The Star Magazine

THE

Journal of Excellence / Spring 2017 / Volume 7

Fake News Alisha Nikodemus

I Am Not Your Negro...

Hayden Mears

Insight to Auraria's LGBTQ Minds Cassie Alfaro

THE Editor in Chief

Rebecca Ramos

Photo Editors in Chief

Cassie Alfaro Todd Smith

Art Director Ricky Olguin Senior Editors

Matt Cabrera Adia Davis Tate Williams

Contributing Editors

Kaitlyn Lafferty Alisha Nikodemus

Senior Photo Editor Lauren Brown Photo Editors

Jonathan Hidalgo Stevie Selby

Faculty Advisers

Kristi Strother, Journalism Chair Lisa Erickson, English Professor Douglas Ekstrand, Faculty MGD

MISSION STATEMENT

The Star, Community College of Denver’s student run Journal of Excellence, incorporates visual and written media to provide a platform of expression available to all CCD students. We adhere to Associated Collegiate Press guidelines.

Facebook Page: facebook.com/TheCCDStar

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Ricky

Matt

Adia

Tate

Kaitlyn

Alisha

Lauren

Jonathan

Stevie Photos by Jonathan Hidalgo

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Rebecca

Cassie

Todd Photos by Jonathan Hidalgo

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From the Editors This semester we had three Editors-in-Chief. It has been an experience that we have all valued and enjoyed:

The 7th edition of The Star, Journal of Excellence is dedicated to a standard of excellence that exemplifies the determination, skill, and creativity of all associated with its continued success. We take a tremendous amount of pride in our work as Community College of Denver students, representatives of this institution and members of the community.

Rebecca: I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented team of editors and faculty. Serving as Editor-in-Chief has given me invaluable tools to use beyond my educational journey. I had the opportunity to witness the stresses and rewards that go into creating a publication. As my favorite endeavor at CCD, it has taught me that a person never stops learning; the job is never done and… smiling with a nod fixes most everything.

During this interesting time of political and social tension, we launched this edition with a focus on “Pushing Boundaries”. Sometimes it is hard to discern what to pay attention to and what to ignore in the media. Fortunately Community College of Denver students are taught to be critical thinkers, to look beyond the headlines and listen to more than just the soundbite.

Cassie: My involvement with The Star shaped my entire experience at CCD from the moment I decided to submit my work my first semester here. Working on this team of students opened up many opportunities to explore the world of journalism, a world I had no experience with and a world that I never really thought I’d see myself in. As my time at The Star comes to an end, and I move on to the next stage of my education at CSU in Ft.Collins, I am sad to leave this excellent publication. However, I know that The Star will continue to prosper, and I look forward to seeing all of the wonderful things future CCD students will achieve!

CCD is comprised of a diverse population, and it was important for us to celebrate our students’ talents within the magazine. The quality of work submitted this semester was outstanding, which made the selection process challenging. We hope that our effort producing this magazine properly showcases the amazing talent here at CCD. There are truly gifted writers, photographers, and visual artists on this campus, and we thank each and every student who submitted pieces for consideration.

Todd: I would like to thank all of my teachers at CCD. You have challenged me, guided me, shown me respect, and truly demonstrated what it means to be a teacher. The passion you have for what you do really shows. I would also like to thank the students who chose to look past the fact that I am old enough to be your parent, accepted the “old guy in class” and treated me as a peer. I hope your realities are more spectacular than you ever dreamed.

We are grateful for the continued support of our faculty advisers, administration and President of CCD, Dr. Everette Freeman. The excellent guidance we have received, in addition to our dedicated student staff, has allowed The Star to achieve multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

We extend a special thank you to Kristi Strother, Journalism Chair and Lisa Erickson, English professor, for showing us how to get our ideas off the ground and turning them into something award winning.

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content Volume 7 - Spring 2017

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Insight to Auraria’s LGBTQ Minds

09 - 14

A Review of Pew Research Center

29 - 30

That Girl

43 - 44

I Am Not Your Negro...

A Challenge for My Stagnant Ideals

Look at my Insta

21 - 24

17 - 18

A Review of NPR

A Review of Breitbart

33 - 34

31 - 32

Education for Education’s Sake

Fake News

27-28

10 Tips for a Productive Year at CCD

37 - 38

How Much is the Valet?

55 - 58

49 - 50

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Awarded Best of Visual Image Subliminal by Cassie Alfaro 8

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Insight to Auraria’s LGBTQ Minds Cassie Alfaro

People of all gender identities, sexual orientations and gender expressions have always been a part of the student body at Auraria, but it wasn’t until 1992 that the Auraria campus actively began to recognize and protect the rights of its LGBTQ students.

Since then, the LGBTQ Student Resource Center has offered a variety of support, education and advocacy services for LGBTQ students and allies.

Glossary provided by Sam Killermann, creator of the online resource “It’s Pronounced Metrosexual” found at http://itspronouncedmetrosexual. com (2017).

The individuals interviewed below all either work for or utilize the services, space and support provided by the LGBTQ Student Resource Center. As individuals, each person’s experience is unique and does not reflect the views and experiences of all people who identify as LGBTQ; however, the interview responses provide a glimpse of a diverse community on Auraria campus that often goes unnoticed.

*Pronouns and the LGBTQ community: Not all individuals choose to use traditional he or she pronouns, and it is best to ask about a person’s preferred pronouns rather than make assumptions. Confirming and correctly using someone’s self defined pronouns shows respect for that person’s identity.

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What do you think that the Auraria campus does well to support the LGBTQ community?

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Steve Willich (He/Him; Director of the LGBTQ Student Resource Center): “I think that we are a good spot to build community. One of our main functions is the student lounge...It’s a great place for folks to meet others just like themselves in a space on campus that is theirs, where they can feel safe and feel welcomed.

Our event programming is also pretty spectacular. We hold an event twice a month, from national days of recognition, career panels, and film screenings.”

Emma Christian (She/Her; Student employee at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center): “The fact that we have an office and resource

center that provides not only a space for students to come and hang out and be themselves, but also offers a bunch of events that allows students to be involved on campus. I am also glad that [Auraria] recognizes Title IX and that our campus offers safe-zone training for offices that want to make themselves better at being inclusive.”

Kayla Kessel (She/Her; Student): “I think it’s fantastic that [Auraria] offers courses that involve gender, sexuallity, race, the issues that don’t get discussed as much in an educational environment, so I don’t feel out of place speaking up about my experiences because everyone is there to learn.”

Beck Mayhew (They/Them; Student employee at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center): Beck says Auraria offers services that are “knowledgeable and aware, such as the LGBTQ Student Resource Center. We also offer safe zone trainings to educate and help other offices understand different parts of identity, trans people, people who are queer.”

What could the Auraria campus do to better support the LGBTQ community?

SW : “We struggle with coordinating services between campus.” Willich states that each school runs things a bit differently and believes better coordination between the three schools would create policies and procedures that are more consistent. He also believes all three schools could be more proactive in identifying LGBT students, “not so we can out them, but so that we can serve and support them while they are here.”

BM : “Auraria could do better to increase representation, visibility, and

focus on the specific needs of people at intersections of identity such as being queer, trans and a person of color because that’s the most disenfranchised group. Auraria could also make it clear that they advocate publicly and consistently support the rights and needs for LGBTQ community. Many think it’s a political statement, which then means they cannot make that statement, but that is not accurate, it’s actually a statement on behalf of student safety.”

