Arnold’s happiness was short lived as the other more experienced Sodexo workers expressed their skepticism and familiarity with Arnold’s first “Sodexo Love.”

The chef that works the Mindful station put his arm around Arnold and advised him to let the girl go while he can.

“I remember my first Sodexo love.

What a girl! I overheard her telling a hilarious, food-themed knock-knock joke and I was hooked!” Then, the chef took on a more somber tone. “We’ve all been there, and it never ends well.

No one ever finds the girl.”

This only fueled Arnold’s passion and determination to find the mystery girl — his Sodexo love. He ran from dining hall to dining hall in search of the girl with the purple nails whose hand fit the ring, but eventually, Arnold ran out of meal swipes and time.

“She could be anywhere on campus now!” Arnold cried.

But the young romantic didn’t stop there. Soon, there were flyers outside of every dining hall with a detailed description and picture of the girl’s hands.

After seeing the success of the @IC_Crushes Twitter page, Arnold created an @ Sodexo_Crushes page that went viral overnight. Pretty soon, Jake from the Mindful station in Campus Center and Eileen from Terraces found their crushes, but Arnold was still alone.

Are you the girl with the ring and the purple nails and a size 7 ring?

These successful love stories keep the morale of the Sodexo workers up and keep the food quality at top notch, because after all, a little love goes a long way. So please, for Sodexo’s sake, tweet Arnold @Sodexo_Crushes if you have any information about this girl. Will Arnold ever find love?

UPDATE: We caught up with Arnold two weeks later and found him happily dating the Sodexo girl of his dreams with the ring and purple nails. The hunt to find Sodex-erella was a long one, and there were dozens of freshman Theatre Studies major girls who all tried to pose as Arnold’s dream girl, but it was no use; the ring simply didn’t fit.

“I saw the flyer and at first thought it had to be coincidence that my nails were painted purple, but then I saw description of the ring, the one I had just lost, and knew it had to be me,” Arnold’s dream girl explained.

Arnold is currently working with the Student Governance Council to write a bill to take away the metal walls at the dish return at every dining hall throughout campus. __________________________________ Sarah Horbacewicz is a first year television-radio major who refuses to eat anything but dining hall meals.

Email them at shorbacewicz@ithaca. edu.

Image by Claire McClusky

Sawdust

t was a cold morning up on South Hill. The sky was gray and snow began to flurry down from the sky when junior Ithaca student Arnold Stein hit the snooze button for the third time before finally getting out of bed. Arnold quickly brushed his hands through his bedhead and put on his Persian blue polo and Sodexoembroidered apron before making the trek up to Towers Dining Hall.

Through Sodexo, Arnold found it easy to connect with nearly everyone, except the ladies. Arnold hadn’t had a girlfriend since Mindy Harold broke his heart in the tenth grade. It was a tragic time when she dumped him, and then her lunch tray on top of him in the school cafeteria, staining both his new Dungeons and Dragons shirt and his reputation.

Arnold’s parents, grandparents, cousins, and friends always ask him why he hasn’t found anyone yet, but being the Astronomy major he is, he always replies: “I’m waiting for the stars to align.”

It was just past noon, and Arnold was almost done with his shift at the dish return. Arnold has always been a bit of a loner, and his job at Towers didn’t really do anything to help his lonely situation. Arnold never got to see many students at the dish return because of the metal wall that separates him from Towers diners.

The clock read 12:29 – one minute left in Arnold’s shift. As Arnold started taking off his gloves, one final dish came through the dish return.

The hands responsible for returning this plate were the most beautiful hands Arnold had ever seen, with nails painted the perfect shade of purple and a silver ring that sparkled in the fluorescent kitchen lighting.

Arnold reached to clear the plate as the mystery girl reached for the breadstick still left on the plate, and in that moment, as if fate led them there, their hands touched.

