collegian.tccd.edu
Saddle up PG. 4
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 – Volume 34 • Issue 10 Entertainment
Opinion
Opinion
Editorial
READ ALL ABOUT IT Glimpse into the past of journalism. PG. 4
SAFE TRAVELS TCC needs to rework its transportation methods. PG. 5
UNKEPT PROMISES Moderate Democrats are to blame for Joe Biden’s woes. PG. 5
CANCEL THE CULTURE What does cancel culture even mean? PG. 5
Seasoning next batch of chefs
DISTRICT
Faculty share thoughts on short-staffing JUAN SALINAS II campus editor
Alex Hoben/The Collegian
The SE culinary arts students practice making multiple dishes like poached eggs and omelettes. Full story on Pg. 3
DISTRICT
Transgender community opens up TCC students share personal stories of finding their identities JOSE ROMERO editor-in-chief
Allison couldn’t take it anymore. In February of last year, she had a breakdown, refusing to deny her identity, something she had been doing since her days in the Navy. “I was in so deep denial that a couple of my very good shipmates called me out on it,” she said. Now, she’s sure about her identity. She’s a trans woman. Her story is similar to others in the community at TCC, filled with ambiguity and stigma, but at peace with themselves after coming out. Allison — a South Campus student whose last name she wants to keep private — said if she would’ve come out while in the Navy, she would’ve most likely been kicked out. She served from 2007 to 2011, leaving a year after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. DADT was a policy issued in 1993 that allowed military personnel to kick out openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people from service. Once she fully transitioned and accepted it, it was simultaneously shattering and the easiest thing she’s done. “It’s kind of funny,” Allison said. “The shattering of all the illusion and self-lie, yeah, that part sucked. But, everything else was like “Oh, this is the easiest thing in the world.’” She said she was 12 years old the first time she had an idea of her identity. “At that point in time, I was living in backwood, rural Georgia,” she said. “Nobody was going to teach me or give me any kind of representative media to tell me, ‘Hey, this is a normal feeling you’re feeling.’ The closest thing I had was ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ and that is not good.” Allison said she has had pretty good support from her family as she transitions. She separated from her wife before they got bitter with each other. Her wife was mad at her because of how long she kept it to herself. “When I was in denial, particularly toward the end of that time period, I was a horrible person to be around,” she said. “You would not have liked me. I was cruel, callous, dismissive of everyone.” Allison is a parent with two kids, Lilith and John. She said she loves being a mom way
Public higher education institutions have lost 304,600 people since January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite a drop in unemployment to 4.6% in the monthly job report done by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, colleges around the nation are still feeling the effects of the labor shortage. “It’s partly true that the current market environment has led to a decrease in college hiring,” NE economics professor Michael Kaluya said The current market favors the working force, Kaluya said. It causes corporations to raise their wages and provide better benefits to compete with other companies for the best employees, which colleges can’t compete with. Kaluya also said the pandemic was a factor, due to the sudden change to doing almost everything online, from admissions to courses. Before the pandemic — there were 4.7 million higher education jobs, but now, there are only nearly 4.1 million since December 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor. NW career services coordinator Tracy Williams said this is reflective of what is going on outside the college and what is happening in the real world. “There are a lot of jobs available postpandemic, so there is more opportunities to choose from,” Williams said. “There are also life changes that students are experiencing that make them weigh their choices in life including the job they choose.” According to the October federal jobs report, hourly wages have gone up by 5% from last year.
