Tuna Talk DECEMBER 2016
Table of Contents 1 OMG! LOL! TTYL! What is Your Teen Saying? by Phoenix Bieneman
3 Stop the Silence: Why Roeper Needs to Teach the Armenian Genocide by Simon Roennecke
7 Hellmer in the House: Behind the Scenes with RTC Technical Director by Josh Stiebel
11 Honesty, Journalism, and You: How to Avoid News Bias by Rory Popp
13 The Halls Are Alive With the Sound of Construction by Michael Bosway
15 Ari Teitel ‘12 Strikes a Chord with New Jazz Album by Zach Zarewych
19 How to Have Hope
by Nadav Pais-Greenapple
23 With Liberty and Justice for All Getting to Know Bryan Stevenson by annelise ivanescu
Dear Readers,
Dear Readers, It’s been a long time coming, but here it is: the first true Tuna Talk of the year. We placated your tastes with our fall supplement a few weeks ago, but now we are back in full force with all sorts of brand new stories to excite and inform you. We have many new staff members this semester, and they have certainly delivered. Freshman Josh Steibel and junior Zach Zarewych have contributed neat Q & A’s with Roeper Theater Company Technical Director Ttari Hellmer and musician Ari Teitel ‘12 respectively. Freshman Rory Popp presents a thought-provoking editorial on the virtues of unbiased reporting with “Honesty, Journalism, and You.” Junior Michael Bosway addresses the familiar (and disruptive) sounds of the courtyard renovation in “The Halls are Alive With the Sound of Construction.” Veteran reporter and Assistant Editor Simon Roennecke has written an outstanding feature: “Stop the Silence: Why Roeper Needs to Teach the Armenian Genocide.” So as the temperature drops, snow settles down onto the fallen leaves, and holiday music floats over the airwaves, curl up by the fire with a glass of eggnog and prepare for December break (only a couple weeks away!) with your favorite newspaper: Tuna Talk. Yours in journalism,
Tuna Talk Staff
FRONT ROW (L-R): Assistant Editor Phoenix Bieneman, Editor Nadav Pais-Greenapple, Assistant Editor Simon Roennecke BACK ROW: Rory Popp, Josh Stiebel, Madison Gladney, Zach Zarewych, Michael Bosway, Alexis Johnson, Assistant Editor Janea Wilson, Annelise Ivanescu Advisor & Layout Linda Vernon
OMG! LOL! TTYL! What is Your Teen Saying? By Phoenix Bieneman
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Do you have a teenager? Do you struggle to decipher every single word they say? Are you bamboozled by the words in the texts and the emails they send you? You’re not alone! Pull up any site on the Internet frequented by teens, and you will instantly notice the anarchy of lowercase letters, missing punctuation, and misused words. You think teenage grammar has gone to the winds. Think again! Your teen may actually be a linguistic genius! Teenagers now are in the digital age, and a lot - let’s face it: most - of their communication is done over text - be it actual texting, instant messaging, email, or social media. Information travels faster than light, and it travels without the help of facial expression or tone of voice. So what’s a teen to do? Change all the rules of traditional grammar, of course! Different grammar in casual online interactions makes it easier to communicate effectively. That’s right: your teen may actually know basic grammar rules! They didn’t go through second grade for nothing, after all. You don’t even have to be worried about capitalization. Many teenagers don’t capitalize anything, which creates a more casual tone. When they want to be formal, they immediately revert to the capitalization rules they learned in school - this is called code switching. Capitalization can also provide emphasis. Your teen might be writing emails to you with phrases like, “i Do Not Want to do this.” That’s a good sign that they really Do Not Want to do something! If they say this, and you are making them do something, consider this: don’t. Congratulations on learning your first teenage communication tip! The same goes for abbreviating words. You may sigh and swoon at abbreviations like “u” instead of “you” or “2” instead of “to,” but those abbreviations, surprisingly enough, serve a purpose. Despite once just being another part of “chatspeak,” - which was used in the early days of texting - people now usually only use “2” now when they’re expressing dread via false cheer (“are you ready 2 suffer?”), and “u” could very well be replacing the long-lost “thou” as an informal second person pronoun, similar to the role of tu in French or Spanish. If you are confounded by your teen’s bad spelling, but they still get an “A” on every vocabulary quiz, your teen might be using a new linguistic trick! Even misspelling is often done consciously - usually used to convey a state of mental disarray. The phrase, “i cnat od this” is a violently different message from,