EC : “We can really use some gender neutral restrooms or family restrooms in the Tivoli. As someone who works at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center, I hear a lot of frustrations from students who come in and they say things like ‘I have to walk to another building because there isn’t a restroom I feel comfortable using.’” Emma states the Resource Center raises this concern year after year; but the “voice of our frustration goes unnoticed by superiors or (is) not really cared about.”

Fabricia Pineda (She/Her; Student): “Widely accessible gender neutral bathrooms everywhere.”

Fabricia recalled a student who reported feeling really uncomfortable about being late for class due to having to run across campus to use the nearest gender neutral bathroom.

KK : “There are courses that base off of sex rather than gender and don’t recognize different pronouns or don’t recognize that gender identity is a different thing. It’s very transphobic.”

What are the biggest difficulties students in the LGBTQ community face on campus?

BM : “Misinformation as a general point [in addition to] loss of op-

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portunities for people who are of color or trans.” Beck asserts that LGBTQ students are not given the same recognition in classroom settings as gender conforming students. Beck also wants to hold instructors responsible when they disparage LGBTQ students: “Making sure that when people do attack us, they are held accountable for their actions. For example, if I do have a teacher who causes me direct harm, whether or not that teacher is held accountable is debatable.”

FP : “While most people are accepting, there are a couple of people who are not and it is kind of expected of me to kind of just smile about it... I shouldn’t have to smile and nod because they have ‘freedom of speech’ because I have freedom to not be harassed in a classroom.”

KK : “I think a lot of times people don’t realize that there is more than just homophobia. There is bi-phobia, there’s trans-phobia, there is a lot of hate within the community not just at the community as a whole. There is a lot of erasure of different identities that comes from social aspects as well as educational aspects.”

EC : “The process of getting your name changed on campus.”

Emma says that many students want their names changed so they don’t have to feel outed in class. She noted some people have a relatively easy time changing their names, while others do not. In addition, Emma says LGBTQ students can face discrimination from their peers: “There are still those stares you get for being different. There are still those responses you get in class when you are defending your existence. It’s very exhaust-

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ing to constantly have to defend your existence and argue for how you are”.

What do you think people are most confused about when it comes to the LGBTQ community?

How safe do you think the Auraria campus is for LGBTQ students compared to other college campuses?

Rebecca Milton (She/Her; Student): “People assume just because I identify as a woman, that I am attracted to men and I’m not.”

SW : “I’d say it’s a very safe place.

In my seven years here, I think there has been maybe two incidences of discrimination against students and nothing that has been any kind of violence.”

FP : “They don’t understand how I could date someone without having sex with them. It completely confuses people because of the way we set up our world where EVERYTHING is sexual.”

BM : Beck believes Auraria campus is one of the safer campuses in the country, which could be due in part to the lack of dorms on campus, stating violence that is commonly seen towards marginalized groups is not as prevalent on a commuter campus such as Auraria.

EC : “Because there is such an emphasis on sexuality in our country, I think that people immediately tend to conflate sex with romance.”

EC : “Besides some awkward stares and those who are confronting, I am glad I am here”.

SW : ‘What’s between your legs?’, ‘Who do you have sex with and how do you have sex?’, “There are just so many based on the identity.”

KK : “There are obviously going to be people who are ignorant, but as far as to the degree to which I felt like an outsider, this is probably the place I felt like myself the most and the most included.”

FP : Fabricia shared an experience while on a college tour at DU. She and a friend were holding hands in order to comfort each other during this stressful time. But when two guys saw them were not happy with them holding hands. “My friend and I immediately stopped and we felt really uncomfortable the rest of the time there. By comparison when I came [to Auraria] it was a complete 180 degree turn.

Most students here are so quick to accept and they don’t even think twice. This is one of the better schools for that thing.”

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What are questions that are not appropriate to ask someone who is LGBTQ?

BM : “Don’t even ask me for a second ask about my genitals-that just seems like common sense.

It’s none of your business! Asking ‘Do you like your lifestyle?

Why did you choose this? Who has hurt you? How and why?’. It’s inappropriate to ask if I am going to change my mind, if it’s a phase or if they are confused. Any question that takes somebody's’ identity and makes it a personal grounds for you to just traipse all over or, any questions that make it something that you are able to attack them with.”

EC : “‘Did you have the surgery?’, ‘What was your old name?’ “Often people expect you to answer these questions without realizing implications. When a strang-

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er is asking me questions, I don’t know you and you have no right to this information. This information is private for a reason.”

Matt Lumley (He/Him; Student employee at the LGBTQ Student Resource Center): “‘What is your real name?’” or when it comes to bisexuality, “‘Do you like men or women?’” “Pretty much any question that is related to someone’s transition is none of your business. Any question that demands that someone defends their identity to you.”

FP : “Questions I get constantly that make me uncomfortable are: ‘Well, have you had sex yet?’I don’t want to answer these super personal questions about whether or not I’ve ever had sex in front of my teacher and 20 other students. Other questions include ‘Were you ever raped?’ ‘Do people ever think that your religion is conflicting with your sexuality?’

‘How could you take communion if you’ve had a girlfriend?’ I get a lot of questions about how is it possible [or] how am I allowed to be Catholic if I am LGBT. For me, that really bothers me because that’s saying I have to pick sides.”

KK : “‘How do you really know?’ or ‘Why are you in the LGBTQ community if you can pass as straight?’ That one absolutely drives me nuts because of the fact that it basically erases my identity of being queer.” Kayla has been asked “If you are disabled, how can you be bisexual?”

She states, “It sounds ridiculous, but people associate specific other traits with certain genders and sexualities. So, for a lot of people they identify being disabled or handicapped as being asexual. As much as it doesn’t make sense, outside [the LGBTQ community] a lot of people face

questions about the intersection between other identity traits and intersexuality.”

Chris Traister (They/ Their, Student): “If you are agender, why do you wear makeup or dress this way?”

RM : Rebecca says that many inappropriate questions are asked due to a lack of knowledge. She notes that some people are not willing to educate themselves and are “just thinking you are their own trans-encyclopedia."

What would you say to someone who does not respect those who identify as LGBTQ? BM : “Get over it. Me being the way I am does not impact you whatsoever. It does not hurt you to just back up and let that person be. I’m just trying to occasionally go to school, and then go home and pet my cat and live my life. I’m not trying to hurt anyone."

EC : “You don’t have to respect me, but I am who I am. I expect you to tolerate me and to love thy neighbor.”

FP : “You do not have to like me, but I will not be okay with you disrespecting me.”

KK : “I don’t deny your reality so don’t deny mine.”

Jamie Tran (He/Him; Student): “I am a human being and I have feelings… You have to respect me as a human and if you do not respect me as a human I do not respect you as well.”

CT : “It’s not hard to just respect someone and be nice. Don’t go bullying people”.

SW : “There’s 300 species that have documented homosexual encounters and there is only one species that is homophobic - and that’s humans.”

Support, education and advocacy services for LGBTQ Students and allies are provided on the Auraria Campus by the LGBTQ Student Resource Center in Tivoli room 213.

RM : “You don’t have to like somebody, but you also can’t infringe on my rights.”

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GLOSSARY Agender

Asexual

Biphobia

adj. ~ a person with no connection to the traditional system of gender, no personal alignment with the concepts of either man or woman, and/or someone who sees themselves as existing without gender.

adj. ~ experiencing little or no sexual attraction to others and/or a lack of interest in sexual relationships/behavior.

n. ~ a range of negative attitudes (e.g., fear, anger, intolerance, invisibility, resentment, erasure, or discomfort) that one may have or express towards bisexual individuals. Biphobia can come from and be seen within the LGBTQ community as well as straight society.