“That is disturbing as hard as I am working for no extra pay — or appreciation.” Anonymous administrative assistant
Alex Hoben/The Collegian
LGBTQ+ student Natalie Collins plays her guitar in the student common area at SE Campus. LGBTQ+ organizations can be found on TCC’s website. more than she did being a dad. “It’s absolutely breathtaking whenever I get to hear ‘mom, mom, mom,’ and John wants me to help him with something, or he wants me to play ‘Minecraft’ with him,” she said. NE student Jane Dubrow has been transitioning for four years. She said that people tend to have a lot of misconceptions about the transgender community. “I feel like if people just took time to understand people’s perspectives, or understand why people make certain decisions, then instead of ignorance, you might actually start to have empathy,” she said. In high school, Dubrow was an athlete. Once she came out as transgender, she had to quit. “I’ve been struggling with mental health for a while, and being trans definitely doesn’t help,” she said. Something LGBTQ+ Pride Club officer Grey Layden recommends that TCC should do for its transgender community is allow them to use their preferred name. Layden said
some students have even reached out to the administration to get this changed but heard no response. “It’s really frustrating because it’s such a simple thing,” they said. Layden said when they’re put in a situation in which someone calls them by their deadname — the name a transgender person went by before they transitioned — it can be an embarrassing, uncomfortable situation. Something that can be done to educate others on the community is safe space training because it focuses on how environments can be made more welcoming for people in the LGBTQ+ community, they said. “Find people in the community that you can talk to,” Layden said. “The best support are people who understand what you’re going through.” NE Campus has the LGBTQ+ Pride Club which provides a safe space for the community. South and TR have the Power of Representation and Inclusion of Student Matters organization. The number for the Trans Lifeline is 877-565-8860.
“Some of it may be that students do not realize the benefits available to them with working on campus, or maybe have not even heard there are great jobs open right here at TCC where they go to school,” Williams said. Community colleges have seen a nearly 11% drop during the pandemic, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Even with the drop in enrollment among community colleges, Williams explained how career services have an abundance of student applications for workstudy jobs around TCC. “It is more like a challenge finding the right person for the job,” she said. Williams explained it has to do with positions requiring specific qualifications and the issue of keeping the student on staff. Kaluya has not been able to find staff for TCC’s high growth student enrollment areas like dual credit and early college high schools. “There is a lot of bureaucratic linings for some of these hirings to take shape,” Kaluya said. An administrative assistant who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation expressed her frustration with her workload. She said she is doing the duty of five admins and is near burnout and is thinking of finding a new job. “This used to be a great job,” she said. “Love the people, the students and the atmosphere. It does not pay as well as the private sector, but it has benefits that made up for the lower pay. I am hanging on right now to see if things improve.” She said she was not thrilled to hear about Chancellor Eugene Giovannini’s recent raise in a board meeting a week ago. “That is disturbing as hard as I am working for no extra pay — or appreciation,” she said.
NEWS
2 • Wednesday, November 10, 2021 DISTRICT
DISTRICT
Mansfield ISD alumni discuss gun violence BRIAN BARAN reporter
Alex Hoben/The Collegian
SE student Brooke Newsome sits in an empty classroom on SE Campus.
Student enrollment is affecting faculty AUSTIN AUS TIN FOLKERTSMA campus editor
Districtwide from Fall 2019 to Fall 2021, TCC’s enrollment has dropped by thousands of students. In Fall 2019, TCC reported that there were 51,099 students. In Fall 2021, there were 46,558 students enrolled. Community colleges have experienced an 11% decline since COVID, which is about 80,000 students, according to The Texas Tribune. Faculty and staff share their input. “Like most other community colleges, the pandemic has negatively affected TCC’s enrollment,” said David Ximenez, associate vice chancellor for enrollment and academic support services. “The uncertainty, shift to virtual learning and safety concerns caused many students to not matriculate back at TCC, resulting in around an 8.5% enrollment decline from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020. Our Fall 2020 to Fall 2021 enrollments are at a 13% decline.” He’s optimistic that enrollment will return to the same numbers from Fall 2019, but it’s difficult to predict. “I think that people are anxious about coming back to school,” NE registrar Christy Klemiuk said. “I think we need to be a little more innovative on what we do to bring up our enrollment, and if we do that, TCC will recover. TCC has always been a great asset in the community, and I don’t see that forechanging in the future.” She said not too many students have moved around due to classes being canceled at NE as opposed to other campuses. She previ-
ously worked at NW before coming to NE as an interim in April. NE EMS instructor Jay Bales said he has lost students during the COVID shutdown. He also said one thing that has affected the program is clinical space. He said a lot of the hospitals aren't allowing students in because of COVID concerns. “Our last two classes that we’ve started up since COVID have been low enrollment,” Bales said. “What we’ve done is we’ve changed our program a little bit to where we can shorten the program. The program has been moved from 16 weeks to 12 weeks, and still provides the same number of content hours and increases our recruiting efforts.” NE associate professor of English Lisette Blanco-Cerda said she’s had two classes this semester canceled because there were not enough students enrolled. “Because I’m full-time faculty, I have to teach five classes minimum,” she said. “If I recall correctly, pretty much leading up to the start of the fall semester, there was a scramble to make sure that full-time faculty members had their load. I wasn’t the only one whose classes were canceled.” From what Blanco-Cerda understands, there was a sudden spike in student enrollment from a particular date to right before classes had started. She said low enrollment at TCC has affected her greatly. She said that often while she’s prepping and planning, classes are being canceled on her, and new classes are being added onto her, so there is the uncertainty of what exactly she is supposed to do.