“I can’t do this.” The former communicates a vague, undirected thought, whereas the latter is a directed, specific statement. Of course, you know that language can’t get by on grammar alone, and that’s true of Internet language, too. You may have seen articles that list slang terms for parents, but the problem with that is those lists are also made by adults. The only person who can tell you what your teen is saying is your teen, who probably still knows how to talk like you and, in fact, would love to be listened to. Online lists are outdated - at best - and, at worst, incorrect or full of words that many teenagers don’t even know. The truth is that there are so many people on the Internet and their language changes so fast that it’s hard to get a handle on what the slang of the moment is. The Internet is made up of millions of people, only one of whom is your teen. That’s right: your kid is special. Moving on to more important matters, your child has surely mentioned “dank memes” in your presence. You might be worried: is “dank” a swear word? What’s a “meme?” Don’t worry! A meme is only an inside joke shared by Internet users. Memes affect what your teenagers say, and because it’s an inside joke, some people do indeed understand what they mean, even though it’s completely impossible for you. And memes are always changing, so you may never be able to decipher what your teen means when they mention “dat boi” or “dabbing” before they move on to something else. You’ve probably mastered “OMG” and “LOL.” Maybe you’ve even worked out “ROFL” and “TTYL.” But you might not know about the wide array of other abbreviations that your teen may be using, and you most likely don’t understand why they use them. Your teen is using abbreviations to serve a purpose other than to annoy you! Your teen may write “tbt” (short for “throwback Thursday”) or tbh (“to be honest”). Maybe you’ve even heard them say it out loud. What does this signify? Although these are shorter to type, they’re no Internet slang, and they usually mean a specific iteration of the abbreviation’s parent phrase. For example, although “throwback Thursday” started as a trend of posting old pictures of oneself on Thursdays, “tbt” is used on days other than Thursday - usually to laugh about something that happened a long time ago - in either a work of fiction, or in the world as a whole. You’re surely bemoaning the way the word “literally” has changed. Don’t worry; you
have nothing to fear! This is typical of language in general; words change meaning over time, and words come from unexpected places. A lot of teen slang is actually taken from African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, and if you can get your mind around that, you can believe that “and” used to be another word for “if,” in addition to its use as a conjunction. If you go back far enough, even the word “girl” used to refer to anyone young, regardless of gender. “Nice” has gone through countless meanings over time, most of them negative. Think back to your own teenage days: what words did you change? And what about the word “like?” Perhaps it really grinds your parenting gears, but “like” actually does serve a purpose. For example, parents often get angry at their teens saying “was like” instead of “said” when they’re telling stories. But, surprise, “was like” is another linguistic hole that teenagers have managed to fill! “Was like” generally means that they’re paraphrasing what a person actually said, often to editorialize a conversation. For example, someone might have said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t do that,” but your teen might say they were like, “No way am I letting you get away with that!” You must be wary at all times for hyperbole in your teen’s paraphrases. Sometimes a hyperbole might slither past you like a snake that neither hisses nor rattles, and you will be afraid your teen actually thinks that you have 54 copies of the March 2012 edition of Newsweek instead of, say, five. This is completely normal, but don’t be afraid to ask your teen to clarify! Are you wondering why this is so hard for you to learn? Are you trying to figure out how your teen remembers it all? Well, it turns out, they don’t have to! Not consciously, at least. Your teen knows this grammar as easily as you know your native language. Don’t be discouraged! Other people can learn your language, and you can learn your teen’s! Be warned, though: your teen might not even use all of these trends. Every teen types differently. Find out how your teen types to decipher their messages even more easily. To make your job easier, we are sharing examples of real teens talking about how they text! See if you can spot the differences. “There are some people I know whose texts are so hard to understand,” says senior Adam Harris, surely echoing your own thoughts. “They use so many acronyms and so many short-of-hand words that I just don’t understand what they’re saying.” He says that he uses acronyms, but not that many, because it actually becomes “too much.” His favorite acronym? TGIF, which expands to “thank goodness it’s Friday.” Senior Jonathon Borja is even scarier to the modern parent. “When I’m texting with friends, I will use textspeak, abbreviations and also more casual things that we say, like