Bisexual

Gay

adj.~ a person who is emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to people of their gender and another gender.

This attraction does not have to be equally split or indicate a level of interest that is the same across the genders or sexes an individual may be attracted to.

adj. ~ 1 individuals who are primarily emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to members of the same sex and/or gender. More commonly used when referring to men who are attracted to other men, but can be applied to women as well. 2 An umbrella

term used to refer to the queer community as a whole, or as an individual identity label for anyone who does not identify as heterosexual.

Gender Binary

Gender Expression

Gender Fluid

n. ~ the idea that there are only two genders and that every person is one of those two.

n. ~ the external display of one’s gender, through a combination of dress, demeanor, social behavior, and other factors, generally made sense of on scales of masculinity and femininity.

adj. ~ gender fluid is a gender identity best described as a dynamic mix of boy and girl. A person who is gender fluid may always feel like a mix of the two traditional genders, but may feel more man some days, and more woman other days.

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Gender Identity

LGBTQ

Romantic attraction

n. ~ the internal perception of one’s gender, and how they label themselves, based on how much they align or don’t align with what they understand their options for gender to be.

abbr. ~ shorthand or umbrella terms. . . for all folks who have a non-normative (or queer) gender or sexuality, there are many different initialisms people prefer.

LGBTQ is Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer and/or Questioning (sometimes people add a “+” at the end in an effort to be more inclusive)

n. ~ a capacity that evokes the want to engage in romantic intimate behavior (e.g., dating, relationships, marriage), experienced in varying degrees (from little-to-none, to intense).

Sexual orientation

Transgender

n. ~ the type of sexual, romantic, emotional/spiritual attraction one has the capacity to feel for some others, generally labeled based on the gender relationship between the person and the people they are attracted to.

adj. ~ A person who lives as a member of a gender other than that assigned at birth based on anatomical sex.

Sexual attraction n. ~ a capacity that evokes the want to engage in physical intimate behavior (e.g., kissing, touching, intercourse), experienced in varying degrees (from little-to-none, to intense).

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Photos by Lauren Brown top left: Stay Awhile above: In Charge, Running Things top right: You Should Live Here bottom right: Shack Spring 2017

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Look at My Insta Matthew Bonne

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e have grown up with the fundamental belief that if something is not fact, it is fiction. This past year has asked us to consider another acceptance of this knowledge. More specifically, we have been asked to consider what is fiction, what is fact and what is “alternative fact.”

This got me thinking, “How and why does Kellyanne Conway have any sort of power? She’s a liar.” I accept the power of celebrities and that they often lie. Everyone I know manufactures their visible existence. I do the same. Are we all liars – only accepting reality as it pertains to us? While we all have balked at the amusing trajectory of Kellyanne Conway’s new and exhilarating media career, many

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have decidedly disregarded their existence that is filled with “alternative facts.”

In the age of the internet, we are able to construct ourselves as whoever we want to be. The ability to interact with and virtually influence anyone is vastly evolving. Gone are the days when a great first impression and principled sincerity were all that was needed to earn the job, win the prize, or “get his number” - welcome to 2017. Do we introduce ourselves by name or exchange Instagram handles? Should we talk about our goals in life or should you remember my interests from my Tinder profile?

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For most young people it is a challenge to discover and accept who they are. When societal pressures surrounding status and power are added, many youths get lost in the “alternative facts” of life that they display on social media. The images, identifications and associations that many young people assign themselves are completely malleable. In a technological world that advanced from grayscale the relationship between online pres-

We have been asked to consider what is fiction, what is fact and what is “alternative fact.”

In the age of the internet, we are able to construct ourselves as whoever we want to be.

ence and actual existence is not at all black and white. Today’s youth have access to an unprecedented spectrum of possibilities and each opportunity pliant enough to fit the exact needs of the social media user. The manufactured image is who they see themselves to be.

Based off of what one values, a desired characterization is developed and it is easy to reproduce that image in a representative manner through photographs, language, and content. For example, a person that finds value in social media star Kylie Jenner may edit their photographs like hers or align their values, interests, and beliefs with what she represents.

Self worth is derived from aligning with our role model of choice. Whether this

feeling comes from a sense of popularity or trendiness, we recreate images in the hope of others sharing our values and reinforcing positive feelings. Considering this, it would make sense that many social media users present themselves a certain way expecting to reap comparable benefits of the influencers they emulate.

The problem with this contrived self-concept is in its veracity – or lack there of. In many public spaces, social media users tend to

By exhibiting ourselves through a filter of what is popular, agreeable, and without flaw; we subjugate our true selves to each other.

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present themselves in the most acceptable and attractive views.

This created social media persona exists only in the “alternative” internet world. Many of us do not personally know the personalities we idolize on social media. In order to believe that we “know” these people, we must first trust in an accurate portrayal of who they are. This would be incredibly naïve because we know the length to which public figures go to manage and preserve their images and reputations. Although it is a current buzzword, the “filter” has had its place in popular culture for years through make up, photo-editing, and publicists. By exhibiting ourselves through a filter of what is popular, agreeable, and without flaw; we subjugate our true selves to each other. Both seeking approval from a liar and presenting ourselves as a conceived perception of how we should fit into society. This is to produce a fantastical falsehood of reality. In the words of Kellyanne Conway, this ideal representation is simply an “alternative fact,” which by definition is merely fictional.

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Artwork by Daniel Ferry above: HI-RIDER top right: BOYS bottom right: GARY Spring 2017

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Awarded Best of Article

I Am Not Your Negro: A Challenge for My Stagnant Ideals Hayden Mears

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s a white male who spent his formative years in Oklahoma and Georgia, I should have seen the disparity between the way I lived and the way my black neighbors lived.

Instead, I learned of my privilege through admonishment. My parents would lovingly nudge me toward the idea that all people were created equally, but that’s usually where the conversation stopped.

My friends would often call me out on anything I’d say that they construed as racist, but we would talk about it no further.

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Through writer James Baldwin and Haitian director Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am Not Your Negro, I was gifted with the opportunity to revisit that conversation. I discovered what it means to be white in today’s (and yesterday’s) world even as I discovered the denial and ignorance that spreads like an epidemic among white Americans. Even more importantly, I recognized that while I have no control over the pigmentation of my skin or the class into which I was born, I must still take responsibili-

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ty for my privilege. Ownership serves as the impetus for societal growth, especially if it occurs throughout the communities and demographics that have traditionally blanched at the idea of confronting their privilege. Ultimately, that’s what I Am Not Your Negro asks of someone like me.

The son of an oil pipeline magnate and a respected speech pathologist, I stood as a bridge between middle class living and unimaginable affluence. December meant extravagant gifts and

I used to live around the corner from football Even more importantly, I recognized that while I legend Herschel Walker’s sister and nephew. have no control over the pigmentation of my skin His nephew was young, younger than me and or the class into which I was born, I must still take around my brother’s age. I didn’t think anyresponsibility for my privilege. thing of him being black.