School shootings have occurred all across America, but for many TCC students, the most recent one hit close to home and made them question their safety. Four people were injured during a shooting Oct. 6 at Mansfield Timberview High School. Student Timothy Simpkins was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Many TCC students, especially from South and SE campuses, are former Mansfield ISD students, so they felt the impact of the shooting on a personal level. “Naturally, it’s just really sad to find out that somebody wished to shoot up a school,” SE student Grace Lindsay said. “The story was that you know, the kid was bullied, and being someone who got bullied herself, it’s like, what did someone do, what mentality did you go through just to get so dark, so deep in that to want to shoot up a building, let alone your own school? It’s honestly really sad and really negative.” This sentiment was shared among other students, such as fellow SE student Mary Moncibaiz-Trujillo, who went to Timberview. “When I first found out, I was in disbelief and shocked, then I was instantly worried for the staff and the students,” Moncibaiz-Trujillo said. Students said they questioned whether TCC would be prepared for an incident similar to what happened at Timberview. “No, and that’s just because when you look at it, you don’t know who’s getting bullied and you don’t really know who’s being forced into silence, and that’s the problem,” Lindsay said. “You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. You
don’t know what goes on in someone’s mentality.” SE student Nora Ellershaw agreed, saying she believes this is the same for most schools, not just TCC. “This question is hard, as any place is not well equipped for a school shooting or something similar,” Ellershaw said. “I would say TCC is not, as a gun or anything similar could be passed off as something else.” Lindsay agreed, saying no school from daycare up to Harvard can be completely secure. “Because they’re not prepared for a school shooting, they’re not prepared for a bomb threat in this instance because someone is so depressed and so messed up in the head enough to go this deep down in their mind and go ‘Yeah, this is OK.’ So, no, I personally feel that no matter what, nobody is prepared.” When asked what would make them more secure, each student said higher-level security would most likely be necessary. “TCC could add metal detectors to the entrances and implement for the police staff to patrol the halls more often than they do,” Moncibaiz-Trujillo said. Ellershaw suggested making it less evident to students they are being scanned for security. “I would say that TCC might need some kind of detector that can sense things but not be so obvious to the students they are being scanned,” Ellershaw said. Lindsay, on the other hand, suggested that security staff be properly trained in noticing signs of mental health issues. “They need to be taught by a legitimate professional who has a degree in therapy or profiling, so they can look at someone’s body language and go, ‘I know what’s up,’” Lindsay said.
Alex Hoben/The Collegian
A shooting at Timberview high school resulted in four injuries Oct. 6.
DISTRICT
Transitioning from military to normal life can be daunting task for veterans TRAVIS RACKLEY reporter
File photo/The Collegian
Helpful veteran resources and services can be found on TCC’s website.