“wanna” and stuff that isn’t formal English,” he says. He also notes that punctuation “gets kind of weird” when he’s talking to friends, and sometimes he will insert a period for a pause when standard grammar would dictate otherwise. Borja fully admits to using textspeak and abbreviations to convey a casual tone, “since we can’t convey it through . . . what we would use in real life.” In fact, and this may be a shock to some confused parents out there, Borja’s favorite slang word isn’t a word at all, but an emoticon, or group of punctuation and letters that is meant to represent a facial expression. Out loud, he struggles to describe it, saying, “I call it the shrug emoticon?” On paper, it looks like this: It gets to the point where, if your teen didn’t know who their messages were from, they would still be able to figure it out by the specific combination of capitalization, spelling habits, and grammar habits. This is ever more useful as more and more teenagers discover the name change function on different messaging platforms. One day, your child could be John Smith, and the next, they might be “30000 screaming lizards.” You should assume that they have not actually turned into a multitude of roaring reptiles, but then you’re left with only typing style, chat history, and sometimes profile picture to help you rediscover who they are. Of course, your child’s teen years are full of rediscovery anyway, so this shouldn’t be too hard! Good job! You’ve now learned a lot of good tips for interacting with your teenage child. If you remember these, you will soon know what your teen is saying every time they text. Until the rules change again, that is...
Here are some real slang words and abbreviations that your teen might use: w/e: whatever lit: especially fun v: very abt: about rip: rest in peace, used casually in situations of minor discomfort thank: thank you yikes: oh, goodness, I have just seen something mildly discomforting and/or disturbing zoinks: oh, goodness, I have just seen something incredibly discomforting and/or disturbing irl: in real life, separate from digital existence. note: yes, teenagers do spend time separate from digital existence, albeit rarely. ye: yes
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Stop the Silence! Why Roeper Needs to Teach the Armenian Genocide By Simon Roennecke
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Roeper was created with one central goal: to prevent a future Holocaust. Prevention comes from learning, as those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So then why is the first modern-day genocide not taught at Roeper? On April 24, 1915, the Armenian Genocide began. Prior to this date, there were around two million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Seven years later, there were under 400,000. Both of my great-grandparents on my mother’s side were killed in the Armenian Genocide. The roots of the Armenian Genocide go back to 400 A.D., when Armenia became the first nation in the world to make Christianity its official religion. Thirteen centuries later, Armenia was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the Ottoman Empire’s citizens and their rulers were Muslim and viewed the Armenians as “infidels.” They subjected religious minorities, like the Christians, to unequal treatment, such as higher taxes and limited political rights. Resentment towards the Armenians by the Turks began when the Armenian people thrived under Ottoman rule. Even with unjust treatment, Armenians were often wealthier and better educated than the Turkish people. In addition, there were suspicions that the Armenians would be more loyal to nearby Christian governments, such as Russia, than they would be to the Ottoman caliphate. These suspicions grew stronger as the Ottoman Empire began to crumble at the end of the 19th century. In 1908, the Young Turks — a new group of reformers — overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid and set in place a more modern constitutional government. One of the biggest goals of the Young Turks was to “Turkify” the Empire, which meant getting rid of non-Turks, who were viewed as threats to security. When World War I began in 1914, Ottoman religious authorities declared holy war against all non-allied Christians. Soon after, Armenians were giving aid to the Russian military, which was fighting against the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Allies. Following this, the Ottoman government decided to finally “re-