However, looking back, I can’t even begin to fathexpensive vacations to faraway tirelessly. Going into the film, I om what he was forced to endure. places. August meant accep- knew a fair amount about both His situation must have been even tance into the finest schools in men. Coming out of the film, I more confounding and bizarre to Oklahoma. November meant realized that I’d known nothing him than mine seems to me now. birthdays I’ll remember until the about their spirit and a great deal His mother kept him away from day I die. about what they’d done. That’s us for the most part, occasionally the thing about privilege: racial allowing him to come play ball or Following my parents’ sepa- discrimination is abstract unless help us catch the neighbor’s trouration, I lived with my mother it has happened to you. blesome dog. However, aside from full-time and rarely saw my fathese infrequent play dates, our ther. My mother and stepfather In many of his speeches, Baldwin worlds sat around the corner and brought up my brothers and me maintained that fear and denial across the universe from each other in a fairly large house nestled have romanced many Ameri- all at once. against a dense forest in south- cans, instilling in them a sense ern Georgia, where we remained of complacency that manifests By moving from Georgia back to oblivious and happy. We moved as stagnant ideals and rampant Oklahoma, we traded one racback to Oklahoma in the fall of ignorance. I was born into this ist hell for another. I stood and 2006, which also marked the complacency. My black friends watched as my preppy peers beginning of a period in which I and neighbors were not granted threw around slurs that sounded grew closer to my father. It was the luxury of being complacent foreign but left me with a gnawa restrictive existence with a ve- or even comfortable. They were ing sense that wrong had been neer of pleasantness that kept constantly under fire while I en- done. I experienced similar sitme from true acceptance. That joyed the relative safety given uations during my school years changed when I saw I Am Not to me by my privilege and my spent in Savannah. In my heart, Your Negro. parents. They couldn’t trust. They I knew what was happening and couldn’t live. They were prison- why it was wrong. I just didn’t reAdapted from Baldwin’s unfin- ers in a culture, a society that alize the prominent role privilege ished manuscript Remember This belongs to them just as much as House, this powerful, passionate it belongs to me. The trials I face plea for accountability operates daily pale when compared with from a love for all people even the aggressions directed at peoas it addresses the shortcomings ple of color. of white America. Baldwin was a friend and ally of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, both of whose lives were claimed by the conflict they fought against so

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played in the situation. If I had spoken out, I would have been ostracized and condemned. Society was my owner, and fear was my muzzle.

A decade later, I found myself staring at a wall-spanning screen that threw images at me for my consumption and subsequent digestion. I almost leaped out of my seat and fled the auditorium when I was shown, in quick succession, photographs of the corpses of Dr. King and Malcolm X. As these horrible images flashed across the screen, Baldwin’s words seared themselves into my brain with the intensity of an iron brand. I left the theater dizzy, confused, and hungry. Hungry for more, and yet hungry for less. The experience was deeply uncomfortable and unpleasant for me; I couldn’t face the reality of it all.

I Am Not Your Negro represents a reckoning for me. Upon watching the film, I realized that I could do what I pleased with his message with very few repercussions. If I had thought that I could return to the perceived safety of my privilege, I would have been correct. If I had deemed his pointed remarks to be “too much,” I could have forgotten about the film altogether and been none the wiser for it. I could have returned to “paradise” and continued to stand and watch as my friends jeered and joked about people of color. Instead, I regard his overarching message as one with unimaginable potential, potential that excites and terrifies me. I think of the black family

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our worlds sat around the coner that lived around the corner from and across the universe from each me when I was eleven and how other all at once. much richer, how much safer their lives could be. I think of the people of color liv- with every breath he takes, I can ing in poverty because we have only warn against the perpetuaswept them under the rug and tion of a very prevalent problem refused to sanction their assimi- and hope that Peck’s distressing, lation into our “ideal” society. daring documentary instills the type of change in them that it Baldwin died in 1987, but his did in me. teachings still resonate with those who yearn for change.

Meanwhile, his prophecy lives on in the crucible many white people refuse to acknowledge; his predictions were predicated on the zeitgeist of his time and on his presumptions that our future would promise the same conflict if we remained in self-imposed emotional exile. It turned out to be his most frightening and most founded prediction.

People of privilege seem to think that luxury is their birthright, that they’re entitled to safety and security because of how, where, and into what family they were born. As someone who lives and enjoys privilege

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Photos by Todd Smith top left: Forum above: Smoking on the Canal top right: 3's a Crowd bottom right: Nosey Rosey Spring 2017

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Fake News Alisha Nikodemus

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uring the 2016 presidential election, the small rural village of Veles, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became one of the largest creators and distributors of fake news. Unbelievable headlines like ‘Pope Francis Forbids Catholics from Voting for Hillary’ and ‘Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave

America’ originated from Veles.

Many of the writers of the highly sensationalized and misleading articles are young adults, not much older than twenty years of age.

According to journalist Abby Ohlheiser from The Washington Post, the young adult fake news writers living in the Macedonian Republic are able to make up to $5,000 a month, a lot of money for a town where the average income is $370 per month.

The young writers in Macedonia are drawn in particular to the fake news industry because it allows them to have a stable financial standing.

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In Veles, money is tight, resources are limited, and good paying jobs are extremely hard to find.

The young writers in Macedonia are drawn in particular to the fake news industry because it allows them to

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have a stable financial standing.

But reports show that these writers also capitalize on the gullibility of the American people.

In an interview with BBC, a nineteen-year-old university student and fake news author using the pseudonym Goran, tried to justify his actions in front of BBC journalist Emma Jane Kirby.

When asked why he produces fake news, Goran answered: “The Americans loved our stories and we make money from them […] who cares if they are true or false?”

Americans have to be aware of whether news stories are real or fake. Because even though the First Amendment protects our freedom of speech, it does not protect us from being fed falsified news.

Even though the First Amendment protects our freedom of speech, it does not protect us from being fed falsified news.

Open your eyes and become awarE of the danger of fake news!

Be cautious; if an article sounds too outrageous, sensational, or absurd, be sure to look up the source and the author.

Finally, stop using social media sites to find credible news.

If you do not want to fall prey to the Macedonian teens and their faulty stories, look out for legitimate sounding but obscure websites such as Denver Guardian, National Report, The Boston Tribune, or ABCnews. com.co. Even though these sites might look and sound very professional, the stories they produce and distribute are not. Fake news articles such as ‘Pope Francis Forbids Catholics from Voting for Hillary’ or ‘Trump Offering Free One-Way Tickets to Africa & Mexico for Those Who Wanna Leave America’ are solely written to attract attention and get as many clicks as possible. Do not mistake them to be true, even when the website looks legitimate.

Social media sites such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all post and share news stories; however, the sources are not proven to be trustworthy or accurate. Attain your news directly from a credible website such as The New York Times to be sure that the articles you read are written by professional journalists and not by fifteen-year-old

Instead, turn to trustworthy websites for your news.

Get your news stories from credible websites, written by professional journalists. According to the Pew Research Center for Journalism and Media, the most trustworthy news sites are The Economist, BBC, NPR, PBS, and The Wall Street Journal, followed by The New York Times and The Washington Post. These news websites produce credible, reliable, and accurate content.

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Macedonian teens.

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A Review of

Pew Research Center Kaitlin Quinn and Star Editors

The internet is a mystical place. What was once hard to access and use is now accessible from the palm of our hands. Throughout the years the internet has become one of the most used outlets for people to get their news and entertainment.

Though there are millions of websites to choose from, it seems there are non-negotiable criteria in order for a website to be considered apt, or suitable. The website must have quality and informed content; it must be safe and secure, and it must have a pleasing aesthetic.

Pew Research Center (pewresearch. org) is a strong contender for a good media-website because it has real, quality information, it is well organized, and it is aesthetically pleasing.

“Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

The Pew Research Center website is known for its unbiased information, as well as its quality and quantity of information. They focus a large part on politics, but you can find data and information on topics ranging from technology to the world as a whole. You are able to see their exact mission and attitude

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towards how they want to present news for the public. The site states, “Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. We do not take policy positions.”