Returning from military service to civilian life can be a daunting transition for veterans who go from structured daily schedules and orders to a more open and independent civilian life. Often their rank and training do little to help them get jobs or register for college, and as TCC’s veteran counselors point out, it can feel like being thrown into the wind. “Yeah, it can feel like you know, you're being dropped in the pool and said, ‘Figure out how to swim, ‘” said Christopher Hunt, NE counselor and Operation Desert Storm veteran. TR veteran counselor Angel Ayala called it a double transition as a veteran goes from soldier to civilian to student. “They feel dropped off in a sense,” Ayala said. NE campus veteran advisor James Varnado said a soldier’s daily life is structured and pre-determined as their superiors dictate
where you eat, sleep and work, whereas the independence and openness of civilian life can be overwhelming in contrast. “But, after coming back, being able to operate in an independent manner, [it] becomes very difficult,” Varnado said. “It has an expectation that I want somebody to tell me what to do.” If nobody tells him what to do, Vernando said he thinks he is wrong. “Because some units, relatively speaking, and depending on the commander,” he said. “They keep you on high alert, and you have no downtime.” Ayala said one of the biggest issues is that of soldiers learning to cope with the trauma and anxiety that military life could bring and having to remember they are no longer on the battlefield once in civilian life. Soldiers are trained to withhold and keep their feelings in check, a solid strategy while lives are on the line in a firefight, but after they leave the field it can be exceptionally difficult to open up
again. Ayala said while the military will spend the time to train recruits into soldiers, they don’t take the time to turn veterans back into civilians and thus create barriers in communication between those who served and civilians. Hunt spoke of the myriad of ways veterans cope with stress via sports, hobbies and therapy. Unfortunately, it is fairly common that veterans lack a stable coping mechanism and will attempt to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs instead of seeking assistance, creating a downward spiral that ruins them Many veterans refuse to talk about their issues out of fear of being seen as unreliable. “In the military asking for help is, you know, a sign of difficulty and can be interpreted as a weakness,” Hunt said. “Now, it's not the time for suck it up, Buttercup. Now's the time, as vulnerable as it feels to peel back the titanium, the Kevlar and the stainless. And, you know, let a certain small, trustworthy group of people know who you are.”
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FEATURE
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 • 3
SE culinary arts department prepares students for jobs in real world kitchens JOSE ROMERO editor-in-chief
Photos by Alex Hoben/The Collegian
Culinary student Isaiah Martinez dips an egg into a boiling pot of water, poaching it in the process for his culinary arts class.
SE culinary arts students Kelley Hardin and Bella Daniel inspect ingredients inside of their cooking pots while in class.
During the shutdown, most courses transitioned to an online-only environment, but for the SE culinary arts department, that was out of the question. It’s a hands-on program, so instead, classes were halved, students wore masks and everybody in the kitchen was socially distanced. This semester, the department returned to normal. “We all got used to having smaller classes, so it was a bit of an adjustment,” culinary arts instructor Katrina Warner said. Warner has been teaching for 20 years, and she said the thing that has kept her in the business for so long is her love for the craft. “I find it’s a crime when people don’t know how to cook,” she said. “I don’t understand that. You have to eat to live.” Something that was halted during the shutdown was catering, but that returned this semester as well. The department does some TCC events, culinary scholarship fundraising dinners, promotional catering and a $5 lunch every Monday. The lunch on Mondays is used as a way to help students gain experience since it’s almost entirely run by them. SE student Ken Goodheart’s experience with culinary began in 1973 as a cook in a pancake house. Throughout his life, he’s had many experiences in various kitchens from hotels to restaurants. But, his primary career was as an accountant. He retired in February, so he decided to return to school and study culinary arts. “When I retired, I needed something to do, so here I am,” he said. Pleasing people is Goodheart’s favorite part about cooking. He primarily cooks for his family and said he doesn’t cook for himself. The class is teaching him the foundations of cooking, he said. Another thing he enjoys about the class is the interaction with other students. Goodheart plans on getting his associate degree in culinary arts, a move that was recommended to him by his daughter. His current plan is to teach culinary classes at stores like Central Market or Sur La Table after he graduates. But, he said he has no
plans to go work at a restaurant whatsoever. SE student Isaiah Martinez picked up cooking during COVID. He said he started doing it because his mom would work 12hour shifts as a nurse, and he wanted to ensure she had a meal prepared for her when she got home. He hopes to gain the necessary experience from the program to work at a high-end restaurant.
I find it’s a crime when people don’t know how to cook. Katrina Warner culinary arts instructor
Martinez’s favorite part about the program has been chef Warner. “The best teacher I’ve had ever,” he said. “Even in high school, teachers were not the greatest, but she’s perfect.” To make the cooking process easier, Martinez said to have more confidence. “If you come in with a better mindset, everything is a lot easier for you,” he said. Warner learned how to cook at a young age from her mom. She said food has always been a part of her life. When her grandparents emigrated from Germany, they opened a delicatessen in New York City. Even her brother is in the culinary world since he’s an executive chef. “My dad kind of summed it up real well,” she said. “He said, ‘Well, everybody’s gotta eat, so it’s a good business to get into.’ It’s just always been a part of my life.” After students leave the program, she said they end up working in restaurants, hotels, catering companies or even start their own businesses. “We’re small classes, small groups, there are only four full-time instructors, so the students really get to know us pretty well, and we get to know them pretty well,” Warner said. “It’s kind of like a tight-knit little family.”
