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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2019
OPINION
CSUDH BULLETIN
How I learned to Love (well, tolerate) the Bus By ROBERT RIOS News Editor I ride the bus to school every day. I am a 23-year-old grown-ass man three semesters away from earning my bachelor’s degree. And I ride the bus to school every day And before you chime in, let me just say: I’ve heard it all before. “What, you mean the short bus?” “You get a DUI?” “Wow, your life really sucks.” Sure, I’d rather not spend two hours in a mobile orange box riding through nine cities just to get to campus. But my living arrangement—six grown people with two cars between them—makes getting to work to pay rent more important than me getting to school to learn the skills so I’ll never have to ride the bus again. Yes, riding the bus can be overwhelming at first, since the only thing predictable about Los Angeles-area buses is their unpredictability. Buses run late. They break down. And you never quite know who your fellow bus riders will be, or what planet they think they’re on. But there are perks. I’m a whiz at navigating the freeways, well, the ones between El Monte and Carson, at any rate. And every one of those unpredictable things I mentioned? They’ve also forced me to think on my feet, to trust my instincts, to go with the flow, and to keep calm and carry on. But my favorite thing about taking the bus is not having to deal with parking. Not just the aggravation of waiting for a miracle parking spot to open but the expense.
Robert Rios Bulletin
This is what our reporter’s view is four times a day on Metro Bus Route 130.
Instead of paying $155 this semester (hey freshmen: in two years it’s going to be $200!) I can buy a monthly student Metro pass for $22 if I buy it at school. Add the money for the pass and the gas, and I can afford a couple more textbooks that probably aren’t necessary. It’s also forced me to plan. As a fellow bus commuter, Mahed Hassdn, a transfer student studying microbiology, says “You need to be efficient on how to pay for the bus and I feel the school and transportation could be better. Another thing is untimeliness; you have to plan ahead of time to catch the bus. For me, I have class at 12 so I get on at 10.”
Add up the time I spend either waiting or on the bus and it comes to about 16 hours a week. That’s a lot of time, but I’m also able to read, study and observe an endless variety of people. I have seen so many different incidents that I do not know where to begin. I have seen people pass out due to the heat, an old man swing his cane at a baby, and some guy took out a knife because a homeless dude was staring at him. But I’ve also seen people help out those who don’t have the exact fare or give up their seat to someone who obviously needs it more than they do and other little acts of kindness that I would never have seen on the freeway. And I think I’ve learned
something about myself and other students who have to ride the bus: we want an education so badly that we persist to the best of our ability and charge on. And that’s what I’d like to tell anyone who thinks that the time riding the bus and the aggravation works against getting an education. I’d argue that it has taught me many things, like patience, dedication and humility. It’s also taught me that the bus waits for no one. Even at 8 p.m, when the driver slams the door in your face for no reason and drives away leaving you on some random street in Bellflower. Yes, I did have a mental break down that night. Did I mention it was Bellflower?
Will Gina Rodriguez Ever Shut the Hell Up? By ROBIN RENAY BOLTON Co-Opinion Editor Every single time I’ve seen Gina Rodriguez trending on social media, my first thought is, “Oh God. What did she say now?” I let out a literal moan and groan because she’s never trending for anything good, which is unfortunate because I loved her role on the CW’s “Jane the Virgin.” Rodriguez has a history of putting her foot in her mouth and completely missing the point when it comes to conversations about race. For this
reason, I wasn’t completely shocked to find out she was trending because she recorded herself saying the n-word as she sang along to a rap song. There’s been a long-standing debate about who can and cannot use the n-word. If you’re white, don’t think about it. If you’re Black, it’s up to you. Other people of color… that’s debatable. It’s a debate that I’m not going to get into because I’ll be here all day but I will admit I feel some type of way when I hear people who are not Black, use the n-word. Simply put, I think the n-word
was something extremely negative and Black people flipped it into slang within our community and I don’t like when others use it because I don’t think they truly understand the evolution of the n-word. Rodriguez singing the n-word probably would not have been as bad as it was if she didn’t have a history of minimizing black people in Hollywood in the name of equality. When “Black Panther”, the first superhero film to feature a black leading cast was announced, Rodriguez tweeted, “Marvel and DC are killing it
in inclusion and women but where are the Latinos?! Asking for a friend...” Instead of praising “Black Panther” for its historic casting, she chose to make this moment about the perceived lack of Latinos in superhero movies, which isn’t completely true. Anthony Peña, Tessa Thompson, and Zoe Saldana are Latinos who have roles in Marvel movies. Rodriguez is correct about there not being a predominantly Latino-casted superhero movie, but let’s
STAFF EDITORIAL
People Behind the Veterans Monday is Veteran’s day, a day that began as a celebration of the end of World War I but over the years morphed into a national holiday that honors all those men and women, past and present, who have served in the U.S. Military. That includes the approximately 150 CSUDH students who identify as military veterans and utilize services at the CSUDH Veteran’s Resource Center, one of 22 CSU campuses in the system that have such a center. But at CSUDH, the term military-connected is preferred to a veteran, as the center is utilized by not only those veterans but 200 dependents, usually a spouse or child of a veteran. And that is what we’d like to point out in this editorial: that regardless of one’s subjective opinion about war, or an “America-right-or-wrong, love-it-or-leave it” mentality, or if you have serious concerns about American hegemony, the military-industrial complex and the glorification of violence, that on Veteran’s Day it is the people who served and sacrificed--and who serve and sacrifice--and their families who should be the focus, not the “rightness” or “wrongness” of the conflict. The reasons why people volunteer for the military are varied: some may feel a duty to their country; some may be looking for a direction in life; others for adventure or glory or to learn a skill or want structure and discipline. But regardless of why they enlisted, every one of them benefits from the government programs offered to all enlisted men and women. The first such program was the 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, also known as [See Editorial, page 8]
CLARIFICATION Due to an editing error in the Oct. 10 issue of the Bulletin, the impression was given that obscenity is protected expression under the First Amendment. It is not. Obscenity was included in the piece as an example of the kind of expression that is not protected. The Bulletin regrets the error.
[See Rodriguez, page 8]
STAFF BOX EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jordan Darling MANAGING EDITOR Yeymy Garcia NEWS EDITOR Robert Rios SPORTS EDITOR Jeremy Gonzalez
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Jessica Olvera CO-OPINION EDITORS Robin Renay Bolton Destiny Jackson CO-LIFESTYLE EDITORS Monique Davis Jasmine Nguyen
PHOTO EDITOR Nova Blanco-Rico COPY EDITOR Andrew Baumgartner LAYOUT MANAGER Lindsey Ball WEBMASTER William Odom
REPORTERS Matthew Alford Yesenia Flores Elicia Gallardo Lavielle Hibbert Dayzsha Lino Malena Lopez Angelica Mozol
Iracema Navarro Jaclyn Okwumabua Violeta Rocha Destiny Torres AD MANAGER Andrew Baumgarnter ADVISER Joel Beers
The print and digital version of the CSUDH Bulletin is published bi-weekly and is produced by students in Communications 355, News Production workshop. The views and expressions contained on both do not necessarily reflect that of the Communications
Department, or the CSUDH administration. The Bulletin operates within, and is protected by, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Comments, criticism, and story ideas can be emailed to bulletin@ csudh.edu. We reserve the right to edit any letters for length, grammar and punctuation, and libel.