move” the Armenians from the region, and the genocide of the Armenian people began. On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman government arrested and slaughtered several hundred Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Then, the attention turned to normal Armenians, who were taken out of their homes and sent on death marches into the Syrian Desert. On these marches, Armenians were forced to walk under the scorching heat without food, water, or rest until they dropped dead. If they stopped to rest, they would be shot. The Armenians on these marches were often robbed, stripped naked, and even raped. Simultaneously, the Young Turks arranged “killing squads,” often made up of ex-convicts, to go out and kill as many Armenians as possible by any means necessary. They drowned Armenians in rivers and in the Black Sea, threw them off cliffs, crucified them, burned them alive, and much more. Some children were also injected with morphine and killed with toxic gas during school. It was said that Armenian bodies littered the countryside. Many children were kidnapped, converted to Islam, and sent to live with Turkish families. Many women were raped and forced to join harems to serve as slaves. Turkish families moved into the homes of the Armenians and seized their property. When the genocide ended in 1922, only 388,000 Armenians remained. Among the 1.5+ million deaths were my great-grandfather, Apraham Ignatiosian and his wife, Aroosiag. Apraham was murdered in his village, Palu, in 1915. My great grandmother, Aroosiag, drowned herself in the river to avoid suffering in the death march and being forced to convert to Islam, among other possible atrocities. Apraham and Aroosiag had four children, including Aram, my grandfather. When he was 8-years-old, Aram and his siblings — along with his two aunts and an uncle — were forced on the death march. The route took them through Aleppo, Syria. Along the way, Aram was taken by a Turkish family. He remained with this family — which included a vicious father — for five years, doing much forced labor. In 1920, his aunt Victoria found him and
Armenian women and children on the death march through the Syrian Desert.
took him with her to an American orphanage. He lived at this orphanage with some 300 other children for a short time, where he was miraculously reunited with his siblings and aunts. They took the train to Aleppo and stayed in the main American orphanage for eight months. At this point, they were near starvation. Sunday dinner consisted of bread and water. A school at the Armenian orphanage taught the children the Armenian alphabet for the first time. In 1921, Aram’s uncles — who escaped before the massacre and were now living in the United States — arranged for the survivors to come to the U.S.. A long train voyage to Marseille, France, led them to a boat in which they sailed across the ocean to Providence, Rhode Island. After attending school and learning to speak English, Aram moved to Detroit to begin medical school at Wayne State University. He met my grandmother and that is why I am here today. Fellow Armenian Rachel Keteyian ‘15 shares a similar story of her family history. “My dad’s side of the family is the Armenian side,” Keteyian says. “I believe my dad’s dad’s family got out before the genocide began, but I think it was my dad’s mom who lost her family, including both of her parents.” Keteyian’s great-grandmother had a miraculous story of survival. “The Turks came into her village, and she was put on the death march as a child,” says Keteyian. “Somehow, her brother, who was in Can-
ada, found her in a list of survivors in an Armenian newspaper. She was in an orphanage, and her brother managed to get her on a boat to Canada, and that’s the reason that I’m here today.” So with this event that has put several students, including Keteyian and myself, in positions to be living in the United States and going to this school, to what specific extent is the Armenian Genocide taught at Roeper? “I think in Mike Ruddy’s 8th grade Social Studies class, he mentioned it for like a sentence,” Keteyian says. “It was never in depth or a real education on it, it was just ‘this happened.’” This small, one-sentence teaching of the Armenian Genocide is still infinitely more than I ever received at Roeper. When asked if the Armenian Genocide is included in his curriculum, Ruddy responded, “I believe I teach about it, both in its origins in the first World War, as well as its reference to by the Nazis at the Wannsee conference.” As he made this claim, Ruddy searched for the word “Armenian” in all of his notes. No search results were found. Max Collins, the Upper School’s 20th Century World History teacher, also rarely mentions the Armenian Genocide in any of his classes. “I have sometimes included it in my lecture about the Ottoman Empire, but sometimes not,” Collins says. “It’s a question of relative priorities, and I sometimes do change those