Students prepare their dishes in lab after listening to instructor Katrina Warner teach them how to make the assigned meal. Students were practicing cooking skills.
ENTERTAINMENT
4 • Wednesday, November 10, 2021 MOVIE REVIEW
Anthology film is uneven but endearing
Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
The staff of the newspaper, “The French Dispatch,” mourn the death of their editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr. in the latest Wes Anderson film, which released Oct. 26.
‘The French Dispatch’ is an ode to print LOGAN EVANS
managing editor
Watching “The French Dispatch” is like flipping through a magazine and reading what catches your eye. Not everything clicks, but there’s enough to delve into. The film begins with the death of renowned newspaper editor Arthur Howitzer Jr. Howitzer was a champion for writers, keeping a roster of eccentric journalists under his wing for his publication, The French Dispatch. According to Howitzer’s will, the publication of the newspaper is to end after his death with the release of one final issue. The film is split into three chapters. Each one follows a story published in that final issue. Wes Anderson is often accused of being a director who favors style over substance, but this film makes another case that to him, style is substance. Visual stories are told in colors and shapes, and sound, and An-
derson takes advantage of them all. An ode to print journalism, the different scenes in “The French Dispatch” flit in and out of aspect ratios and color schemes, pulling the viewer into a varied experience that mimics the flip of a page. Sometimes, this can be overwhelming. The best way to watch this film is to just let it wash over you. Like most Anderson films, “The French Dispatch” is populated with a vivid cast of characters played by actors letting loose. Everyone is compelling to watch, and they play off one another with a kinetic fervor enthusiasm that pushes the story in a way the narrative doesn’t. Because of the anthology format, no character is fleshed out enough to put them with Anderson greats like Steve Zissou or M. Gustave, but they aren’t simple sketches either. The biggest hurdle the film faces is that not every part is equal. The first segment, “The Concrete Masterpiece,” about a convicted
murderer turned artist convictedmurderer-turned-artist is by far the best of the three main chapters. The next two, “Revisions to a Manifesto,” a profile of student revolutionaries, and “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” a kidnapping caper involving a food writer, feel like Anderson is drawing heavily from too-obscure influences. This doesn’t ruin the pieces — in fact, it imbues them with some more of Anderson’s charm — but they failed to grab me like the first did. Some critics scorn Anderson for developing one style and sticking with it, but “The French Dispatch” is evidence that the director is still happy to experiment within his own world. This will likely never be considered an all-time great Anderson movie, but it’s a playful addition to his pastel-and-patchwork body of films.
A newstand displays the final issue of “The French Dispatch,” requested by the late editor Howitzer in his will.
MOVIE REVIEW
Star-studded ensemble carries period drama MICHAEL FOSTER-SANDERS senior producer
Idris Elba plays Rufus Buck in Netflix’s film “The Harder They Fall.” He’s a ruthless outlaw and leader of a gang.
American history tends to minimize native, enslaved and immigrant contributions to this country. Especially when it comes to the era of the Wild West. Television and cinema played a big part in whitewashing the contribution of Black cowboys by only showing white ones while taking real-life exploits and applying them to fictional characters like “The Lone Ranger” did with the real-life first Black U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves — who plays a role in Netflix’s fictional Black cowboy tale “The Harder They Fall.” But does “The Harder They Fall” survive the high noon showdown or take a trip to the cinema graveyard because it’s not quick on the draw? It rides off in the sunset, but not without taking a bullet to the shoulder. In any great cowboy story, it has to have a tale of misjustice or revenge to drive the hero/antihero on their quest for justice, and “The Harder They Fall” is no different. Nat Love has his childhood destroyed by the ruthless Rufus Buck and his gang when they come into his home and kill his mother and father for unknown reasons. The amazing Johnathan Ma-
jors plays adult Love and becomes an outlaw cowboy. He’s dedicated his life to eradicating the demons of his past from the Rufus Buck Gang. When Love receives news that his childhood demon can be exorcised once and for all, Love signs up for a suicide mission that he might not come back from. The reason why these movies work isn’t the story. Once a person has seen five cowboy movies, they have seen them all. It’s the allstar cast put together whose passion oozes through the screen when portraying these real-life figures of Black American history to bring awareness to them even though this is a fictional tale. Idris Elba embodies the ruthless Rufus Buck and should be in a Western movie hall of fame of villains. His queen, Treacherous Trudy Smith — played by the Oscar award-winning Regina King — lives up to her nickname when it comes to protecting Buck. Lakeith Stansfield is a force to be reckoned with as Cherokee Bill, the cunning quickdraw with equally deadly monologues. He will leave viewers with their jaw dropped in every scene he’s in because he steals the show. Anchoring the cast is veteran actor Delroy Lindo as lawman Bass Reeves, who gives a seasoned vibe to the old west. As great as this movie is, it does have its flaws. Western Movies should never be shot digitally. It
Photos courtesy of Netflix
Nat Love and Stagecoach Mary, stand in the desert. gives this movie too clean of a look for the period it’s set in. The sets left much to be desired as well due to them looking cheap and freshly built, not having a weathered look like a town in the desert would have from being in the hot sun. The score is a major issue due to the non-traditional sound and its fusion of hiphop, reggae and Western. But, when traditional Western sounds, choirs and guitars are used, it is awesome. Will “The Harder They Fall” go down as a hall of fame Western? No, but it doesn’t fail as a great time for movie nights and future rewatching.
