November 12th, 2024

NOVEMBER 12 - DECEMBER 9, 2024

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG

A&E PAGE 3

OPINION PAGE 5

Hidden Gem: Golden Gate Restaurant

Daylight saving time does not make sense for Alaska

Donald Trump wins the presidency, again Trump’s win marks the second time in American history that a president will serve two non-consecutive terms.

By Kyle Ivacic managing.editor@thenorthernlight.org

Donald Trump won the presidency as the electoral votes came rolling in on Tues. Nov. 5. Trump won 312 electoral votes, while Vice President Kamala Harris received 226. Trump won the electoral votes of all seven swing states.

The Associated Press is projecting that Trump has also claimed the popular vote in this election, which he failed to do in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.

This marks the second time that an American president will have served two non-consecutive terms. The only other president to have done so was Grover Cleveland, who was president from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.

Trump will also be the first convicted

felon to hold the presidential office.

Some of the policies that Trump says he will implement can be found on his official campaign website in a policy platform titled “Agenda 47.” According to Agenda 47, Trump will “Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,” “Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history,” “End inflation, and make America affordable again,” “stop outsourcing, and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower,” among other items.

In terms of inflation and manufacturing, the Biden administration has already set much of the groundwork for Trump’s economic agenda.

By taking practical measures, like increasing interest rates, the federal government under the Biden administration has brought year-over-year inflation in

the United States down to 2.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Monthly border encounters are down significantly — roughly 34% according to Customs and Border Patrol — since December of last year.

President Biden also helped to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. These bills created funding for infrastructure and manufacturing across the United States. For example, the Port of Alaska — located near Downtown Anchorage — received $68.7 million for modernization from the federal government through the Infrastructure and Jobs Act. These post-COVID economic foundations set in place by the Biden administration might prove useful for Trump.

Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW SCHMITZ.

Trump takes the stage at an Anchorage rally in 2022.

Video: Fall Career Fair 2024

By Anja Burnett video1@thenorthernlight.org

UAA’s Fall Career Fair returns! Career Services hosts job fairs during the Fall and Spring semesters to connect employers with students at any stage of their academic career. Students can attend the career fair as Freshmen to learn more about potential opportunities, and laterstage students, like Seniors, can connect with employers about internships and jobs after graduation. These career fairs can be a great way to get more involved with future employers. Learn more at Handshake.com.

PHOTO BY ANJA BURNETT.

Student QR code check-in sign at UAA’s 2024 General Career Fair.

Video: Alaska Federation of Natives hosts Quyana Night

By Vadim Bledsoe video2@thenorthernlight.org

PHOTO BY VADIM BLEDSOE.

AFN hosts Quyana Night.

thenorthernlight.org

facebook.com/tnlupdates

@tnl_updates

@tnl_updates

The 2024 Alaska Federation of Natives in the Dena’ina convention center hosted Quyana Night I and II from October 18th to October 19th.

youtube.com/tnlnews

soundcloud.com/tnlnews

FEATURES

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024

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Cannabis on campus: Culinary class teaches students how to bake brownies Political, medicinal, economical and educational — CannaBasics is a curriculum centered on the Alaskan cannabis industry.

By Hannah Dillon associate.editor@thenorthernlight.org

CannaBasics is a one-credit culinary arts course that educates students on identifying cannabis plant anatomy, terminology, uses of the plant and research on how to properly infuse cannabis into food.

According to the Alaska Department of Health, “Personal non-medical marijuana use and possession became legal in Alaska on February 24, 2015.” Six years later, a UAA culinary professor and UAA student worked together to create the class.

Culinary arts professor Riza Brown taught a hospitality concepts class where former UAA alumna Donna Keryluk founded the idea for CannaBasics. The Northern Light spoke with both program inventors and a current UAA student about the cannabis centered course.

Students in Brown’s class spend the end of the semester inventing and honing a business plan so that they will be prepared to share their ideas to investors after graduation.

Keryluk is the first certified culinary cannabis chef in Alaska. Her business model for a cannabis cafe was partially inspired by earlier events in her life.

“When I started in culinary school, I had a stroke, and coming back from that … it (cannabis) helped me to stand up straight and not be dizzy all the time with the vertigo and the nausea and everything that comes with that,” said Keryluk.

Keryluk’s idea involved opening a cannabis bakery as she and her daughter dreamt of opening a cannabis cafe, but Brown and Keryluk had difficulties finding information on culinary cannabis uses while trying to implement the idea.

“And so as we started poking around, we found that it was increasingly difficult to figure out how to create such a business, even though it’s fully legal, and you can have a cannabis bakery here in Alaska,” said Brown.

Finding information about cannabis culinary classes was difficult, but Brown and Keryluk

PHOTO COURTESY OF OLIMPIA DAVIES.

Cooking kale.

soon found themselves consulting approximately 20 people to help construct the class material. Advisers for the education on cannabis at UAA included professional opinions from chemists and cannabis cultivators.

CannaBasics has two different classes, CannaBasics 1 and CannaBasics 2. CannaBasics 1 was the first class to build a curriculum. It included an overview of cannabis and its revolving subjects such as history, legality, safety, identification, cultivation and cooking processes.

In CannaBasics 2 — a fourday class — Brown said the course is much more handson. Students can choose a recipe from a provided list to have a mock infusion of cannabis, weigh out ingredients and participate in more culinary-centered cannabis infusion.

The CannaBasics classes teach how to approximate THC dosage and create an edible in class, but actual cannabis buds

are not used in the ingredient list. CBD and hemp is federally legal and used as a replacement as no actual cannabis is allowed to be handled on campus grounds.

Brown said that CannaBasics 1 has had less enrollment than previous years possibly due to the stigma surrounding cannabis.

Alaska has approximately 150 cannabis dispensaries throughout the state and 24 Lower-48 states have legalized recreational cannabis, showing a slow but steady increase in the acceptance of cannabis throughout the country.