priorities. If people are interested in having that in the class, I wouldn’t object to it.” Although neither teachers of global history teach about — or even really mention — the Armenian Genocide, both Ruddy and Collins see the importance of students knowing about it. “I think that students should absolutely know about it,” Ruddy says. “Within the last century, it’s the first of many genocides. [The Holocaust ended in] 1945, and we thought that would be the last genocide, but unfortunately, it continues to repeat itself. I think that’s why it’s critically important.” Collins is a bit more indifferent, but still agrees. “I think that it’s a legitimate topic and that it’s important,” Collins says. “In that sense, I think [students] should know about it.” Keteyian points out another factor about the Armenian Genocide that gives even more reason for it to be taught. “It was the first genocide of the 20th
century,” Keteyian says. “I know it was right before the war, so I feel like there are ties to the war and oppression. I feel like you could totally make it a part of the curriculum if you chose to. Also, it was a huge thing, so…” Both Ruddy and Collins acknowledge that students need to be taught about the Armenian Genocide to be knowledgeable about it. “It doesn’t sound like students would be aware of it unless they are taught about it,” Collins says. “It’s not something that people are just going to learn about on their own.” Ruddy is aware of one of the most significant facets of the Armenian Genocide today. “I think the Armenian Genocide’s significance is that people don’t realize it occurred,” says Ruddy. What Ruddy is referring to is the fact that the Turkish government denies that this event even occurred. They deny the planned, systematic killing of over 1.5 million Armenian people, including both of my great-grandparents. They deny this catastrophic mass killing
ABOVE: (L-R) Zabel Igntiosian (my great aunt), Kardovil Ignatiosian (my great aunt), Aram Ignatiosian (my grandfather), Victoria Ignatiosian (my great aunt) and Ara Ignatiosian (my great uncle). Photo taken in Providence, Rhode Island when they entered the United States in 1921. Photo courtesy of Patricia Ignatius
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which was so great that the word “genocide” had to be invented to describe the extreme nature of it. This denial is instilled in the Turkish people at birth. Turkish textbooks describe Armenians as traitors, and refer to the genocide as a lie. In a nationwide poll, only 9% of Turkish people believe that the word “genocide” should be used to describe what occurred in 1915, and that the government should issue a formal apology. This denial becomes even stronger when other nations become involved. If any allied nation calls Turkey out on the denial, or even uses the word “genocide” to describe what occurred, ties are immediately cut off. Germany’s parliament voted to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide as a “genocide” earlier this year, infuriating Turkey and escalating tensions between the two nations. The United States’ policy on this issue is similar to that of Roeper’s teaching policy: indifference. Although many Presidential candidates have used the word “genocide” during their campaigns, no standing United States President has ever publicly referred to the Armenian Genocide as such. Because Turkey is an important ally for trade, the United States continuously overlooks how atrocious it is to deny the systematic killing of 1.5+ million people, only further perpetuating and encouraging Turkey’s denial. The bottom line is: it is dangerous for the Armenian Genocide to not be taught at Roeper — or any school, for that matter. This is an event that continues to be kept deep in the background of history, and for students to not be taught about it only pushes it deeper. Collins acknowledges this danger. “I think that as a matter of principle, one thing that history classes should do is point out great injustices that have happened. Failing to do that can lead to other and further injustices,” Collins says. “. . . I think that there is an element of danger in not teaching it and not discussing it.” Michigan House of Representative Klint Kesto (R) is aware of the danger of not teaching about the Armenian Genocide. Unlike Collins, he did more than just acknowledge it; he chose to take action. Kesto is the primary sponsor of the new law in Michigan that makes teaching about the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide mandatory within grades 8-12. “I supported it so much because being