OPINION
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 • 5
EDITORIAL
Cancel culture should have clearer meaning Cancel culture is a topic that’s been prominent these past couple of years, but the issue with it is that it’s hard to define. Comedian Dave Chappelle is receiving backlash from his Netflix comedy special “The Closer,” but some may argue that it isn’t entirely fair. Chappelle is one of the many public figures that come to mind when talking about cancel culture. Many public figures are getting canceled because either they said something their respective audiences didn’t like or certain accusations were brought up against them. The most recent usage of cancel culture is being used by Gen Z. The interesting part about cancel culture is that it’s not just relegated to people. Toys like Mr. Potato Head, created in the 1950s, were canceled in 2020 because it was deemed offensive by women since it had the prefix “Mr.” in front of it, so Hasbro took it off to be more inclusive to everyone by making it a more genderneutral toy. Brand names like Aunt Jemima’s pancake-mix and syrup brand, founded in 1889, were deemed offensive by the public because its origins were based on a racial stereotype. Whether cancel culture is a good or bad thing, that’s neither here nor there, but first, there needs to be an understanding of what it is. Cancel culture has evolved, probably over the last six years, and its meaning has changed to fit a certain narrative.
Amber Davis/The Collegian
Cancel culture is such a broad topic because it means so many different things to so many different people. Some view it as a positive, defining it as a way to hold people accountable for their actions. Others view it as merely the newest form of mob justice. Cancel culture is almost impossible to come up with an exact definition.
While cancel culture can offer consequences to actions, it sometimes can take it too far. It allows others to damage someone without giving them a chance to rebuttal the claims against them, almost like a one-sided argument. It doesn’t affect just celebrities, it affects regular people too. Cancel culture can sometimes make a bigger
deal out of something than it was in the first place. Kevin Hart refused to host the 2019 Oscars because he received backlash from homophobic tweets and old jokes. “Things that used to be funny or accepted are now cancelable,” he said in a NY Post interview. “The only way to grow up is to mess up
and learn from it.” There are, of course, people who deserve to be canceled like Louis C.K. who legitimately did a bad thing. Louis C.K. was guilty of sexual misconduct, exposing himself in front of five of his female colleagues. Comedy is one of those things where most of the material is offensive, and it’s controversial, so society needs to work on deciphering what they want to “cancel” because the thing about comedy is it’s not supposed to be taken seriously. Cancel culture is like a lit match in a forest fire. Over time, the fire comes from the match and it spreads throughout the forest and creates this massive fire that spirals out of control and it can be hard to contain and then oftentimes when it does get contained it is too late and so much damage has already been done. There are certain instances where cancel culture doesn’t work. Take the rapper, Eminem, for example. People tried to cancel him because of his “angry” lyrics, but that is who he is as an artist. Cancel culture started as an idea to rectify power, but nowadays people have taken advantage of it and used it as a weapon instead of using it to help people. People need to take time to start making sure the offenses a person is being canceled for are justified. The term is thrown around so much it’s maddening. Bad choices lead to bad consequences, but good choices lead to good consequences.
