The Daily Forty-Niner, Dec. 16, 2019

weekly print edition

DAILY FORTY-NINER EST p 1949

Vol. LXXI, Issue 16

www.daily49er.com

The

FEEL GOOD Issue

Monday, December 16, 2019

2 WINTER SPECIAL

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | STAFF@DAILY49ER.COM

ON THE COVER

A young girl sits on a man’s shoulders while looking at the light display of a home on Naples Island Friday, Dec. 13, 2019. Every year, many nieghbors on the island participate in a holiday light display competition.

Daily Forty-Niner 1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-203 Long Beach, CA, 90840

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Editor’s Note: Happy Holidays!

Business Office Phone (562) 985-1740

Austin Brumblay

‘Tis the season for the last issue of fall 2019. It’s been a long semester, a long year and a long decade, and as we all know, not all of it was rainbows and sunshine. To be honest, some of it was a bit depressing.

From issues such as the climate crisis to that last final we had to take, I’m sure we all have our heads on our desks wondering where it all went wrong. That’s where this issue comes in.

Read through the Daily Forty-Niner’s “Feel Good Issue” for stories about the holidays and heartwarming profiles about your fellow students and staff.

But remember, don’t feel too good. We all need a break sometimes, but the world is still a crappy place. We are reminded of that with an opinions section covering some of the latest crises of our generation.

I guess that means maybe this isn’t a feel good issue. Maybe this is an issue that reminds people that not everything is terrible. But not everything is good. And while the holiday season is here to make us positive, we have to remind ourselves it all still sucks, so it doesn’t hit us in the face when the smoke and mirrors disappear come Jan. 2020.

Hannah Getahun, Special Project Editor

Shark Bites

By Alejandro Vazquez

Shark Bites is a CSULB inspired crossword puzzle that contains clues from the recent news stories published by the Daily Forty-Niner. Tag us @daily49er with a picture of your completed crossword for a chance to win a prize!

Across 3. The community where a holiday lights contest was held 6. Teran Rodriguez nominated Hailey _____ as the Women’s volleyball standout athlete 7. This late night crew works on campus and keeps it clean 8. Ralston Dacanay nominated Chance ____ as the Men’s basketball standout

Down 1. Stephanie Holt’s cartoon strip contrasts the _____ versus reality of the holiday season 2. A holiday created to celebrate African-American heritage 4. The Daily Forty-Niner staff wishes everyone Happy ______ 5. For Spill the Tea, students share their favorite holiday ______

Editor in Chief eic@daily49er.com

Paula Kiley

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Rachel Barnes news@daily49er.com Mark Lindahl sports@daily49er.com Saad Kazi arts@daily49er.com Perry Continente opinions@daily49er.com Steven Zuniga advertising@daily49er.com Melissa Valencia business@daily49er.com Hannah Getahun Rachel Barnes Alejandro Vazquez Ryan Guitare Brenna Enos

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Aubrey Balster

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Manuel Valladares

Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Social Media Editor Design Adviser Content Adviser Advertising and Business Adviser Letters to Editor

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Letters Policy: All letters and emails must bear the phone number of the writer and must be no more than 300 words. The Daily Forty-Niner reserves the right to edit letters for publication in regard to space.

Editorials: All opinions expressed in the columns, letters, and cartoons in the issue are those of the writers or artists. The opinons of the Daily Forty-Niner are expressed only in unsigned editorials and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the journalism department or the views of all staff members. All such editorials are written by the editorial board of the Daily Forty-Niner.

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WINTER SPECIAL 3

ANNA KARKALIK | Daily Forty-Niner

Senior dance science major Lindsay White (left) lights the first candle symbolizing unity and the start of the African-American celebration during the pre-kwanzaa event Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019 at the University Student Union.

‘Matunda ya kwanza’ Kwanzaa is a celebration of self-reflection and remembrance of African-American heritage.

By Anna Karkalik Staff Writer

A

s Christmas wraps up for the year, Lindsay White and her two children begin setting up their Kinara, the Kwanzaa wooden candle holder that marks the beginning of the annual celebration of pan-African American heritage.

One candle is lit each day with seven representing the Nguzo Saba, or the seven principles, in a week-long remembrance of ancestors and culture celebrated Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

“Even as a young girl I grew up celebrating Kwanzaa so this is something that I’ve wanted to continue,” White said.