But any use of cannabis is still considered federally illegal.

Brown said that due to federal illegality, cannabis research in the United States is severely lacking.

“As a culinary arts instructor at the university, this is going to become more and more of an issue. There are people who are

going to want to go to school for this to learn how to safely and legally make this product that is legal to sell,” said Brown.

Brown emphasized that people who consume cannabis for the first time could have an unpleasant experience due to the lack of knowledge on dosage and effects. This situation, in turn, could create the perception that cannabis has negative effects and others should not be consuming the product, furthering the stigma surrounding cannabis.

Staci Gillilian is a graduate student at UAA who attended the first CannaBasics class in 2021. Gillilian took the class to learn how to cook for people with any type of diet, from gluten free to THC-based.

Gillilian said she had no knowledge on cannabis before attending the class, but left with more knowledge than she expected from the short course.

“It was so educational and

done in such a respectful, professional educational way,” said Gillilian.

Everyone who spoke to The Northern Light commented on further applications of cannabis education throughout UAA. Brown and Gillilian highlighted the use of UAA’s chemistry department if they were open to collaboration with the culinary department.

Culinary students could utilize machines in the chemistry department that could determine dosage in the product.

Keryluk said UA university agriculture departments could grow hemp and students could attempt to create paper or tshirts for the bookstore. She noted that cannabis could weave its way into every department at UAA. “Come check us out, see what we’re all about. Come and learn and absorb anything and everything about cannabis and leave with a treat,” said Keryluk.

& AE

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024

03

Hidden Gem: Golden Gate Restaurant Gateway to a full stomach.

By Tanner Croft and Murat Demir Primarily, these “Hidden Gems” are written by me — Tanner — but on almost every single one of them, I have been accompanied by Murat. We have written a few together, but our journey doing “Hidden Gems” only started a few months ago with our review of Ichiban. We never intended to review Ichiban that night, in fact we set out to review Golden Gate.

Over the summer, Golden Gate experienced staff shortages which led to it being closed on Wednesday nights. Thankfully, our journey has come full circle and allowed us to dine at Golden Gate — and we even went on a Wednesday night. So, here are our expert opinions on this quaint hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant.

Some Chinese restaurants in the United States reinforce a Western interpretation of Chinese culture that is shaped by American consumers’ perceptions. This interpretation can create a hyperreal version of Chinese culture that caters to American audiences.

Although many of us enjoy this version of Chinese cuisine very much, it’s important to recognize that it may not be a completely traditional representation. Golden Gate Restaurant only appears to feed into this phenomenon in subtle ways.

Located right next to our favorite local bar, the Blue Fox, Golden Gate is the perfect distance from campus. Year-round, there is a path that allows easy access from West Hall for students who want to walk to dinner.

Upon entering, you are greeted with the tantalizing smell of sesame oil being stir fried, which evokes every craving you may have for Chinese cuisine.

The booth seating provides a level of privacy for diners. The benches of the booths are comfortable, yet not so soft that they

swallow you in, and their backs rise tall above patrons’ heads for maximum privacy. The service was accommodating and cordial.

There was a noticeable absence of music in the dining room, which wasn’t bothersome, but music could have added to the mood. The ambiance is relaxed. Large embossed pictures of the Great Wall of China hang between the booths. Above, Chinese dragon wallpaper trim runs along the top of the wall, wrapping the room in red and gold.

As a starter, we indulged in cream-cheese wontons. The wontons were good, but the sweet-and-sour sauce is what stole the show here. It was a little bit thicker than you might find at any other restaurant, making the appetizer less messy than normal.

We ordered the Mongolian beef as an entrée. It can only be described as “so ******* good.”

We could not stop eating and we had to force ourselves to get boxes to take the portions home.

Truly good food.

We also ordered Szechuan chicken and asked for it to be prepared as spicy as possible.

When the dish arrived, the server indicated that it was the hottest level. We felt that it had a decent level of spice but could have been much hotter. The texture of the breading was crisp yet tender.

Finally, we ordered a side of chicken fried rice. The rice was warm and buttery, and the chicken-to-rice ratio was respectable.

The pricing appears steep, but when taking into account the massive portion size, you are realistically buying two meals, so it makes sense.

Golden Gate manages to encapsulate exactly what it means to be a hidden gem. The food is delectable, the atmosphere is relaxed and the proximity to campus is unparalleled.

If this article has done its job, you should be feeling a temptation to eat some Chinese food.

We are hoping that you will act

PHOTO BY TANNER CROFT.

A variety of dishes from Golden Gate Restaurant.

PHOTO BY MURAT DEMIR.

The dining room at Golden Gate Restaurant.

on this temptation and pay a visit to Golden Gate, although it is

advised that you call first to verify that they are open.

Video: Where are all the bears?

By Anja Burnett video1@thenorthernlight.org

Painted fiberglass bear figures dot locations in Anchorage and further. Still, the Anchorage-located bears are not easy to find, provided by a vague and outdated 2021 list found online. Many of the bears expected at various locations could not be located during filming, and I learned after some more research that some bears are indoors. The source behind the project could not be located. If you search for these elusive bears, I recommend visiting them in the summer instead when you don’t have to trudge through the snow to see them up close.

PHOTO BY ANJA BURNETT.

Seasonal Aurora Bearealis created by Katie Sevigny and located at Historic City Hall in Downtown Anchorage.

SPORTS

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024

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Photos: Seawolves women’s basketball dominates the Red Hawks

By Justin Cox photo2@thenorthernlight.org

The Seawolves women’s basketball team opened the 2024-25 season on Nov. 1 with a 103-24 win against the Simpson University Red Hawks, breaking or tying several UAA records. The Seawolves took an early lead against the Red Hawks and maintained it throughout all four quarters of play. Emilia Long, a transfer from Cal Poly, helped lead the Seawolves to victory, scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 steals, breaking the 26-year-old record of 10 set by Stacy Cepin in 1998. Elaina Mack scored a career-high of 20 points, while Tori Hollingshead scored 13. You can view the full list of records broken or tied on goseawolves.com.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Mack attempts a 3-pointer.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Long shoots a layup to score the first points of the game.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Jazzpher Evans makes her way to the basket.