from Southeast Michigan — and being a representative that represents West Bloomfield, Commerce, Wixom, and Wolverine Lake — and being the first Chaldean representative, these issues touched not only me personally, but the people I represent and friends and family of mine personally, as well,” Kesto says. “It’s personal because not only my friends in the Jewish community and the Armenian community have gone through this in the past, but with the rise of ISIS, they have been targeting Christians in the Middle East now, too,” he adds. “If you look at history with the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust and others after that, we say ‘Never again,’ yet we are not doing anything,” Kesto says. “Just until recently. we were not even recognizing it as a genocide. I think that part of the reason is because our children aren’t being taught about it.” “I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said, ‘Let’s teach our children, so that we do not have to teach our adults.’ We have to teach what a genocide is, so that as children become adults, they can identify it and take appropriate action to stop it,” he says. Although Kesto is uncertain whether or not this new law applies to private schools, he feels that all schools should be teaching it. “I believe that all schools should be teaching about this subject matter because of the nature of the subject matter, the importance of it, and the value of educating our children on this matter,” Kesto says. Whether or not this law does extend to private schools, it would be wise for history teachers at Roeper to take this new law into consideration when they think about their curriculum. Keteyian said it best when speaking on the dangers of not teaching about the Armenian Genocide at Roeper. “I feel like with any social change, if you’re not educated about it, you’re going to be in the dark about it, and you’re just going to seem ignorant.” This is a change that must occur. There can be no more denial about the deaths of over 1.5 million Armenian people. There can be no more indifference and tolerance to the denial. Let this article serve as an introduction to the Armenian Genocide for Roeper students. Action must be taken and lessons must be taught to ensure that we mean it when we say, “Never again.”
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Hellmer in the House!
Behind the Scenes With RTC Technical Director By Josh Stiebel
What teacher has danced down Main Street at Disney World as Dale the chipmunk, managed a room full of venomous snakes at a museum, and been a DJ at a country radio station? If you guessed Roeper Theater Company Technical Director Ttari Hellmer, then you are correct! Tuna Talk recently sat down with Hellmer to find out more about her life before and during Roeper.
What was your life like during your childhood? I grew up in Miami, Florida, and when I got to 9th grade, my family moved to a little tiny town just south of Orlando called Saint Cloud I grew up in an area where there is a lot of cattle farms, and we got days of off school to go see the rodeo and stuff like that. We didn’t have a McDonald’s till I was a senior in high school. We had to go about an hour-and-a-half away to go see a movie. It was a small town, but it was very cool and I really liked it. I had fun in high school. I left high school in my junior year actually, and went to college [Wesleyan College] in Georgia . I got early admissions,and skipped my senior year. . . . My very first job was at Disney World. How did you get hired at Disney? It was an open call audition, and my sister and I both went to it. We both had dance training. . . We saw the open call sign which means that hundreds of people showed up. And we went, and just kept getting called back over and over again, until just finally there were just 20 people left that they hired for this parade. What did you do at Disney World? . . . . I had gone to college for two years, and then I had to leave because we ran out of money for school. So then I auditioned for Disney, and got a job as a dancer in
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a parade at Epcot [Center] when it first opened. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A doctor. When I first went to college, I was Pre-Med. What did you do before Roeper? I worked at Disney for a long time. I was Chip and Dale, and lots of other characters. I got to be Peter Pan once in a parade, and then I ended up getting a job dancing in Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday show. . . Then I got injured at Disney, so I worked in the accounting department for a while at the Contemporary Hotel. I worked at SeaWorld as a tour guide, and this is when I decided I didn’t want to do Pre-Med any more. I wanted to go into biology, and I wanted to work with animals. . . I was [also] a DJ on a radio station for a while. It was a country music station. I was “Mrs. Kitty” - it was my DJ name. I worked at [Macon] Museum [of Natural History] when I was in college. . . I was in charge of the venomous snake room. I had to feed them and move them from cage to cage, and I had to walk around the museum and talk to people. I [also] managed a pet store. That’s where I got my pet skunk from. . . He was really cool. I did a lot of [secretary] type jobs. I worked for a real-estate company. Then when I had kids, I started teaching acting classes at a Parks and Recreation department near me. I did that because I had taken my daughter to an acting class, and I thought it was horrible and I thought I could do better than that I used to do theater in college, and I was a performer at Disney. So I started teaching acting classes,and after doing that for a few years, it kind of turned into an acting company. . . I realized I really didn’t know enough about what I was doing, so I went