“What drew me to the holiday is that it’s truly a collective celebration.”

Kwanzaa is derived from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning

first fruits of the harvest. Maulana Karenga, came up with the idea for Kwanzaa in the ‘60s.

“Can you imagine that a young black man in 1966 would say ‘we need a holiday.

Us Black people, we’ve done so much we need to celebrate that,’” said Chimbuka Temba, administrator support coordinator of Africana studies.

Now the department chair of the Africana studies and the creator of Kwanzaa, Karenga added an extra “a” to the end of the word to include all seven children at the first celebration at the African American Cultural Center in 1966.

The annual celebration of family, community and African-American culture is based on seven principles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).

On each day of Kwanzaa, observers perform rituals that represent one of the seven principles. White gives the example

of supporting a Black-owned business for cooperative economics and spending quality time with family on the day of unity.

“It’s an opportunity to learn where my people came from and also to show respect and remembrance of the past,” White said.

Kwanzaa was created by Karenga around the time of the civil rights movement as a display of defiance and to give Black people a holiday to celebrate their accomplishments throughout history.

“Kwanzaa is a product of selfdetermination,” Karenga said. “We didn’t ask permission (to create Kwanzaa), we didn’t go to the government we declared it. We declared that we were going to celebrate ourselves.”

Third-year civil engineering major Bethlehem Gezahegne said the holiday is a great way for other ethnicities to learn about African-American culture.

“I didn’t learn about the true workings of the holiday until college; they don’t

really teach in-depth about it,” Gezahegne said.

Some students compared the holiday to Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of the redirection of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

“All you hear is Christmas music, but you never really hear Jewish music or Kwanzaa music,” said Kaylee Richards, a third-year communications major.

“Overall I would say that it’s a lack of knowledge.”

However, around 40 million people around the world celebrate the annual holiday in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, South America, France and Russia. It is not just for people of AfricanAmerican descent, according to Karenga.

“Kujichagulia, the second principle, is a constant calling of commitment of striving and struggling,” Karenga said.

“We strive for excellence. We strive for good in the world.”

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ANNA KARKALIK | Daily Forty-Niner

Long Beach State custodian Lori Donaldson demonstrates how to clean a TV in a lower-campus office Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019.

The late-night crew The custodial department is often not seen by students, but their goal is to keep the campus clean.

By Anna Karkalik Staff Writer

W

hen Lori Donaldson wakes up to go to work every day, much of Long Beach State is getting ready for bed.

She starts her eight-hour shift at midnight, when the busy rush of students walking the halls have cleared for the night, and works until 8:30 in the morning.

“You’ll see the grounds people, you’ll see the painters, but as custodians we are invisible because we’re pretty much gone by the time everybody really gets here,” Donaldson said.

Beach Building Services is responsible for a range of services including custodial, plumbing, grounds keeping, elevator repair

and key and lock services.

The department has around 80 employees tasked with covering roughly 1,260,000-square-miles a week and cleaning around 400 to 500 bathrooms a day. If someone calls out of work on a given day, the remaining custodians must still make sure the entire campus is cleaned.

Donaldson, who’s meticulous approach to cleaning the campus won her the custodian of the year award, is responsible for cleaning the Physical Planning and Facilities Management building, Design and Construction building, three courtyard bathrooms, the lower campus convenience store and the University Police Department.

“I look at what I do as if I was inviting you to my house,” Donaldson said. “I like who I work with and who I work for.”

A muddy footprint in the men’s bathroom, dusty baseboards and a streak on a TV: these are some of the mundane but

“invisible” tasks that Donaldson deals with on a daily basis.

“Our whole [everyone in facilities] core value is we are maintaining the campus for you [students] because we want you to be successful,” Donaldson said. “For you to be successful we want you to have a safe and clean facility.”

Working as a custodian for three and a half years, the biggest obstacle for Donaldson was transitioning to her new sleep schedule, which took around a year.

Donaldson had to adjust things in her personal life to be able to work nights, sometimes not seeing her husband as often because of their different work schedules.

“There’s a lot of people that we work with who have young children and they leave here at 8:30 in the morning and they have to take them to school or some even have young babies,” Donaldson said.