Photos: Seawolves volleyball crushes Yellowjackets

By Justin Cox photo2@thenorthernlight.org

The Seawolves volleyball team took on the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets on Nov. 2, winning 3-0.

Larssen Anderson helped lead the Seawolves to victory with 10 kills. This leaves the Seawolves with a record of 13-10 for the season and 7-6 within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference — or GNAC. While the Seawolves maintained fairly comfortable leads through the first two sets, the Yellowjackets rallied back and matched the Seawolves through most of the third set.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Players get hyped up before the start of the game.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Galloway dives for the ball.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Bella Burney makes an attack.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Kadyn Osborne delivers the first serve of the night.

Photos: Seawolves defeat Red Hawks

By Justin Cox photo2@thenorthernlight.org

On Nov. 2, the Seawolves and Red Hawks had a rematch, and once again the Seawolves took an early lead and crushed the Red Hawks 94-29. Elaina Mack scored 27 points, a career high for the junior from King Cove, Alaska, beating her previous career high of 20 points on Friday.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Emilia Long scores UAA’s first point of the night on a free throw.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Rean — a freshman from New Zealand — attempts a free throw.

PHOTO BY JUSTIN COX.

Mack takes a shot.

OPINION

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024

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Daylight saving time does not make sense for Alaska Why does Daylight saving time even exist?

By Anja Burnett video1@thenorthernlight.org

In 1895, a New Zealand entomologist —someone who studies bugs — named George Hudson proposed to the Wellington Philosophical Society that they shift their clocks backward two hours in the summer. His reasoning? Hudson realized that more bugs could be studied in the morning daylight hours. In the early 1900s, several countries began to implement their own form of daylight savings to conserve coal during World War I. In March 1918, daylight savings reached the United States when Congress passed the Standard time act, which also implemented different time zones across the country.

The current form of daylight saving time — or DST — was implemented to benefit wartime efforts and has since become dangerous, leading to fatalities and injuries.

Overall, DST does not benefit the general population and is unreasonable because it throws us for a loop twice a year — considering its impact on our internal clock. It especially does not make sense here in Anchorage, where we already experience limited daylight hours, and most residents work a 9-to-5 job or are full-time students.

By 1966, DST was made federal law in the United States because of the Uniform Time Act. At the time, some people were in favor but still had concerns about it disrupting their routines.

Now, over half a century later, I think that most Americans would rather get rid of it.

The Monday after daylight savings every November is an awful one. Everyone is more tired than usual when they come to work and school because their circadian rhythms are complete-

ly thrown off overnight.

In fact, daylight saving time throws off our circadian rhythms so much that a study from Solv Health has indicated that fatal car crashes increase by 5.3%, heart attacks and strokes rise by 6% and workplace injuries due to human error spike on Monday following daylight saving changes.

In a state where car accidents are more common as soon as snow hits the ground, it is not a safe combination to have DST right around the time we get our first snowfall. These anomalies indicate that this legislation is not conducive to natural human behavior.

DST also doesn’t help farmers — contrary to the common myth believed by many Americans. In actuality, many farmers have vehemently opposed the legislation as dairy cattle rely on the sun.

Might I add that we live on a planet that sits upon an axis that rotates around the sun — a naturally occurring function that we are working against for the benefit of outdated practices? I mean, it’s not like we are utilizing coal as much as we were in World War I, nor do we need to research bugs like Hudson did, so why does it still exist?

Especially in Alaska, where winter days are short, and Anchorage only receives five hours of sunlight each day. When the November DST comes around in Alaska, we are still regulating ourselves amid the fleeting daylight as we creep further into winter. Then, out of nowhere, we suddenly lose another hour.

And now it is dark at 4:40 p.m., instead of the alternative when it could get dark at almost 6 p.m.

If DST were revised to allow us to have sunsets later, people stuck in offices or classes for most of the day could get a chance to experience some light at the end of the day.

In a state where seasonal af-

fective disorder is rampant during the winter months, I am convinced that the way we currently function under DST plays a factor in this. Our Pacific counterpart, Hawaii, has never had DST, and much of Arizona returned to standard time in 1968.

Granted, Hawaii and Arizona are both states with ample sunlight and warm weather — but it shows that revising this outdated system can be possible.

In 2022, the Sunshine Protection Act was put into effect and made it to the Senate, with the expectation to be put into effect by the end of 2023. However, we obviously never saw this come to fruition. In 2023, several states attempted and failed to end DST because the only way DST can revert to standard time is if Congress makes it federal law.

Alaska state representatives Dan Ortiz and Jamie Allard have proposed bills to remove Alaska as a part of DST which would have allowed the state to function under standard time until Congress passes a permanent change. Ultimately, these bills failed to gain traction.

I can admit that it is satisfying to realize that you have an extra hour to do whatever you’d like — at least for the November change — but the truth of the matter is that it really does not result in any good.

There is increased danger for the Monday and the week following DST, and it is important to recognize the hassle of having to change the numerous analog clocks you are surrounded by — like your oven, microwave, bedtime clock, and car — which can throw everyone off and make us think we are an hour late to work or school.

If you are an Anchorage resident, there’s a chance that you currently wake up in morning darkness, and although changing to standard time might make it darker for longer in the morning, it would allow us to have more sunlight after 5 p.m.

It’s time we ask ourselves

PHOTO CREDIT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

Vintage poster promoting Daylight Saving, circa 1918. Sourced from Princeton University Poster Collection at the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives.

why the current form of DST still exists when its sole purpose in America was to benefit wartime efforts. DST doesn’t make sense, especially in Alaska, where the hours of sunlight are so limited.