The chemistry between the two was explosive. Arnold nearly dropped the dish and he swore he saw stars. Out of the corner of his eye, Arnold was

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Clinton Acceptance Speech

BUZZSAW

By Harold Douthit, Staff Writer

Do we bother having presidents anymore?

She loves the Cubs!

BUZZSAW: The Glue Issue

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ast Monday, hackers gained access to the most secret files in the Clinton campaign’s servers and disseminated those files via Wikileaks. One such file of grave interest is an apparent acceptance speech written

by Clinton herself before the election in preparation of her supposed victory on Tuesday. However, considering the outcome, it was never delivered. Here is the full transcript of that speech, unedited: My fellow Americans, we have finally done it. Like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, we have finally broken through that one glass ceiling that has contained women for so long: the presidency. Today is a historic day, as I will become the first woman to be the President of the United States. (Applause). [The applauses were actually written into the speech]. Man, we really dodged a bullet with that one, didn’t we? We could have accidentally had a man with no morals, no experience, and no consistency to lead the free world. That would have been a huge mistake! Thank God we didn’t make it. I mean, seriously. Could you imagine that animated, narcissistic Cheeto-monster sitting in the oval office, in charge of basically everything that we have ever known and loved?

It really puts my heart to ease that the American people realized in times of great turbulence and challenges, it’s probably best not to elect a guy who thinks women are like Twinkies stuck in vending machines. We really proved them wrong, eh? Don’t even get me started on his VP pick, Mike Pence. The guy has the same idea about “fixing” gay people as Tom Hanks has in the Green Mile. That makes sense — not! Not only that, but he wants to ban female contraceptives.

Thank God, women, especially white women, saw through that ploy. Am I right, ladies? (More applause.) Now, with a female president, we will enter a new gender-equal world, and no

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one, especially women, will be taken advantage of. I’m glad women (white women in particular — looking at you, Taylor Swift) saw that and voted for me. America needs a president who is competent and ready, and I’m glad all of you saw that and stated it so clearly with your ballot.

Now, I know what you’re all thinking after this long election: what will a Hillary presidency look like?

Simple. A cabinet free from lobbyists and very obvious racists. I mean, that’s like number one on things not to do when you form a cabinet. See, all that experience is paying off! A president free of any private conflicts of interest caused by corporate involvement. I mean, isn’t that like a no brainer? A president who won’t use Twitter to attack my enemies randomly and nonsensically to cover up my own insecurities? Bam, look at that. That’s what I stand for. I stand for a country where everyone has hot sauce. I stand for a country where the Chicago Cubs win every single year, and that’s the kind of country I’m going to fight for.

The Clinton campaign could not be reached for comment. __________________________________ Harold is a third-year student majoring in writing for film, television, and emerging media and was really hoping Hillary would win the election.

You can email them at hdouthit@ ithaca.edu.

ASKS WHY…

We all know the deal by now.

We’ve all settled into our respective ideologies, and decided how we feel about the recent presidential election.

I can feel my blood pressure raise a tad every time the phrase “recent presidential election.” Don’t you? In fact that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make – that the country, and much of the rest of the world is already sick and tired of having to think or hear about our country’s president-elect. So why do we need him? @joshacagan posted a tweet on Apr 26, writing “what if nobody was president and we all promised real hard to just be cool,” and although it was kind of a joke, there does seem to be some earnestness to this sentiment as well.

It wouldn’t be the first time a country has gone without a government. For 589 days from 2010-2011, Belgium suspended their government following the resignation of Prime Minister Laterme. And while no laws were passed in this time, and the country was without a singular government leader, nothing terrible happened!

The police still operated locally, fire departments and all other life-saving government duties were carried out.

And at the end of the 589 days, the country deliberated and found a suitable prime minister.

It’s true that some people somehow want Donald Trump to be president, but most of them voted for Trump just didn’t want Hillary Clinton to be president.

What if the alternative is that we all just kinda chill out for a couple years and get our shit together? Cool? Cool?

Anyone…?

Your editor-in-fear, Tylor Colby

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