It is important, especially in today’s political climate, to be able to trust a website that is solely driven by facts, not personal views or opinion. This is the best way to become informed about the world today because your own opinion will be much more unbiased and valid.

The Pew Research Center notes where they gather their information and research as well as who funds them, and continuously mentions their primary goal of providing nonpartisan information for users. The information on pewresearch.org should get a seal of quality to place on their homepage.

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The downfall of many websites is their lack of organization.

However pewresearch.org is not one of those. Oftentimes when a website is chock full of so much information it is hard to stay organized, but Pew Research has done it. It is easy to navigate and find topics on exactly what you are looking for, as they have everything sorted into categories.

U.S. Politics, Media & News, Social Trends, Religion, Internet & Tech, Science, Hispanics, and Global are the main tabs located at the very top of their home page. Underneath each topic, after you’ve clicked it, there are more ways to get specific types of data and research on that topic. To make it even more easy to navigate, you don’t lose your options at the top if you click on another; you can always change your topic easily without having to search or back track. The Pew website has a done a great job at organizing its information.

Research Center doesn’t focus so much on pleasing us with pretty colors or fonts. They maintain their integrity by keeping it simple, which in this case is best.

They don’t stray away from color though. Each topic tab changes color when you click on it. For example, U.S Politics is yellow and Global is green. This ties back into organization, as color coding is a useful tool in staying on track. This website makes a great effort at staying simple so that our eyes are not strained or distracted, but also keeps it interesting by not staying black and white only.

and the overall display and visual of it. The Pew Research Center website, pewresearch.org, passes the test with all of these factors, and guarantees a good media-website experience.

Media is the key to being an informed member of society, and where one accesses his or her media is important. The aspects of a strong website are quality and accuracy of information, organization of that information,

Last but not least, a good website will have an aesthetic appeal. While this typically means it is beautiful, it goes a little further when it comes to a website. A visually pleasing website will make its overall quality that much better. No matter how good the information, if it’s hard to read or look at it won’t be worth accessing that website. The Pew

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Spring 2017

Elisa Turner and Star Editors

Once considered a fringe website, Breitbart News cata- cluding The Washington Post, The New York pulted into the American consciousness with the elec- Times, and The Wall Street Journal, offer a setion of Donald Trump. Steve Bannon, a vocal “economic cure connection to aid in browsing privacy, nationalist” who was previously executive chair of Breit- increasing the quality of the website. While bart, is now President Trump’s chief strategist. Before go- website security is not an issue for some ing too far with this essay, I will first admit to my browsers, it is best to try to avoid websites own liberal bias: I have had no interest in which do not offer a secure connecA website accessing a website which is described, tion whenever possible. at best, as “a platform for the alt-right” which is described, at and, at worst, as “a neo-Nazi lifestyle The design of breitbart.com blog” . However, Breitbart has the makes the website distractbest, as “a platform for the favor of a president who is vocaling and difficult to navigate. ly critical of the media and is not The website (on my desktop) alt-right” and, at worst, as “a possible to ignore. To challenge my does not immediately load a views and biases, I decided to visit navigation bar, but instead neo-Nazi lifestyle blog” breitbart.com in an attempt to view loads a banner to the Breitbathe site through an objective lens. I rt online store. The user must found a website which was factually scroll up to navigate the site bequestionable, difficult to navigate and yond the headlines, and while I aspoorly designed. I would not recommend sume this may not be a problem when Breitbart News to anyone looking for a window into viewing the site on a larger desktop, the difconservative reality, unless their view of conservatism is ficulty searching the site for any specific conone uninterested in facts. tent diminishes its quality. A news site faces a particular challenge in design as it hosts a The first issue with Breitbart’s website is that it does not great deal of categorically different content, have a secure connection, making the user’s electron- but creating search categories other than ic device more vulnerable to viruses and rendering the “Big Government” or “Big Journalism” could, user’s identity easy to trackers. Many news outlets, in- perhaps, aid this site’s navigability. However,

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I am not the target audience for this website and must consider that those reading breitbart.com regularly already know what they are looking for and do not have to speculate on what “Big Journalism” might mean while navigating the website.

In addition to being difficult to navigate and poorly designed, Breitbart appears to be factually questionable. In one article entitled “Transgender Activist: Preference for Kids’ Single-Sex Shower Rooms is ‘Prejudiced,’” the author (Dr. Susan Berry) alleges that former President Barack Obama “…has twice admitted that his unpopular transgender policy helped to defeat Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton” in reference to President Obama’s policy allowing transgender teens and children to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity rather than biological sex. In reality, President Obama has made no such statement regarding Hillary Clinton’s loss of the 2016 election. Berry is referencing a separate Breitbart article written by Neil Munro, which also claims Obama ‘admitted’ a connection between his policy on transgender issues and the election of Donald Trump.

In the quotation provided by author Neil Munro, Obama addresses the issue of rural voters and perceptions of Washington, but (again) does not imply his policies on gender-identity had a direct effect on the election of President Trump. The quotation referenced is excerpted from a December 19, 2016 interview with Steve Inskeep on NPR: “They [rural voters] may know less about the work that my administration did on trying to promote collective bargaining or

overtime rules. But they know a lot about the controversy around transgender bathrooms because it’s more controversial, it attracts more attention.”

In reviewing the transcript of the interview referenced by Munro, President Obama focuses most directly on the effects the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s emails had on her campaign, but does not actually place the 2016 election results on any one issue, saying, “And as I said before, the issue now is not relitigating the election. The issue now is for us to learn lessons so that we don’t have an ongoing situation in every election cycle where you have substantial foreign influence in our campaigns.”

It is misleading and inaccurate of Munro and Berry to assert a claim which is demonstrably untrue. This particular interview is not the only viewpoint or statistic blatantly misrepresented by Breitbart.

I followed the links provided to multiple articles on transgender rights in the United States, and found one article which reads, “A recent poll shows that this policy has the support of fewer than one-quarter of Americans.

Nationwide, fewer than 1 in 2400 adults have changed their names from one sex to the other sex, according to a study of the 2010 census.” One can find multiple issues with this statement. The author (again, Neil Munro) does not name the source of the poll referenced. For all the reader knows, this is an entirely fabricated statistic. Munro additionally does not link to a source or even name

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one for his 1 in 2400 assertion.

When I searched for the statistic, I found the first 4 results were from breitbart.com. A 2015 New York Times article entitled “The Search for the Best Estimate of the Transgender Population” references attempts to estimate the transgender population of America and appears to cite the study Munro is referencing, a 2015 paper published by the Census Bureau, which analyzes “…people who most likely were transgender, based on the fact that they had changed their name or sex with the Social Security Administration.” However, the census. gov document does not contain any statistics referencing 1 in 2400, negating Munro’s claims.

As Munro does not specify where he found this statistic, the reader is once again left uncertain as to the veracity of his assertions.

These are just two of multitudinous errors presented as facts by Breitbart News.

As I asserted earlier, breitbart. com is neither secure nor reliable. I am concerned by the favor it has curried within the White House based on my own fact checking abilities.