However, Donaldson prefers working

at night, despite the unconventional hours, because she can clean without disturbing anyone when she vacuums offices or mops the hallway floors.

Working around others’ schedules, she makes sure the outside bathrooms of the courtyard are done first and the PPFM is cleaned before people arrive at 5 a.m.

Donaldson often hears people say that what she does is not a skilled profession; however, it is an important job that must get done and, even for cleaning, there are certain protocols you must follow, she said.

With her personal squeegee, she makes sure every window of her assigned buildings are clean before she hangs her keys and leaves in the morning.

“You have to have joy in what you do,” Donaldson said. “Not every component of the job is going to be fun, that’s not the way the world works.”

6 WINTER SPECIAL

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM

LIGHT UP NA

(Counterclockwise from top left) A house on Naples Island lit up for passerby to see Friday, Dec.13, 2019. The theme on the island this ye ident Kadee Della Donna Lorenzen poses in front of her home at 97 Rivo Alto Canal. Lorenzen’s home won best decorated house by the N proposes to his girlfriend of five years Isabel Serrano in front of the center fountain on Naples Island.

M | @DAILY49ER | STAFF@DAILY49ER.COM

WINTER SPECIAL 7

TING APLES

HANNAH GETAHUN & PAULA KILEY | Daily Forty-Niner

ear is “under the sea.” Esther Ibarra,7, points at the holiday light display in front of the house of Kadee Della Donna Lorenzen. Naples Island resNaples Island Association this year. Jeff Guell plays and sings Christmas carols with his family and his marriage encounter group. Devontae Reid

Gratitude at Christmas What Your Teachers Will Not Tell You Dr. George A. Kuck (galbertk@aol.com) Let me wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope your report card has given you the grade that you worked for and deserved. Now is a time to reflect on what has happened in the past and reflect on where we want to go as citizens of the United States. Why are you grateful?

I am grateful because our country gave me and my family an environment to succeed when we worked hard and made use of the available opportunities.

I am grateful that I live in a free country where I can worship as I please, get the education I desired in the field I love, had jobs which challenged me, and as was able to raise a family that now includes two greatgrandchildren.

Was it easy? Not at times but I had the freedom to make the most of my opportunities. My family is safe. I am grateful that my family has done our duties as citizens to help others become and remain free. My great grandfather was a Republican Union Soldier in the Civil War. I am grateful that my black friends grew up free due to his sacrifices. My father helped defeat the NAZI’s in WWII by working at the Frankfort Arsenal in Philadelphia and later helped the Apollo capsule safely return lunar astronauts. I served in the USAF during the Vietnam War when we tried to help South Vietnam remain free. I am grateful that we an economic system, capitalism, that can actually provide jobs for all that want to work. We may not get the jobs we would like but we can all have productive lives, unlike socialism where the government controls who works where and when.

We have the best judicial system in the world that realizes that all lives matter. If I get into trouble, I will get a fair shake because of the jury system.

This is just my short list of why I personally am grateful. It is not your list. I know some of you have had to struggle more that I have. However, my grandmother was a widow from Italy with 4 young children. She successfully raised them due to the opportunities which she grasped.

Now it is your turn. We all need to be introspective about our lives (including Antifa activists and others trying to divide our country into groups for political reasons.) What are your reasons for being grateful?

Make a list of why you are grateful to be an American citizen. As my parents told me, count your blessings instead of being angry at the other person. We have more control over our lives in this country than just about anywhere else in the world. Make use of this blessing you have been given.

Again, may you have a Merry Christmas and a productive 2020.

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Join them as they discuss the biggest headline of the week.

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WINTER SPECIAL 9

‘HYPOCRTICAL HOLIDAYS’

By Stephanie Holt

By Enacio Diaz

By Rodrigo Gonzalez

10 WINTER SPECIAL

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A better future is in our hands, but our own complacency is causing it to slip through our fingers.

The easiest thing in the world to do is nothing, and it’s killing us

By Perry Continente Opinions Editor

O

ur outlook as a species is… less than stellar, and the sad truth is that there is little we can do.

Despite, or in some cases, because of our best efforts, fascism is on the rise. The top .1% has almost 200 times the money of the bottom 90% and the climate crisis is quickly nearing the tipping point at which reversing its effects will be impossible.