We have already researched all the bugs we need to, and we are not currently requiring coal for war and energy sources on a massive scale that was previously required of us. Presently, DST disrupts the daily life of in-

dividuals, poses safety risks and exacerbates certain mental conditions of Alaskans.

It’s safe to say that the original reasons for DST no longer hold relevance, so it’s reasonable — and potentially necessary — to reconsider its presence and impact on American society, and Alaska in particular. Anyway, remember to change your clocks on the second Sunday of March 2025 for when clocks spring forward.

08

OPINION

Sound and Sociology: How the Young Thug trial highlights issues within our criminal justice system Jeffery is finally free.

By Nahla White columnist2@thenorthernlight.org

Just last week, on Halloween, Grammy Award-winning rapper Young Thug — whose government name is Jeffery Williams — pleaded guilty to six of eight crimes that he had been charged with. It was a non-negotiated plea deal, meaning that he admitted guilt without deliberating with prosecutors. Though Thug pleaded guilty to gang, drug and gun charges, he opted to plead no contest to another gang charge and a racketeering conspiracy charge.

Despite being sentenced to 40 years in prison for the crimes committed, the judge commuted the sentence to time already served, leaving Thug with only 15 years of probation with rather loose stipulations considering his wealth and status.

This man basically got a slap on the wrist.

While this is an impressive feat, I don’t think it’s much of a surprise considering how Georgia’s RICO act operates, as well as how messy the trial was from the beginning.

RICO is short for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. The federal act was signed into law in 1970 as a means of catching the heads of crime organizations and syndicates.

Thug was tried in a Georgia Superior Court, meaning that he was charged with the conspiracy to violate the state RICO laws rather than the federal RICO laws.

Georgia’s sentencing minimum for being found guilty of a RICO violation is at least five years, with the maximum being 20. This is much lighter than the federal mandatory minimum, which is 10 years.

While the sentencing in Georgia is much less extreme, the prohibited activities listed under the state statute are much broader than the federal one. Ideally, this would make Thug a much easier target for the prosecution. But no, that would be too easy.

With a jury selection process that took nearly 10 months, three different judges having resided over the case, plea deals being handed out like Halloween candy, and over 700 witnesses , Georgia’s longest running trial can be compared to a long ass season of a messy reality show.

To get an idea of how badly the state wanted to convict Thug, his 2022 bond hearing saw that his bail was denied out of fears of witness intimidation leading up to the trial.

The prosecution held that he was too “dangerous” to be allowed on the streets, despite his defense explaining to the judge that he would pay for a house arrest plan to make sure nothing would happen.

However, their need to ensure Thug’s conviction came at the expense of a weak case and weak arguments. As I stated earlier, over 700 witnesses were originally involved with this case, with the prosecution relying on many of the testimonies that would implicate that Young Stoner Life — YSL — was a gang and that Thug

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIGUEL MARTINEZ.

Young Thug and his defense attorney Brian Steel.

was the leader of said gang.

Where I think the prosecution fell flat was with their lack of insight when it came to who exactly they were asking to testify. Many of the witnesses were uncooperative during their testimonies, and the best example of this is Lil Woody .

After being arrested in 2021 for gun possession charges, Lil Woody — aka Kenneth Copeland — claimed that he had knowledge about a potential shooting that was going to happen involving YSL and Young Thug. With this knowledge, the state had brought him onto the trial as a key witness, relying heavily on his testimony to solidify their argument and even granting him immunity on the stand for extra assurance.

But the moment Woody began his testimony, things started to fall apart. From purposely being difficult during his interactions with the prosecution to actively admitting that he lied about certain details and events during his interrogation with police, Woody was about as unhelpful with the case as JR Smith was to the Cavaliers during the 2018 NBA finals.

An example of this would be when prosecutor Simone Hylton was asking Woody specific questions about a potential rivalry with Young Thug and rapper Rich Homie Quan’s friend, trying to insinuate that the beef between the two men was gang related. In one of the funniest moments of the trial, Woody instead turns to Thug and repeats the question Hylton had just asked.

Woody’s testimony and overall presence in the case is filled with so many chaotic moments, with one of the most significant ones being the ex parte — which translates to “on one side only” in

Latin — meeting he had with the prosecution and the first judge.

This brings me to arguably the messiest aspect of the case: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville.

I don’t even know where to begin with this man. I think he has some sort of power trip issue, because all throughout the trial he was holding people in contempt of court for some of the smallest things.

One juror who didn’t know about the court’s no-phone policy was held in contempt and given jail time.

Another juror who had a conflicting travel date with her jury service was forced to write a 30-page paper on the importance of jury service. One of the defense attorneys was even held in contempt and arrested for carrying prescription pills outside of their original container.

I think the most baffling thing Glanville did was the aforementioned ex parte meeting that he held between himself, Woody and the prosecution.

Despite the state having offered Woody immunity from any implicating statements on the stand, Judge Glanville threatened to put Woody in jail if he didn’t cooperate more with the prosecutors.

This meeting is prohibited by Georgia’s rule of judicial conduct 2.9, which explicitly states that ex parte meetings are highly unethical and deprives the defendant of their right to due process and a fair trial.

Upon finding out about this, Young Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, raised a motion to confront the judge about the ex parte meeting, and rather than outright denying the allegation Glanville simply

demanded that Steel tell him who leaked information about the meeting.

The two went back and forth for quite some time before the judge threatened to have Steel arrested and jailed if he didn’t give up who exposed the meeting. Unwavering, Steel stood his ground, and true to the judges word, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 days in jail, though he ultimately didn’t serve the time.

On so many occasions, Glanville seemed to abuse his power and preside over the case in egregious ways, and it all eventually caught up to him when he was officially removed from the case.

For both Glanville and the prosecutors to slip up so many times without facing any repercussions honestly baffles me.