Spring 2017

A Review of

NPR

Erin Lucey and Star Editors

Within the last year, deciphering between comprehensive audio and text stories, it is updated fre“fake” and “real” news has become a chal- quently, and it provides an unbiased perspective on world, lenge. It is not uncommon for fabricated national, and local issues. stories to make their way into mainstream media. They are often accepted as true Consuming comprehensive stories and articles is a key comwithin large groups of people. In fact, web- ponent to stay informed. NPR’s web page offers well roundsites that appear credible may not have ed, accessible, and digestible articles true or accurate information. Even reliand audio stories in every field of Some websites are interest. The reader has access to able websites and news outlets struggle to come to a consensus on what multiple stories, articles, and recredible but biased, events actually happen and why ports on the same topic, offerthey occur. This is due to the vast ing varying perspectives and making it difficult for the amount of information and ininformation. The majority consistencies in reports. of reports conducted by reader to understand the full NPR staff are unbiased In a digital world, choosing and purely factual. NPR picture of an event and develop even interviews parties which media sources to receive reliable news from can be daunton opposite sides of difa personal opinion on the ferent issues to provide their ing. Some websites are credible but biased, making it difficult for readers with informed opinmatter. the reader to understand the full picions, alternate information, and ture of an event and develop a persona solid idea of popular thoughts al opinion on the matter. Also, some are surrounding any given issue. not updated frequently enough to keep up with the constant shifts in the current political Another component of a comprehensive website is that climate. In this era, it is vital to have several they have sources and valuable credentials. The article go-to sites to gather information that is re- content on NPR’s webpage published by The Atlantic, liable and accurate. National Public Radio’s Washington Post, or the U.S. Defense Department provides (NPR) website (http://www.npr.org/) is a linked citations to easily access more related information. valuable media source because it includes The fact that NPR is particular about where their informa-

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tion comes from speaks to their high standards for creating comprehensive articles, stories, and reports for their audience.

On the homepage of NPR’s website, top news stories are displayed in addition to their twenty-four hour audio stream.

Having access to updated, edited, and breaking news stories is a vital component when searching for a valuable resource. NPR’s website is updated frequently, and thanks to their easy access twenty-four hour audio stream, the consumer is able to tune in at any point during the day. NPR also has a section on their homepage dedicated to the latest stories published on their website and/or audio stream. A new article or audio story is uploaded to NPR’s web page at least once an hour, making the world and all its happenings easily accessible to the reader.

It’s highly important to have access to the newest material possible in order to be a well-informed media consumer. In this fast-paced world, information available to the consumer is always changing and developing.

Readers seek out the most upto-date information available because it is vital to staying well informed. NPR’s frequently updated web page makes it simple and straight-forward for their readers to stay up-to-date on all issues.

the consumer to develop a balanced perspective or to gain an understanding of the opposition’s reasoning or perspective.

It’s highly important to have access to the newest material possible in order to be a well-informed media consumer.

NPR’s website provides an unbiased perspective on world, national, and local issues with the goal of creating well informed consumers. NPR enables their readers to form their own opinions and beliefs on any given topic by providing all the information readers require to stay informed and well-educated.

NPR hosts republican, democrat, and third party guests to speak on various issues and explain processes that the public may not be informed about, but ought to know more about. NPR shares world segments published by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This is extremely valuable to American listeners/readers because it helps them learn about American politics and news from an outside perspective. Digesting unbiased information is important to readers. It helps keep readers informed and able to justify their opinions on any matter because they have been given all the tools and resources required to develop an intelligent perspective.

Reading and listening to unbiased, frequently updated, and comprehensive media output is vital in this day and age. So many sources fail to keep up with current events as well as National Public Radio’s website does. NPR is grounded in facts and transparency. They reach all types of consumers and help them formulate their own rounded opinions. Reading and listening to comprehensive, unbiased, and up-to-date stories is important to readers because it allows them to be intelligent and informed.

NPR rises above the fray, proving to the media world and the public that intelligent and valuable media sites still exist in this world of chaos and misinformation.

Many media sites have a bias on different topics. When sites choose to lean one way or another on crucial or complex issues, it nudges the reader to sway with them. This makes it difficult for

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Spring 2017

Photos by Stevie Selby above: Artist Feel top right: Sight Seeing bottom right: Ambiguity Spring 2017

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Tips for a Productive Year at CCD Angela Martinez #1 Know yourself and what you’re able to handle: Don’t try and take on too much.

Having too many classes can be overwhelming and it might discourage you, or may even cause you to give up. It’s better to take it slow and do a good job instead of barely getting through the semester all stressed out. It may take a little longer, but it won’t be as hard to handle the workload. #2 Establish a daily routine: This will help you stay organized. If you’re like me and have hectic mornings, having a daily routine will help alleviate some of your stress.

Knowing what is coming next will give you time to handle the unexpected things that happen in life. #3 Get plenty of rest: You don’t want to be one of those students catching zzz’s in class.

We are in class to learn, and how are we supposed to pay attention to the teacher when someone is snoring? #4 Eat Breakfast: Without breakfast in our system we are like a car without gas, running on fumes. An Australian survey of over 500 teachers revealed that students lose 2 hours of learning a day if they skip breakfast because of lack of concentration and behavior problems related to hunger.

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#5 Arrive at school early: Finding a place to park can be stressful and expensive. Take advantage of the RTD College Pass that is offered to all CCD students. Also, AHEC has parking passes and permits that can be purchased at a discounted rate. For more information, call 303-556-2003 or go to the first floor of the 7th Street Parking Garage. #6 Be prepared for class: Bring something to take notes with like a laptop, or if you're old school like me, a pen and paper will do just fine. Taking notes is important and is also very helpful. #7 Get involved in extracurricular activities: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students who participate in extracurricular activities have a 15 percent higher classroom attendance rate than students who are not involved. Also, extracurricular activities instill a sense of community, responsibility and involvement. There are many different ways to participate in school activities. We have the Women Intentional about Success and Excellence (W.I.S.E) program and the Urban Male Initiative (U.M.I). CCD also offers the Student Government Association and honor societies such as the National Society for Leadership and Success and the Phi Theta Kappa that will keep you connected throughout the school-year. Reach out to the Office of Student Life for more information. #8 Ask for help: Utilize the Academic Support Center. Go there for help on assignments, proofreading or to cite something. It is beneficial to go to tutors before turning anything in. That’s what they’re there for. The Tutoring Center is located on the 4th floor of the Confluence building. #9 Get connected: It is always a good idea to get someone’s number from class just in case you miss a day or have questions, you can call and ask them. It is also nice to have someone from the same class to study with. Also, get to know your teachers. They are here to help us succeed on this educational journey. There are so many wonderful and inspiring professors here at CCD, and they are people just like you and me. If you are having trouble in class, don’t be afraid to ask for help. #10 The most important thing to remember is to Keep Going Forward: College can be overwhelming, and at times we just want to throw in the towel, but as long as we do our best and try our hardest and never give up, we will accomplish our goals, whatever they may be.

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Photos by Jonathan Hidalgo top left: Hills above: Hill Side top right: Silhouette bottom right: Contrast Spring 2017

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Photos by Lauren Brown top left: KyoMetro above: Where To top right: Swift bottom right: Scene 1 Spring 2017

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Spring 2017

That Girl Lauren Brooking

I

’m “that girl". That girl who cries when she gets a B instead of an A. That girl who needs to be the best. That girl who was in band, theater, and student government. That girl who always had a full plate.

After high school, I took some time off. I didn’t want to, but life happened and my plate was empty. I floated around and didn’t know who I was or where I was going. When I finally settled in Denver and restarted my college education at CCD, I fell back into my habit of being “that girl". It happened slowly at first; I worked full time and took two classes. Then I took three classes.

Then I took 18 credits and started working full time. That’s when I got inducted into Phi Theta Kap-

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pa (PTK) – you know, the club for “those kids". The over-achievers.