VIEWPOINTS
Democrats’ social relief bill is never coming to fruition
JUAN SALINAS II campus editor
In an editorial The Collegian published Aug. 25, there was a line that called Joe Biden’s social relief bill a pipe dream. And, we were right. Two weeks ago, the Biden administration released a trimmed-down version of the social relief bill, which removes paid family leaves, free community college, lower drug prices, Medicare, dental and vision coverage. It also halved the proposed money from $3.5 trillion to $1.85 trillion. Seventy percent of Americans support paid family leave, 72% support allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and 82% support adding dental and vision benefits to Medicare, according to a poll conducted by Morning Consult and Politico. Removing all these popular provisions were all done to please the moderate part of the Democratic Party. The talking head is Sen. Joe Manchin III — who has been voicing concerns about the national debt and inflation and how the Biden administration will pay for this. Isn’t it funny how moderate Democrats and Republicans always have concerns about the national debt when there is legislature that could help make the lives of the working class just a little bit easier? They don’t even raise an eyebrow on giving more money to the military
TCC should reevaluate its methods of transportation
and the Pentagon’s budget. I could sit here and write about how evil the rotatitng villain is, but that would be pointless because Manchin and other moderate Democrats are only doing what their corporate donors want them to do. But I want to focus on progressive Democrats that refused to do anything to prevent the gutting of the bill. The progressive Democrats’ previous posture was they would vote no on the infrastructure bill — if the original social relief bill didn’t get a commitment from moderate Democrats. Last Friday, the infrastructure bill was passed without the social relief bill. Now the moderate Democrats have no reason to stay true to their word and would probably vote against the social relief bill. I will give credit to the “Squad” for voting no, but they still didn’t do enough. The progressives should have started throwing a fuss when provisions were being removed. The watered-down social bill wouldn’t be enough to be felt by the working class. All the provisions that made it so popular have been stripped away. So, all this fighting and press conferences are just political theater. I wish I could end this with a positive note about how the Democrats could turn this around, but the result of the governor race in Virginia tells another story. The state went to the Republican Glenn Youngkin, who was endorsed by Donald Trump. There are a lot of factors as to why Youngkin won in Virginia, but clearly, the boogeyman strategy is not working anymore. Democrats had the opportunity to do something that could change the fate of the working class, and they wasted it.
ALEX HOBEN photo editor
TCC needs better regulated public transportation between its campuses, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. As a student who bounces between two campuses in opposite directions from each other on an almost daily basis, does not have access to a car nor the funds to constantly take $30 Lyfts, I’ve seen first-hand how bad it can be. My safety has come into question at times, and I don’t want this to happen to others. A districtwide transportation system needs to be put in place. Currently, TCC offers buses between certain campuses, but they don’t connect. I travel between SE and NE, normally a max 40-minute drive with heavy traffic on 183, but through the public transportation options available, I have a two-hour buffer between classes. The route includes a Via, — a rideshare service in Arlington — train stops and bus stations. At these train stops and bus stations, I don’t feel safe. I’ve seen three police cars all roll up on a man I had walked by not 15 minutes before. I’ve been stared at, and have almost gotten heat-stroke from staying in 98-degree weather for 45 minutes because that was my only option. On the same day, I saw not only a man threatening a woman
with racial slurs and damning her and her children to hell while she cowered around a bench, but also a man on the phone relieving himself into a trashcan on the train before walking off, continuing his conversation. In both instances, there was an authority figure, but they did nothing to remedy the situation from what I saw. A passive police officer called back to the prowling man at the train station. A train worker just casually asked the man what happened at the trashcan. Nothing was actually done from my purview. Why would I have to witness these incredibly jarring and, in the case of the station, dangerous situations if instead, I could take a TCC shuttle straight from SE to NE? What would’ve happened if instead of me being white, I was Black and was the one being threatened? What if that police officer wasn’t there to deter any confrontation? These are the questions that have plagued and distracted me from my schoolwork. That man screaming at the sky about how his God mandated that terrible behavior has stuck in my mind, and I am afraid for my safety. I’m afraid for the safety of others who may not know how to protect themselves and, most of all, I’m disappointed. Any student considering taking classes at other campuses but doesn’t have a stable private transportation option, I warn you. Please be careful because you never know when the cop won’t be there to stop a hateful man’s misguided aggression.