The fact that none of aforementioned injustices will impact their careers is indicative of a much larger issue with our criminal justice system.

Prosecutors are granted far too much discretion within our current justice system. They have all of the power. They are able to determine what charges are being pressed against defendants, request high bail or argue for no bail and convince people into taking plea deals for crimes that they had relatively little involvement in — or even no involvement at all.

Despite having the power to quite literally ruin people’s lives, the prosecution often doesn’t face any repercussions for misconduct. This shows the public that the system is inherently biased toward a heavy hand during prosecution. The RICO trial of Young Thug has put a lot of this misconduct on full display for the country to see and has shown that there are deeply rooted flaws within our criminal justice system.

OPINION

09

Croft’s Comments

By Tanner Croft columnist.editor@thenorthernlight.org

Q: Why is your hat on backwards?

A: If I wear it forwards it doesn’t sit right on my head because my glasses get in the way.

Q: Which fraternity should I join?

A: I am partial to TKE, and I admit my bias.

Q: I hate you. What do you have to say about this?

A: I do not need you to like me. Hate me or love me — I am indifferent.

Q: What in your opinion would be a good first step for the university to take to improve social life on campus?

A: I am not sure that it is the university’s job. I think it is the responsibility of the students to improve social life. Of course, the university can do things like encourage FSL, continue to host events that the students are interested in, and maybe even put some effort into making the Student Union more alluring, but it is the students’ job to actually interact with each other.

What would you suggest it be used for?

Q: Why was the halloween “rave” not a rave at all?

A: I was unaware that there even was a “rave.” But I assume it was because it had to adhere to strict rules.

Q: Is the snow plowing going to improve this year on campus?

A: So far so good. We can only hope that they are able to keep up with the snowfall this year.

Q: Greek Life needs to expand and the word of FSL needs to be spread.

A: How would you recommend they spread the word better?

Q: UAA needs to build more housing to supply the larger amount of students.

A: Yes, but that would mean that our fees as students would have to go up to cover the cost of the new housing.

Q: What did you dress up as for Halloween?

A: I was a very promiscuous lumberjack.

Q: Why is UAA raising tuition next fall?!

A: I am sure that there is some very political answer to this, and TNL will look into it, but my own assumption is that the university needs to financially recover from the long-lasting impacts of the pandemic.

Q: The Lucy Cuddy Quad is cool, it should be used more!

A: I couldn’t agree more!

Q: UAA needs more food options near main campus (SU, Library etc.) more than subway

and the marketplace that has weird hours.

A: This is something that I have been thinking about since I came to UAA. I am still trying to find the best way to get the university to listen to the opinions of the students, but comments like this help raise the issue. Maybe they will hear us.

Q: Have you even gone to an event at the Student Union?

A: I have! Quite a few!

Q: I want to take more classes that encourage/force social interaction, any recommendations?

A: Take a communications class with Mounds-Craft, she is great at creating an atmosphere that encourages that social interaction. You are sure to make at least one friend by the end of it.

Q: I’ve never read The Northern Light before, but saw your “Late To The Party” article and got intrigued, I will definitely be reading more. My question is, why is it so hard to get informed about campus life and events?

As someone who lives at home still and drives 20 minutes for the 1-2 in-person classes I can get, I only just learned the library even has study rooms, and I took three campus tours before enrolling! Are there even social events that aren’t just free coffee with your professors?

A: There are social events, but I will say that this school is overwhelmingly cliquey. If you’re not an athlete, good luck even getting a “hello” from the athletes. They are more likely to

GRAPHIC BY EDLEEN GUIAO.

call you a NARP than to respond with a hi. And they aren’t the only cliquey group, either. There are definitely social events, both provided by the school and put on by the students, but it is hard to be informed of them unless you are a part of whatever group is hosting the event. However, a lot of students are trying to change this aspect in order to be more inclusive.

Q: How do you go about telling someone they need better personal hygiene, and that they have an odor?

A: Honesty is always the best option. A good friend is an honest friend, even when it may hurt someone’s feelings.

Q: What is your third favorite

reptile?

A: Komodo Dragons.

Q: Why does the dining hall suck so bad? I’d rather eat a bag of monkey turds instead of chef’s choice.

A: You should petition the school to let the students have some say in what is served at the dining hall. Maybe TNL can take a poll and see what food the students would like to have available.

Q: Would you rather be kicked in the balls by a pro soccer player or punched in the face by a pro boxer?

A: Punched in the face by a pro boxer, on the condition that it is Mike Tyson when he was in his prime. Go big or go home.

Lore Accurate Humans: Peter Freuchen History column covering the real lives of people throughout history. This week’s subject: Peter Freuchen

By Scott Hobbs columnist1@thenorthernlight.org

Everyone’s got that grandpa who goes on about his glory days, back when he benched 405 in high school, fought one billion lions and won, and was by all accounts the most legendary man to ever walk the face of the Earth. Most grandkids brush it off, knowing full well that their grandpa wasn’t all that. But Peter Freuchen was all that — and more.

Born in 1886 in Denmark, Peter Freuchen was baptized Catholic, studied medicine at University, and led a relatively normal life until 1906, at age 20, he went on his first expedition to Greenland. This would be the first of many voyages with other known legend Knud Rasmussen.

On this particular voyage, they would travel 600 miles across Greenland by dogsled to map the remainder of the island, and see if there were any remaining Inuit people on the island.

They would end up accomplishing both goals when they met the Inuit people on their trip along the northeastern coastline.

The two spent time learning the language, trading with the natives, and hunting everything from wolves to walruses as they absorbed as much of the culture as they could.

Freuchen fell in love with Greenland and — together with Rasmussen — established the

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.

Thule outpost so he would have a home base for the next decade of expeditions that he would go on across Greenland.

The most noteworthy of the expeditions was The First Thule Expedition — where Freuchen’s only goal was to disprove the claim that Peary Land and Greenland weren’t connected.