These are things we need to deal with immediately; unfortunately, it’s looking like we will do nothing until it is far too late.

The only way we can minimize the effects of these deeply rooted, systemic problems is through shaking that sense of comfortability, which isn’t easy. Educating yourself about issues is rarely comfortable and often depressing, but it’s something we need to do.

If we keep picking comfort in the short term over our long term survival and equality, it will very soon be too late to do anything at all.

Europe and the Americas are electing increasingly nationalistic, conservative, authoritarian candidates. Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom is a racist, sexist, homophobic and nationalistic leader.

However, since he maintains the perceived norm, he and the Conservative Party swept the recent UK election.

Candidates like Johnson and Trump ensure a financial status quo. For many this is comfortable.

Systemic problems like these pose an existential threat to our health, happiness and freedoms, but most people do little to combat these issues. This happens for a myriad of reasons, but the biggest is a sense of complacency.

When faced with the day-to-day grind, with more immediate problems like paying for rent, food and basic necessities, more abstract problems are harder to grasp.

These concepts are nebulous. The

climate crisis is an existential threat to our survival as a species, and while the evidence is overwhelming, it isn’t something that directly affects most of us, rendering it is easy to ignore.

While natural disasters are worsening, one only needs to look at the rise of wildfires worldwide or the heat waves sweeping the world to see that. But it is still abstract, immaterial and harder for many people to conceptualize.

Income inequality is a similarly nebulous idea. And it is equally hard to get people to mobilize against it.

The sad truth is that when something isn’t immediately present in our lives, but instead exists for us purely in the abstract, it’s difficult for many people to care about.

Our standards of living could soon plummet. Recently, the first self-driven truck made a 41-hour cross-country trip to deliver groceries. This may seem like a technological curiosity—a step into the future—but it carries with it some dark implications.

Self-driving cars may replace most, if

not all driving jobs. Driving is one of the biggest jobs in this country. The average driver makes around $55,000 a year, and there are roughly 2.7 million drivers employed in the U.S. This means around $148 billion in paid jobs could disappear from drivers with this change.

The question is whether or not these funds will be hoarded by the business owners or redistributed among the people who once generated that income through policy like a universal basic income or a program to retrain and rehire these people.

The way we are going it will be taken by the wealthy.

Although new technology-driven jobs are popping up, most of these require extensive specialized education and experience in programming, not something that most truck drivers have.

We cannot be lulled into a false sense of security just because these problems are still on the horizon. They are far closer than they appear. It’s looking like by the time that we finally decide to fix them, it will be too late.

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WINTER SPECIAL 11

Spill the Tea is a weekly section for students to share their opinions and make their voices heard. Long Beach State students answer questions that can range from the silly to the political. We at the Daily Forty-Niner value the diverse opinions of the CSULB student body and look forward to you sharing them with us. This week, students share their favorite holiday traditions.

By Celeste Huecias

Name: Matthew Leon Major: Second-year physics major

Name: Sophia Brisco Major: First-year speech-language pathology major

“My favorite holiday tradition is probably Thanksgiving. We have a great dinner with turkey and ribs, and we watch football, usually at one of my tia’s or uncle’s houses. We just all sit around and ridicule the [football] teams [we don’t like]. My older uncles like football and everyone else doesn’t so they kind of made it a [tradition] every time we had Thanksgiving.”

“Every year I buy my cats little knick-knacks or toys, and we have a little stocking for both of them. Yeah, it’s pretty fun. It started because I felt bad that my cats don’t get anything [for Christmas] and I don’t have siblings, so I was like I’m going to get my cats something because I want to give to people.”

Name: Ashley Briones Major: Fourth-year kinesiology exercise science major

Name: Yesenia Varges Major: Fourth-year communication studies major

“[I] wait until Christmas day, well midnight [Christmas Eve], to open presents just because of the anticipation, and I’m always the one passing out gifts to everyone. I don’t know how it started, I think it just happened. I’m the youngest, so they just did it and wanted me to do it.”

“My favorite holiday tradition is cooking on Christmas Eve. I’m from a Mexican-American background, and what my culture does is cook things like tamales or tacos. My mom makes this thing called melotes, which is like potato and masa, and it’s really good. We cook as a family to get everyone together and then open presents at midnight going into Christmas Day. I think it was how my parents grew up so when they had us, me and my brother, that’s how they culturally taught us.”