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6 • Wednesday, November 10, 2021
LOGAN EVANS
FEATURE
managing editor
Sometimes, it only takes some movement to light up the labyrinth of the brain. NW dance professor Amy Jennings understands this. She’s spent the last seven years researching dance as therapy for dementia, how music and motion can spark the memory and wake the body. She teaches regular classes to people living with dementia and hopes to use what she’s learned to illuminate cloudy minds. “Dementia is scary,” Jennings said. “But I always talk about the beautiful windows that come through with it.” In a recent therapy session for dementia support group Friday Friends, Jennings warmed up by swaying her arms to the sigh of ballet keys over speakers. Around her, a small crowd of fragile hands and aging faces followed suit. Because of the confusion a person living with dementia can experience, the body tends to cave in, Jennings said. She believes that starting a session with wide, outward movements helps to mend that. “I usually teach with a lot of imagery,” she said. “Lifting your arms as wide as the ocean. Lifting your hands as high as the heavens.” After warming up, Jennings introduces time-specific music to her classes. Music is closely tied to memory, so pulling from different eras is a good way to find a connection — if only for a moment. Jennings recalls a group of older men who failed to move until she played them a
in the James Brown song. “They were on fire,” she said. “But then it came off and if I put something else on, we were done.” In the last Friday Friends session, Jennings began with disco. A silver-haired man in the front row followed Jennings with stilted movements. Bouncing from the collar of his denim jacket was a small name tag that read, “Roger.” The song ended and the man named Roger was quiet. His wife and caretaker Mary Jane reminisced about a disco she attended in the late 1970s. Then, from his silence, Roger began to sing. It was a low, resonant sound, like the simple act of moving had stirred something deep within him. “Over here, over there. Send the word, send the word to beware!” The words were not from the disco song. They were lyrics to the military marching chant “Over There,” popular in the middle 20th century. Mary Jane smiled with a gleam in her eye. “He sang in the army,” she said. For the next few minutes, Jennings and the group danced along to the chugging tune of “Over There.” “You’re always trying to meet them where they are,” Jennings said. “That’s what I learned with my mom.” Jennings began her journey with dance and memory loss in 2014 when her mother was diagnosed with temporal lobe dementia. Drawing from the experience, she choreographed the 17-minute dance piece “Beauty of Dementia’’ to be performed by
How professor Amy Jennings treats dementia with dance her TCC students. The performance evokes the process of memory loss, the fear, anxiety and hidden euphoria that comes with it. It begins with a single dancer on a dark stage, flailing to a discordant piano, and ends with that dancer surrounded by a group of others — a visual representation of loose memories. Jennings said those living with dementia often revert to a childlike state of mind. In the program pamphlet for “Beauty of Dementia,” she writes of her mother, “the sweet unfolding of a soft soul emerges.” Jennings credits her mother with inspiring her to take up dancing in the first place. As a child, her mother learned from a traditional Russian ballet teacher. Despite a hazy mind, she clings to that memory. “My mom was a teacher,” Jennings said. “But all these years later, she references herself as a ballet dancer.” With dementia, fragments of the distant past will often linger the longest. Shelly Young, program manager for the Alzheimer’s Association North Central Texas Chapter, said dementia is more complex than simple memory loss. Various other cognitive skills suffer, including the ability to vocalize feelings. “Thoughts become really muddled,” Young said. “There’s a level of confusion you often see.” For that reason, Young said groups like Friday Friends — who are sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association — are important for people living with dementia and their caretakers to have a social space with understanding. Jennings tailors her dance therapy to whichever stage of dementia a given class is living with. Some are extremely lucid and able to dance standing up. Others are in wheelchairs and may need help moving their arms and legs. Either way, Jennings works with the understanding that something still lives beneath the foggiest of eyes. “It’s really phenomenal to know what the body still holds,” Jennings said. “What the memory still holds.”
In her classroom, Jennings gathered her things while the Friday Friends social group moved on to their next activity — arts and crafts. Handpicked leaves and scraps of bark were spread out on a table next to bottles of glue. The group worked in the back of the room over coffee and cake. But not the man named Roger. Still sitting in the front row, Roger sang under his breath that old army marching song. “We’ll be over, we’re coming over, and we won’t be back till it’s over, over there.”
Illustration by Amber Davis/The Collegian