He would accomplish this by covering 1,000 kilometers of ice

with an expedition team, nearly dying multiple times in the process.

He met and married his first wife, Mekupaluk, in 1911, and she joined him on several of his expeditions. However, she would die of the Spanish Flu in 1921, and when the church refused to bury her, Freuchen dug the grave himself.

Freuchen returned to Den-

mark in the 1920s, where he joined the Social Democrats and became a writer for the newspaper Politiken while also commencing work on the first of his 30 books he would publish. It was also at this time he married his second wife, Magda Vang Lauridsen.

In 1926, he wanted to return to Greenland for a dogsled trip across the country. Instead, he ended up getting stuck under an avalanche. According to his own claims, to free himself he had to freeze a bowel movement into a dagger. While the manner in which he freed himself is still unknown, what is known is that he then crawled for three hours back to Thule, saw that his toes had gangrene, and amputated them himself with a hammer and pliers — without anesthesia.

Unfortunately, that effort wasn’t enough to save the rest of the leg, which required amputation and replacement with a peg.

The amputation didn’t stop Freuchen from continuing to be larger-than-life, especially when World War II rolled around. Never someone who tolerated any sort of discrimination, Freuchen didn’t take kindly to those who expressed anti-Semitic views.

He would often rectify the situation by approaching the person in question, towering over them at his staggering height of 6’7”, and claim to be Jewish to see if they would lift a finger or tuck their tail and run.

He also served as an active

member of the Danish Resistance, where he hid refugees and worked to undermine Nazi operations. He became such a nuisance that when he was finally arrested by the Germans, he was sentenced to death. He managed to escape, flee to Sweden and continue to wreak havoc for most of the rest of the war.

In 1945, he moved to New York and refocused on his careers in writing and filmmaking, marrying his third wife Dagmar Cohn and waiting out the end of the war.

In 1956, he made an appearance on the show “The $64,000 Question,” where he would become the fifth person to ever win the show. This was in large part due to the fact that they asked him about his area of expertise — the Seven Seas.

In the preface of the final book he released, the date he noted was Aug. 30, 1957. Three days later, he insisted on carrying his own bags up a long flight of stairs at Elmendorf Air Base in Anchorage, Alaska, when he suffered a heart attack, dying at the age of 71. That kind of lifespan for anyone leading as adventurous of a life as Freuchen was unheard of at the time. Following his death, the mythos surrounding this man — all 6’7” of him — has expanded a bit beyond the truth, but underneath the tall tales lies a legendary foundation that Freuchen built by hand, one exploit at a time.

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OPINION

NFL power rankings: Week 10 Football column: weekly rankings of NFL teams.

By Scott Hobbs columnist1@thenorthernlight.org

Week 9 was a week of extremes: games were either won by a single score or they were over by the third quarter. And after sifting through all the games, I have my picks for the best teams in the league for Week 10.

0. The Kansas City Chiefs This column will always feature the Kansas City Chiefs at rank 0. The NFL is currently rigged for the Chiefs to win it all; as such, I refuse to have them take up a spot on the list of best teams in the league. They aren’t one of the best teams in the league; they just get constantly bailed out by the refs — which was on full display at multiple points during their matchup against Tampa Bay. That is my stance unless, by some miracle, they don’t win a Super Bowl, God help us all if they three-peat this year.

8. The Atlanta Falcons Making their first appearance of the season on this list, the Falcons confuse me. I wrestled with whether they should be on this list because of how inconsistent they have been, but as of now it seems like they’ve settled into the top spot in their division.

Granted, this is coming after a win where they looked dominant versus the Dallas Cowboys — but any team can look dominant against “America’s Team.”

That said, they had a dominant October and it looks as though they will continue adding to their win column into the latter

half of the season.

7. The Philadelphia Eagles Another first appearance on the list, the Eagles have been quietly returning to their 2022 form after a weak finish to their season last year. This has largely been due to the offseason acquisition of Saquon Barkley, who became a free agent this spring when the Giants failed to extend him. All he’s done so far in Philadelphia is reestablish a dominant run-game that has helped reinvigorate their offense. It remains to be seen if they can continue that kind of output against teams down the stretch, but as of now it looks like Saquon is going to run over every team standing in their way of a top spot in the playoffs.

6. The Minnesota Vikings At this point, I don’t know what Vikings team this current Vikings team reminds me of.

The fact that they went from undefeated to two straight losses to barely holding off a floundering Colts team on “Sunday Night Football” has me all kinds of baffled. That said, it seems like they may or may not be back on track, especially if Sam Darnold is able to limit his turnovers in games going forward. I don’t know where they belong anymore, so I’m keeping them at six until they figure out the rest of their season.

5. The Baltimore Ravens Another team I still can’t make any sense of: the Ravens might be back for real this time?

They looked overwhelmingly dominant against the Denver Broncos, manhandling a consensus top-three defense and

seemingly scoring at will. Their defense also stifled the Broncos’ offense, holding them to 10 points. In a must-win game, the Ravens got the job done and are looking to carry that momentum into their Thursday night matchup against the Bengals. If they can secure a win against the Bengals heading into their bye week, I think they might just be back to dominating the league.

4. The Washington Commanders The Commanders had another sloppy week, holding off the Giants to complete their season sweep of the team. While it felt like the game was slipping away from the Commanders, it also felt like they were in the driver’s seat the whole time. That alone keeps me confident that this team is just getting back in the swing of things after Jayden Daniels rib injury. The team also just traded for defensive back Marshon Lattimore, signaling that the Commanders are going all in on winning it all this season after their red-hot start.

3. The Green Bay Packers Many would argue the Packers are not the third-best team in the league. I would argue otherwise. While they are currently sitting at 6-3 and third in their division, their losses have been close against some of the best teams in the league. This includes a close game last week against the Lions, where the loss really came down to small mistakes and not the team falling flat as a whole. I’ll be concerned if they lose to a worse opponent, but right now the Packers still look like one of the top teams in

NFL power rankings: Week 9 Football column: weekly rankings of NFL teams.