I started small. My first meeting was a speaker event. Then I got an email about an officer meeting. It fit my schedule, so I decided to go, even though I wasn’t an officer. That’s when I learned about the Honors in Action project.

We put together a beautiful and effective awareness project. If you’ve spent any time in the Cherry Creek building lately, you’ve probably seen us at our table handing out flyers. That was the work of five PTK members who just wanted to be involved.

After the project was over, I It turned out that the chapter became the vice president of needed a lot of help with the the chapter. Don’t ask me how project. I dove right in. A research that happened – like I said, I’m project where we actually get to take ac“I had to come up with a plan tion? Sign me up. Five of us worked tirelessly that satisfied my thirst for life for two months to create a well-researched with my need to survive.” essay about the epidemic of homeless students on campus.

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Upon beginning the application and interview process for a volunteer position,I realized that my plate might be a little too full. There simply were not enough hours in a day to work, go to class, do homework, have a social life, volunteer at the museum, and sleep. Especially since I don’t have car, something had to give.

“that girl”. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that at this point I was working full time (that’s 40 hours per week), taking 18 credit hours, and was now VP of an entire chapter of an honor society. You’d think this would be enough.

Nope.

I decided that I wanted to volunteer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I’m a Chemical Engineering major, but I work at a grocery store. I wanted to do something outside of school that I was passionate about. I mean, isn’t that the reason why we’re all in school in the first place? We are following a passion.

Upon beginning the application and interview process for a volunteer position, I realized that my plate might be a little too full.

There simply were not enough hours in a day to work, go to class, do homework, have a social life, volunteer at the museum, and sleep. Especially since I don’t have a car, something had to give.

I was forced to examine my life. I had to choose between passion and profit. I had to come up with a plan that satisfied my thirst for life with my need to survive.

I couldn’t give up any classes. I couldn’t give up PTK, the organization I had come to love. I needed to work to pay rent and bills, and to eat. I wanted to spend time at the museum – I wanted it bad. Bad enough that I decided

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to follow my passion. I dropped my hours at work from 40 to 29 per week.

Now I love science, I love school, and I love the path that I’m on. I learned that I love these things so much that I’m willing to give up my comfortable lifestyle to be a typical broke college kid, just so I can spend a few hours a week at a science museum.

And what if it doesn’t work out?

What if I can’t pay my rent? Or get overwhelmed with classes?

Well, I know how to prioritize now; I can do it again. Life is fluid. Follow your passion; the rest will work itself out.

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Road Tripping Across Lake Pontchartrain, LA by Alena Dubavaya Untitled by Kelsey Morrison

above: right:

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Angular by Lauren Brown Alienation by Cassie Alfaro bottom right: Pulp by Paola Scharberg above:

top right:

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Spring 2017

Education for Education’s Sake Kelly Kracke

N

ot so endearingly, my neighborhood was called “Little Mexico.” There is a line of apartment buildings that run toward the mountains on two parallel blocks. These apartments house, as the name suggests, largely Mexican folks, but I suspect there were Spanish speakers of all flavors, with one exception --my family.

Everyone was very friendly, but I was still too young to appreciate the smells coming out of their kitchens. I lived in this homely neighborhood for roughly three years. My family and I moved to our second apartment within the same neighborhood in fall of 2006. This apartment represented a whole new dimension; a place where my friends and I could divorce ourselves from the boundaries of time and observe everyone else wasting away in the “real world.”

This was no ordinary time: this was a time when all my friends were on a no-knock basis at my place, a time when we were apparently the worst thing Littleton police had to worry about, a time when self-discovery went far deeper than what I wanted to

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do with my life and what college would get me there.

I was even too cool for school.

I unofficially dropped out of Heritage High School halfway through sophomore year. It was of no matter though. Weekly, hour-long trips to Fort Collins on a dark empty highway blaring the Godly Mix served me far more than Spanish II. Talks that weighed the world, obsessively crawling into the night, seemed far more vital than what I’d learn in Biology or English. I didn’t just think I knew everything when I was sixteen, I felt like I did.

One day after a particularly eye opening night, my friend Josh and I were having a passionate conversation about the future and what lay in store for all of us.

My apartment sat in the southwest corner of the third floor.

There are stairwells on the east and west ends of the building.

On the third floor, there’s a landing at the top of the stairs at each end of the hallway. Windows looking out onto Littleton’s scant attempt at a skate park went from the landing floor to the ceiling.

Because my mom’s apartment was homebase for everyone, the

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hallway and landing became our overflow space. It was where we went when we needed the world to slow down a bit; one thing my bedroom never did.

Anyways, Josh and I were hashing out some recent enlightenments I had experienced. Completely matter of fact, I told Josh I couldn’t in good faith engage with our current economic paradigm. I told Josh that all tangible things wrong with the world were because of capitalism (which isn’t completely untrue).

So, as if I were a freaking martyr, I said I would renounce and sacrifice whatever life I could have led on the leash of capitalism.

What’s fascinating is Josh rebutted my argument as if the rest of my life actually hung in the balance. We took that conversation so seriously, as we did every conversation. That’s the irony: from the outside looking in, it could certainly look like we were all just wasting our lives, but we cared for nothing more than life.

That was ten years ago.

Today, I will argue the merits of capitalism with any stranger at the 24-hour cafe I frequent. To be sure, I buttress all such argu-

ments with glaring caveats like: capitalism, left to its own devices, will eventually be the death of the human race, or at least life as we know it. But beyond that inconsequential detail, capitalism is one of the most beautiful things I know about.

Ten years ago, I thought college was for the birds. I used to say I was going to be the white Mahatma Gandhi, despite the fact that he had a law degree. I felt as if college would necessarily suck me into this cookie cutter life that I was so vehemently against.

It was nearly three years ago I decided to dip my toes in the water and apply to CCD. In two and a half months from now, I’ll earn an Associate’s Degree. But substantially more significant than that

The truth is there are countless systemic contingencies constantly reacting with one another all over the world. Our current paradigm is incredibly bigger than two-hundred, or even thousands of political elites.

In the last three years, I’ve learned a great deal about a few things that make this world tick. Yes, I revised plenty of beliefs and values, and lean considerably more right than when I began school.

But by and large, I’ve reached most of the same conclusions I held ten years ago as a conspiracy theorist.

All the world’s people were running in a race they didn’t know they were in: the first ones to reach industrialization won the foreseeable future. And this is

I’ve learned that puppet masters aren’t the ones pulling the strings; it’s history, it’s flawless theories being practiced by flawed humans, it’s fear and loneliness. degree is the way I’m now able to approach the world.

Admittedly, I propagated lots of conspiracy theories when I was sixteen. One of my favorites was the Bilderberg Group, which holds an annual conference of European and North American elites, where they allegedly plan out their sinister arrangements for the world. Honestly, I wish it were so simple. If only 2 x 106 percent of people were absolutely at fault for all of this. That would be a far easier fix than what reality actually needs.

the awareness education has given to me: it’s not us against the elites, it’s us against history.

While capitalism and interconnected worldwide free(ish) markets have accomplished amazing things, they’re obviously not working out for some countries.

So we look back at history, and see how we got here.

Don’t settle with pointing the finger at a Rothschild, dive into colonialism and the arbitrary drawing of territory boundaries.

Look into the effects agriculture had on the advent of societies.

Try to comprehend how big of an influence Johannes Kepler, or

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the Prophet Muhammad, or Joseph Stalin had on the course of history. It is these timeless subjects we need to confront before we confront our contemporary oppressors.

