EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Union T h e
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eccunion.com
October 17, 2013
Humanitarian aid group seeks student help to take action Saul Prado
Assistant News Editor
Humanitarian aid group i-ACT will be hosting an activism education event Monday on the Library Lawn from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to raise awareness on the genocide in western Sudan, Breanna Von Stein, student services specialist, said. Camp Darfur, a mock refugee-like camp, is one of the many projects started by i-ACT that travels the country providing individuals with the education as well as the tools necessary to take immediate action if they wish, according to iactivism.org “Gabriel Stauring [co-founder] was looking for a way to create an event that gave the people here a feel for being in a refugee camp, the vastness of it in a tent city,” Katie-Jay Scott, director of community programming for i-ACT, said. “The first Camp Darfur was a week-long event that had 15 tents where there were movies that were shown, people slept in the tents all week, ate refugee rations and food that they were given by the World Food Program.” Founded in 2005 as a portion of Stop Genocide Now, the South Baybased i-ACT activist group, has since branched off on its own focusing on “interactive activism” to convey their message in an easy to understand format and claims to be “the only group from the United States that consistently returns to the Darfuri refugee camps in Eastern Chad,” according to iactivism.org. “We invited them to come to campus for the Social Justice Fair initially,” Von Stein said. “It’s different because it’s interactive and educational, not just a workshop but they can actually walk through an exhibit that’s more beneficial to the students.” Started by Robert DeWitz, 24, psy-
chology major, and working with the Student Services Center, the Social Justice Program, which hosted the fair last spring, aims to encourage students to participate and offers them the opportunity to take action by bringing organizations like Camp Darfur and Every 9 Seconds to campus. “The best way, in my experience, to address student’s apathy is to really connect the students to the issue,” DeWitz said. “Most of our events that we’ve done have been centered around [the idea of] ‘This the issue, this is what’s been done so far, this is what other students have done, and this is what you can do.’” This event will feature informational presentations in multiple tents, each one telling the history of genocide, including the events that occurred in the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur accompanied with photos, timelines, and inspiring stories from survivors, Scott said. “We use multimedia and offer a way to connect people to the issues through social media, though videos, through taking action, and try to empower them with the community that they’re experts on, whether it’s a school or club that they’re a part of,” Scott said. Scott emphasized that Camp Darfur focuses on engaging people on a personal level, not measuring their success by how many emails they collect, but by raising awareness and inspiring real action. “For us, if we can inspire one person who takes it to the next level and ends up majoring in international relations or ends up contacting their congressman and goes and visits them, sometimes those stories and that type of action has more impact than being able to collect 100 signatures on a piece of paper,” Scott said.
Torrance, California
Great California Shake o E u t Matthew Simon Sports Editor
ver wonder what to do when the ground beneath you starts to shake and things start toppling in front of you? In an effort to answer this question, EC will be taking part in the sixth annual Great California ShakeOut today at 10:17 a.m. “People need to know what to do during an earthquake,” Mark Benthien, Director for Outreach at the Southern California Earthquake Center said. “A lot of people still don’t. They think they need to run outside and do the wrong thing that can get them injured.” The event has more than 9.5 million participants in California alone and more than 24 million participants globally, according to shakeout.org. “I really wouldn’t know what to do,” Jacob Villalobos, 19, psychology major, said. “So, to know the college cares is cool especially since California always has earthquakes.” The first ShakeOut was held in 2008, an effort by emergency managers and scientists to inform the public about earthquake preparedness. “Social science research said that when people talk prepared about earthquake preparedness they’re more likely to get prepared,” Benthien said. Getting the world prepared for a major earthquake is the main goal of the ShakeOut and being able to act quickly when an earthquake strikes is the best way to be safe if one occurs at a moment’s notice, according to ShakeOut.org. The event has been every third Thursday in October since the first ShakeOut took place five years ago. “We settled on a formula,” Lance Webster, ShakeOut media consultant said. “So people could plan a long time in advance. It’s as simple as that. The time of the ShakeOut is the same time as the date. It’s for convenience so people remember.” According to ShakeOut.org, the ShakeOut drill isn’t predicting an earthquake to occur, though because many areas of the world are seismically it’s not impossible. “It never hurts to practice more just in case something did happen,” Jason Smith, 22, business major, said.