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FORTY-NINER’S ALL-FALL TEAM The sports staff comes together to nominate each team’s standout athlete of the fall 2019 semester.

Men’s Basketball: Chance Hunter By: Ralston Dacanay

Women’s Basketball: Justina King By: Mark Lindahl

Scoring 20 or more points on three occasions, sophomore Chance Hunter has led the Beach with 14.2 points per game and is the team’s second-leading rebounder at 4.3 boards per game.

The former Cerritos College transfer has made a huge impact during his first season at the Beach right from the jump, solidifying his role as perhaps the team’s most important player whether starting or providing energy off the bench.

“Never stop working,” Hunter said. “Through the season it gets hard… Just push yourself. Don’t be average.”

Sophomore point guard Justina King has excelled while piloting the Long Beach State offense so far this season after being named Big West Freshman of the Year last year.

King leads the team in minutes played per game (36.2), points scored per game (12.9), assists per game (3.7) and is second in steals (2.1) while acting as the primary ball-handler for the Beach.

“Justina [King] is just in control,” head coach Jeff Cammon said. “She has very good ball skills, she has a high IQ… She can score the ball and make others better and that’s what she’s doing.”

Men’s Water Polo: Rafael Real Vergara By: Jacob Powers

Cross Country: Alyssa Allen & Michael Simpson By: Max Perez

Hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, freshman Rafael Real Vergara quickly made himself a force to be reckoned with for the Beach. Vergara scored 43 goals, averaging more than two and a half per game, while also snatching 13 steals on defense.

Vergara finished with 56 points overall this season, thirdbest on the team.

“He’s a real high-level player,” said head coach Gavin Arroyo. “He’s competitive, he’s talented, but he’s first and foremost a team player and he gets it.”

Senior Alyssa Allen finished first on the women’s side in every race she ran. At the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational this season she marked her place in the history books, finishing the women’s 6K with a time of 21:02.20, good for the sixth-best time in Long Beach State history.

Senior Michael Simpson led the men’s side in three races this season, including the Big West Championship where the men finished sixth. His best race of the season came, like Allen, at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational, where he finished with a career-best in the men’s 8K with a time of 25:35.60, just three seconds shy of breaking the top-10 in program history.

Women’s Soccer: Elysia Laramie By: Robert Hollar Long Beach State sophomore defender/forward Elysia Laramie led the team with six goals and 12 points this season.

Such offensive numbers are particularly impressive considering Laramie exclusively played defense for the first several games of the season. Laramie’s versatility is defined by more than just an ability to play multiple positions, as she’s shown the ability to contribute offensively in various ways too.

Contributions such as these are rare from an underclassmen in any sport. The Beach has a bright future ahead and may have already found it’s next star player.

Women’s Golf: Holland Shourds By: Manuel Valladares After being named to the All-Big West Second Team in 2018, Long Beach State senior Holland Shourds has kicked off the 2019-20 season with a string of impressive performances over the course of the fall semester.

Shourds led the Beach with two top-25 finishes in the Couer d’Alene Resort Invitational Sept. 23-24, where she tied for 23rd place with teammate sophomore Hannah Ko, and at the Edean Ihlandfeldt Invitational Oct. 8-9, where she placed 20th.

Women’s Volleyball: Hailey Harward By: Teran Rodriguez

Men’s Golf: Hunter Epson By: Jordan Newby

Women’s volleyball’s senior libero Hailey Harward capped off a memorable final season, finishing in the top-10 in two categories for the program as team captain. In Harward’s four years at the Beach, she earned two All-Big West First Team nominations.

Harward finished with 1,602 digs, the third-highest record in Beach history third, and 116 service aces, ninth-highest, in her final match in the NIVC. Harward reached double-digit digs in all but four games this season and lead the team to the postseason for the first time in head coach Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer’s tenure.

Senior Hunter Epson finished the 2019 season in the top5 or better in three of four tournaments. Epson was named Big West Golfer of the Month for September and earned Long Beach State Athletic Player of the Week Oct. 7. Epson shined at the Nick Watney Invitational as he finished individual play in first place shooting 13-under-par.

“Hunter definitely put the team on his back he played great,” head coach Michael Wilson said after the teams’ final tournament.