Isn’t this why we pursue higher education? To better equip ourselves in the task of changing the world, not laterally, but forward?

I recently had the idea that maybe politics and policy aren’t what I want to do with my life. Which is strange, because they’re all I’ve cared about since the spring of ‘15 (my intro to poli-sci class).

I had the next twenty-five years planned out, a law degree, a government consulting job, getting tapped for the Treasury or State Department, maybe running for senator, who knows. But the last few weeks, I’ve been mulling over masonry. There are a few things that will stop me on the sidewalk like a beautiful brick building, and knowing this structure your hands just built might be part of the historic register someday sounds fulfilling. Even if I deviated this far from what I went to school for (political science), I would still feel good knowing that I realize the impact of the resources I’m using, due to micro and macro-economics.

I will vote confidently now that I know how to research properly.

I’ll pen a poem on lunch breaks because I stepped out of my comfort zone in my Intro to Lit class. Point is, however any of this turns out--the hyper-polarization of politics, the Trump Administration, the Arab-Israeli conflict--I will have been a better person for finally going to college. I can now engage more fully with the world, and with a little less ignorance. And that is how we begin to move forward.

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Photos by Cassie Alfaro above: Viper top right: Florish bottom right: Bilateral Spring 2017

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Art work by Guillermo Andazola above: Karate middle top: Like a box of chocolates top right: Finn the hooman bottom right: Untitled Spring 2017

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Spring 2017

How Much Is the Valet?

by Tate Williams

“How much is the valet?”

The busy woman with a sleek BMW asks, before recklessly spelunking into the crevasse that is her purse.

“Umm.”

I hold an insincere smile on my face. My eyes scan for the tip first, eye contact second, and small talk last. I jingled her keys, and she lovingly smiles at them, then enters the vehicle and adjusts her high-class ass in the luxury seat.

I ask myself the same simple question, scratching my scruffy beard, and looking at her ticket, perplexed.

“Thank you,” she tells her steering wheel.

“Um, it’s complimentary, miss.”

I walk away from the car, leaving her door wide open.

The woman shimmies her head and neck free from the suffocating and cavernous contraption.

“Oh, it’s free?”

No. I said complementary.

She puts her purse back at her side as I hold her car door ajar.

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Thank you for nothing.

So much for complimentary.

In this cold and subterranean concrete realm, valets are never free, there is always a cost. Free means get your stuff then go, lady. Complimentary impliesWe just kept your pretty beamer

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safe for the last six hours on a Saturday night in a major metropolitan American city while you gallivanted about in hundred dollar heels. Where the **** is my tip at, Miss!?!?

The truth is customers owe me nothing, not a cent, not a name, nor mere eye contact. They could run over my toes, scream a pejorative, peel off, and the company would be forced to cover the cost. The customers do owe eighteen dollars to the lords of the parking structure. I am simply a loyal subordinate, donning their aristocratic colors, here to collect . . . Unsupervised.

The fees and all pertinent information stares up from a sign on our valet podium, less than a tongue lick length away from the customers’ kneecaps. Yet the sign often goes undetected.

If customers read the sign, then they would know the valet is complimentary for three hours with a validation. Afterwards, it is an eighteen-dollar charge. We typically afford people with barely expired validations a half hour reprieve from paying -unless those people are our enemies.

Maybe the next encounter with a needy customer will be more fruitful for our wallets. Who knows?

Maybe the next customer and I will establish some semblance of human connection. Ha! Doubtful.

The sophisticated elderly woman approaching with hair the color of clouds on a clear day does little to inspire hope amongst myself or the troops. In fact, her stern and unflinchingly glare behind midnight shades and single word sentences do all but murder morale.

“Good evening, ma'am,” She responds silently by raising an arm and presenting her validation ticket like a sacramental wafer.

“Need your vehicle?”

I continue with the perfunctory pleasantries, gathering her ticket as she remains mute while nodding.

You’re a couple hours too late, lady. That’ll be one Andrew Jackson, Ethel.

My tardy smile arrives.

“I’ll be right back with your car, ma'am.”

Ethel remains unmoved. I hurry to get her new Benz anyway, knowing better than to prejudge any customer at this point in my experienced valet career.

Now comes the tricky part.

Before charging Ethel, we dance along a delicate line. As valets working for a pathetic wage in capitalist America, we operate with an eye on the clock to maximize the dollars in our pockets.

However, asking every customer for the full charge upfront is a fickle endeavor because plenty of individuals are disposed to pay with plastic. This could leave us lowly valets with single dollar bills to throw in the tip pool, or none, when it could have been five, or ten, or twenty.

of cash, cash we will deposit into our locked tip pool box. If we tell her upfront this validation is expired and the charge is eighteen dollars, she may reach for her credit card like any obedient consumer, then make some excuse for not tipping -like she only has big bills or some bullshit. I witness this bourgeoisie attitude nearly every shift.

Navigating around this conundrum requires operating with an impromptu swiftness, especially when dealing with customers like Ethel. She will not be charged if she tips sufficiently or generously, despite her expired validation.

I am back in less than one-hundred and twenty seconds with Cruella Deville’s car, driving deliberately, assertively, and arguably, dangerously. I stare into the big soulless black saucers on Ethel’s face.

So we must handle capitalist cronies like Ethel delicately in order to extract the maximum amount

Ok then, Ethel.

I wearily look away from her and down at the ticket.

Ha! I knew it! This validation is f*****’ bullshit, lady!

I look back passively at unaffected Ethel.

56

Spring 2017

Does this count as eye contact?

Heck no.

I aim the mass of metal at Ethel as I pull into the circular drive, long enough to make her believe, for an instant, I just might hit. Instead, I put the car in park, leaving it running, ignoring the training video I watched for five minutes eighteen months ago.

The dinosaur slowly approaches as I hold the car door open.

“Here is your change, ma’am.”

I flawlessly execute my much practiced, do-gooder worker ruse. I merely offer her change to make the transaction seem routine, not because I want to give her change back. Whatever she gave me, I want it all.

“Here you are, miss.”

I smile, ready to respond with a sincere bon voyage.

“Oh, thank you. Very much appreciated.”

Or demand my pound of flesh.

Ya, thanks for the twenty-two bucks, Ethel!

She hands me two singles.

Is that all you got, granny? Now it’s my turn.

“Actually, ma'am, it is eighteen dollars for the valet.”

Is the valet free? Dude, freedom isn’t free. Let me rephrase that original sentence for ya’, buddy.

“Umm, the valet is complimentary.”

“No, no, keep it,” She waves me away, desperate to escape this universe she is idling in.

She feigns a superficial smile at my bulging valet pectorals, which are visible from underneath my company issued, douche-bag, valet t-shirt.

The man in a red, white, and blue cap blurts.

Ethel may leave feeling uneasy about paying the free market rate, yet somehow satisfied with herself for believing she tipped four dollars. I, meanwhile, feel like I just turned water into wine.

The elation is fleeting though.

An obnoxious-sized Ford truck is suddenly glaring at me.

“Is the valet free?”

I spew heartlessly, emboldened by her pitiful proposal. Her offended face looks like I just told it to use more makeup.

What? You didn’t know this was a negotiation?!?

“Eighteen dollars?”

I jingled her keys, and she lovingly smiles at them, then enters the vehicle and adjusts her high-class ass in the luxury seat.

She complains while grabbing her purse, irritated.

“Yes ma'am.”

She frowns and gives me a twenty, so I promptly hand back the two singles she already gave me.

Spring 2017

57

58

Spring 2017

Information Age by Cassie Alfaro