By Scott Hobbs columnist1@thenorthernlight.org

Week 8 of the NFL regular season was full of upsets, onesided contests and close matchups from start to finish. Now that the dust has settled, here are the top teams in the league heading into Week 9.

0. The Kansas City Chiefs This column will always feature the Kansas City Chiefs at rank 0. The NFL is currently rigged so that the Chiefs will win it all, and, as such, I refuse to have them take up a spot on the list of best teams in the league. They aren’t one of the best teams in the league; they just get constantly bailed out by the refs. That is my stance unless, by some miracle, they don’t win a Super Bowl, God help us all if they three-peat this year.

8. The Baltimore Ravens As I mentioned last week, the Ravens are an incredibly volatile team. Their defensive production has slowed as the season has progressed, but the offense has managed to pick up the slack. In

a matchup that I thought would be equivalent to David vs. Goliath, the 1-6, Jameis Winston-led Browns played a full 60 minutes of football and handed the Ravens a tough loss. While the Ravens acquired Diontae Johnson to shore up their offense, it’s still going to take more than a new receiver to get this team back on track.

7. The Denver Broncos The Broncos are a very interesting team to me. On one hand, their defense is one of the better units in the league, and they’ve beaten teams they’re supposed to beat somewhat handily. On the other hand, they haven’t really faced a solid team outside of the Buccaneers. They have a real test ahead of them, facing the Ravens, Chiefs and a red-hot Falcons team over the next three weeks. While it’s a daunting stretch of games to stare down, if the Broncos are at the very least able to play well in close games, they may emerge as one of the better teams in the league.

6. The Minnesota Vikings Last week, I said the current Vikings team reminded me of

the 2022 Vikings, who played many close, one-score games over the course of their season.

But after two straight losses, they’re starting to remind me of the 2016 Vikings team that started off 5-0 and ended their season 8-8, missing the playoffs.

Now, while that may be a bit of an overreaction after a close loss to a rising Rams team, the team also can’t possibly repeat that record. This is because seasons are now 17 games instead of 16, so the team can’t collapse to an 8-8 finish like they did in 2016. With their remaining schedule, an 8-9 finish isn’t out of the question if they can’t get back to winning.

5. The Houston Texans The Texans are concerning me a bit. All season I’ve expected them to blow out all their weaker opponents, but that’s only really happened in one game against the Patriots. Even last week, Anthony Richardson and the Colts played a horrible game, and the Texans barely escaped with a three-point win. A trade to bolster their receiving corps might help, especially now that Stefon Diggs is out for the

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.

the league.

2. The Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills aren’t heating up anymore — they’re on fire. The Bills played a deceptively competitive Dolphins team and executed on all three sides. The defense held the Dolphins to 27 points, Josh Allen led drives and helped the offense execute in key situations, and Tyler Bass came in clutch, knocking a 61-yard field goal clean through the uprights to win the game.

The Bills don’t normally play so well in high-pressure situations, which gives me confidence that they are finally on track to break their playoff curse — and, if ev-

erything goes right, bring a title back to Buffalo.

1. The Detroit Lions The Lions are a step above every other team in the league.

They are playing dominantly on all sides of the ball and they show no signs of letting up. Jared Goff managed a 17-3 lead coming into the second half — thanks largely in part to a Kerby Joseph pick-six — and kept the Lions on track to win a tough away game against the Green Bay Packers.

I’m waiting for another team to prove me wrong in saying this, but for the third week in a row, the Detroit Lions seem to be the best team in football.

season, but this team has some kinks to work out as they make their way through the back-half of the season.

4. The Green Bay Packers This Packers team has a lot going for them right now. Despite a second injury to Jordan Love and a close win against Jacksonville, players like Tucker Kraft and Josh Jacobs have helped pick up the slack. The Packers’ defense is also nothing to scoff at, with Xavier McKinney’s league-leading six interceptions anchoring one of the league’s better units. While the rest of the season features multiple difficult opponents, the Packers should have no issues handling the rest of their schedule if they continue playing the way they are.

3. The Washington Commanders The Commanders had a very sloppy win against the Bears last week, but I don’t think it would have been that close if Jayden Daniels had been healthy. The team’s only real issue was its inability to finish drives, resulting in only field goals being scored by the team until the last play of the game. That said, the Commanders can only continue to improve as Jayden Daniels’ rib injury heals and their offense gets back in sync.

2. The Buffalo Bills

The Bills are a scary team.

Josh Allen threw only his first interception of the season last week, and they manhandled a solid Seahawks team with standout performances from Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman. I wasn’t sure at the start of the season if the team’s approach of receiver-by-committee would work, but the offense so far has been firing on all cylinders week in and week out. Unless Josh Allen returns to old form and starts turning the ball over multiple times in a game, this team is definitely playoff-bound.

1. The Detroit Lions 12-15, 85 yards, three touchdowns. Those are Jared Goff’s passing stats from his game against the Titans. But if those were only his stats, how did the team score 52 points? Jahmyr Gibbs cracked off a 70-yard touchdown run, David Montgomery ran in a touchdown and threw a touchdown to Sam LaPorta, Kalif Raymond returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown, and Jake Bates nailed a 51-yard field goal all before the end of the third quarter. The Lions had amazing field position throughout the game thanks to poor special teams plays from the Titans, and for the second week in a row, they are still the best team in the league.

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OPINION

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024

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Just Sociology Tings: The history of Zionist propaganda Zionist propaganda has led to an antagonistic narrative surrounding the people of Palestine.

By Nahla White columnist2@thenorthernlight.org

It is almost laughable to see the mental gymnastics people will perform to defend Israel’s actions.