4.2 million people in Los Angeles and Orange counties participating in today’s drill
9.5 million Californians participating in today’s drill
18.2
Photo illustration by Thomas Schmit
million people around the world participating in today’s drill
Data from the Great California ShakeOut
Public support for marijuana initiative at record high For the first time, more than 50 percent of people support the legalization of marijuana Rigo Bonilla
Managing Editor
NEWS LINE
Marijuana and hemp supporters will have their chance to make California the third state in the union to legalize cannabis by signing a recently created initiative. “An initiative allows people who have a shared concern to get that concern onto the ballot,” Lance Widman, professor of political science, said. “You have a coalition of interest groups that favor an issue, so what they’re going to have to do is collect the required signatures (50,000) of registered voters to get it on the November 2014 ballot.” The California cannabis hemp initiative aims to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for people over 21 years of age, allow farmers to make materials and products from hemp and hemp seed, and limit jobs from testing for marijuana metabolites, according to cchi.org, the official site for the initiative. Proposition 215 allowed medical use in California, and many cities and counties have passed ordinances making marijuana the lowest priority for law
By Sam Tedla
enforcement, but marijuana may have finally gathered enough support to be legalized outright, like in Colorado and Washington. “A slim majority of adults (52%) say marijuana use should be legalized—a record high and the first time support has been above 50 percent. A larger majority of likely voters (60%) favor legalization. Democrats (64%), independents (60%), and men (57%) are more likely than Republicans (45%) and women (47%) to favor legalization,” according to research by the Public Policy Institute of California. While support for legalization is higher than ever, it is still only about half of California’s population, and anti-marijuana activists are making their voices heard. “The most important thing people need to know is that marijuana is harmful and that it’s different than alcohol,” Scott Chipman, an activist with Citizens Against the Legalization of Marijuana (CALMca. org), said. “This is a fight for the human mind. It’s mind altering, highly toxic, remains in the body for up to a month, and is highly addictive.” Chipman said long-term marijuana use can cause
serious health problems. “The incidents of testicular cancer, paranoia, schizophrenia and depression are significantly higher among marijuana users. THC (the psychoactive chemical in marijuana) affects the brain and how the brain sends messages,” he added. Chipman said that marijuana use also has detrimental societal implications. “People who use marijuana are less social. There’s a certain percentage of the population that’s already on the edge of sanity already. They have a tendency towards mental illness. Jared Laughner, the guy who shot Gabrielle Giffords? Pot user. The Boston bomber? Pot user. The Colorado theater shooter? Pot user. Trayvon Martin? Pot user. I don’t think its coincidental. Pot distorts your perception of reality. It messes with your ability to reason. It pushes people toward being anti-social,” he added. Michael Braun, psychology professor, said that in a place like L.A., all it takes is money to find drugs, regardless of if they’re legal or illegal. “I think the hope of some people is that we can take care of some major problems with a simple solu-
tion,” Braun said. “If people just don’t drink alcohol, or if people just don’t have marijuana, we won’t have X number of problems, and that’s just not true.” In the case of heinous acts like the Boston Marathon bombings, Braun says that every situation needs to be looked at individually. “When people get involved with destructive acts, it usually has a more complex origin, not just the fact that they’re using a drug at the time,” Braun added. “One thing that’s very important about human nature is being careful not to look for over-simplified explanations.” For more information about what changes the initiative will attempt to make, visit CCHI2014.org. Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series that will go in depth about the legalization of marijuana.
CSU Application Workshop
Cal Poly Pomona “Preview Day” Tour
UC Irvine “Transfer Track” Tour
Homecoming Rally
How to Start Business While Attending College
Students who are applying to CSUs can attend a workshop that will include a walk through on how to fill out the detailed information in the application. The workshop will be today from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in Music 204. For more information, call 310-660-3593, ext. 3408.
The transfer center will host a tour of Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday. There will be sessions on admission requirements, study abroad opportunities, and academic majors. Students who want to attend the tour must pay a $5 refundable deposit. For more information, call 310-660-3593 ext. 3408.
The transfer center will host a tour of UC Irvine on Saturday. The tour will have sessions on academic majors, financial aid, and campus life. Students who want to attend the tour are required to pay a $5 refundable deposit. For more information, call 310-6603593 ext. 3408.
The homecoming rally will have pep squad routines, a club banner contest, introduction of the Homecoming queen and king candidates, and presentation of the football team. The rally will be on Tuesday at 1 p.m. For more information, call 310-660-3593, ext. 3394.
Students who want to learn how to further their entrepreneurial endeavors can attend this business-starting workshop on Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. in the DIstance Education Center. For more information, call 310-660-3593, ext. 3408.