While the civilian casualties of the Oct. 7 attacks are no doubt a tragedy, they do not justify the nearly 400 days of constant bombardment and terror that the people of Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been subjected to.

Even though Israel is responsible for the bombing of refugee camps, schools, hospitals and places of worship, many people still rally behind the idea that Israel reserves the right to defend itself, therefore warranting such acts of aggression toward the Palestinian people.

Palestinian acts of resistance and self-defense are often portrayed as terrorism, and this is due to the dehumanization of Palestinians and Israel’s history of widespread propaganda.

Israel’s establishment as a nation-state in 1947 came with the agreement to split Palestine into two separate states, but the war between Israel and neighboring countries resulted in Israel’s expansion into the rest of the Palestinian territory. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs were forced out of their homes, and in the following decades, the world witnessed the emergence of an apartheid state that mirrored South Africa and the United States.

This act of colonization forced Palestinians into separate territories and subjected them to different institutions, infrastructure and a lesser quality of living, fostering the sense of otherness needed in order to create an “us-versus-them” mentality among Israeli citizens.

Dehumanization is one of the key elements required in marginalizing a group of people.

While establishing a sense of otherness is often the first step, stripping that group of its likeness and humanity is essential for an oppressive group to gain and maintain power over the oppressed.

With Palestinians now being labeled as the “other” in their own homeland, it didn’t take long for the dehumanization of their people to follow.

Different religious texts often referred to the people of Palestine as idol worshippers that were prone to violence. Both Christians and Jews wrote about Philistines extensively. The Philistines were a group that occupied the area now known as the Gaza Strip. Their polytheistic religious practices were considered sacrilegious by those who practiced monotheistic religions, and they were often written about in an antagonistic light.

This precedent gave birth to the narrative that the rivalry between Palestinian and Jewish people is one that stemmed from thousands of years of religious differences, allowing the rest of the world to dismiss the conflict

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZAK IFRAN.

Anti-Zionist Jewish protestors speaking out against the genocide in Gaza.

as mere tribalism rather than an extensive history of genocide and colonization.

We also see the repercussions of this narrative in the language often used to describe ethnic groups that are indigenous to the Middle East.

Currently, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “Philistine” — among many things — as “an uneducated or unenlightened person; one perceived to be indifferent or hostile to art or culture.”

The numerous other definitions listed in the dictionary all exist within a somewhat negative connotation, either used as a derogatory or antagonistic term.

On top of that, the development of the concept of race enabled the dehumanization of Arabs and Palestinians. During the rise of European colonialism after the 16th and 17th centuries, many people tried to justify their inhumane treatment of Indigenous and enslaved peoples by determining that they were a human subspecies, making them more comparable to animals rather than Homo sapiens.

The combination of all these factors gave birth to the narrative that the holy land that supposedly belonged to Jewish people was being inhabited by a “lesser race” that was uncivilized by nature and worshiped the “wrong God.” And while this dehumanization existed years before the 9/11 attacks, the aftermath of the attacks and the subsequent war on terror did irreparable damage to the West’s perception of people in the Middle East.

That same “us-versus-them” mentality soon infected America, with many people unifying against a common enemy they saw as a threat to their freedom and safety. As soon as news came out that the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were of Middle Eastern descent, anti-Arab and Islamophobic rhetoric began to spread like a plague all across the United States.

Even though this type of sen-

timent in American politics and Western media has never fully disappeared, it saw an influx during the Trump presidency and another one recently in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks — allowing more Westerners to support Israel in their current bombing campaign on Gaza.

The dehumanization of Palestinians has always played an integral role in Israel’s mission to justify its violence and oppression of the Palestinian people. In a world where anything outside of whiteness is antagonized, it didn’t take much for Israel to gain the support of the West.

However, I think it’s also important to discuss the ways anti-Semitism influences the way people discuss Israel’s status as a nation-state. Many criticisms toward Israel’s actions are often written off as anti-Semitism, which highlights another key aspect about Israeli propaganda: the conflation of Zionism and Judaism.

While the idea that Jews were entitled to Palestinian land has existed for centuries, the term Zionism wasn’t introduced until 1885 by Nathan Birnbaum.

While Birnbaum gave a name to the concept, it was Theodor Herzl — a pioneer of the Zionist movement — who expanded on the ideas exponentially.

He championed the belief that giving Jewish people a home in Palestine would serve as a solution for Jews escaping the threat of persecution in Europe while also granting the anti-Semites their wishes of living in a land free from Jews.

When the atrocities of the Holocaust were finally unleashed, and the rest of the world saw firsthand the devastating impact that anti-Semetic rhetoric could have on an ethnic group, the push for Zionism intensified with numerous Western nations backing behind the establishment of a homeland for European Jews.

Because of the belief that Israel’s existence as a nation-state

provided a solution to anti-Semitism and its harmful consequences, it didn’t take long for people to latch onto the idea that Zionism represented Judaism as a whole. Under this paradigm, any criticism of Zionism — and Israel — was a criticism of Judaism, which would be interpreted as anti-Semetic.

Israel very much uses this narrative to its advantage whenever organizations and media outlets are critical of its inhumane treatment of Palestinian people. Numerous activists, politicians and journalists have been labeled as anti-Semetic and have even suffered repercussions as a result of denouncing their support of Israel as they continue to oppress and kill thousands of Palestinians.

While more people are starting to uncover the extent to

which Israeli propaganda runs in our media, it’ll take so much undoing to get to the root of the issue — and reverse the real world implications and repercussions that it has had on the people who suffer the most from it.

In America, we see the same dispute around the discussion of critical race theory — or CRT. CRT places a lot of emphasis on how the under-discussed elements of history allow for the mistreatment of Black and brown people in the United States.

So much of Palestinian history has been hidden away and misconstrued as a result of Zionist ideology and propaganda, allowing for antagonistic historical narratives to justify the mistreatment of the people of Palestine.