back to school and got my degree in Theater. I started that when I was in my 40’s. So I was in the theater department with people [who] were . . . 19 and 20. So they all kind of adopted me as their mom, and I played everybody’s mom in the theater. So I had a theater company before I came to Roeper. What was the name of your theater company? It was the Chesterfield Theatre Company (CTC). After a while, we changed it to It’s a Mystery Theatre Company. So out of all of the things that you just said which one was your favorite? Roeper is my favorite right now. Roeper was my dream job, because I can do what I want to do with theater. Prior to Roeper, Disney and SeaWorld were my favorite[s]. At SeaWorld, I got to work with penguins and that was a blast! It was smelly, but great! How did you find Roeper? I started helping building sets for Roeper when I was at Oakland University. Shannon Kennedy was the previous Tech Director here. I had met her doing a show for Waterworks Theater Company, and she asked me if I could come in and help her do some set work. That was back when they did the first middle school shows, when [former RTC Director] Chris Haslett was here. What is the story behind Honk? The first show I ever did with Alex [Pedica, current RTC Director] was at Oakland University. It was Honk. Honk is the ugly duckling story. [Pedica] was playing Ugly, the lead, and I was the Stage Manager for the show. . . The show was kind of riddled with just goofy problems. During one of the performances, there is a scene where Ugly is talking to a flock of geese and the geese fly off. As soon as they leave the stage, [my job is to] tell the sound guy to hit the
RTC Technical Director Ttari Helmer Photo by Josh Stiebel
sound cue. You’re supposed to hear three gunshots, and then Ugly is sad that his friends were shot. So the geese left the stage, and I called the sound cue, [but] the sound guy didn’t respond: he had taken his headset off. So there were no gunshots, and it was just Ugly (Alex) sitting in center stage all by himself. We had this house full of people, and he was just standing there. The last goose who left the stage was a guy named Chris. He leaned out and he waved to Alex, and Alex waved back; they were just trying to kill time. And I’m screaming at this guy to play the sound cue - we need to hear the gunshots. But still nothing. Chris the goose comes on stage and walks over to Alex and [gives] him a big hug. As soon as he did that, the stupid sound guy hits the sound cue and you hear three gunshots. So Alex is hugging [Chris] the goose, and the goose gets shot and has to die in Alex’s arms on center stage in a house full of first graders. continued on page 9 -
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They are traumatized! They’re all screaming and yelling. This guy melts to the floor because he has been shot, and all the other geese have to come on and carry him off the stage. And the kids are crying. It was so sad. One of my favorite theater mess-ups. There are things that always happen wrong in theater, and that’s what makes it fun. I think one of my favorite Roeper ones happened last year when [juniors] Charlie [Sutton] and Ian [Carroll] were running the boards for the first time. Nick Popp ‘16 was on the soundboard, Ian was running projection, and Charlie was doing light board. We were doing David and Lisa. There were two scenes where one of the actors came
School]David Feldman and another dad caught it and saved us. So how is Roeper compared to the other things you’ve done? Ever since I started my theater company, I was hoping that I could find a theater that I could work for. Being able to run theater productions and being able to teach [at the same time] has been a dream job for me for a long time. It took a very long time for me to get an official job here [at Roeper], and then it took an even longer time to get a full-time [job] here. So this has been the best job that I’ve had so far, and it’s so much of what I’ve wanted - once I figured out what I wanted. It’s so much of that, and I just love being here with the kids.
“So Alex is hugging (Chris) the goose, and the goose gets shot and has to die in Alex’s arms on center stage in a house full of first graders.” out and everything looked almost identical: the entrance was the same as the scene later on, and it was really confusing because they were so close together. So [an actress] came onstage, and instead of doing the lines for the first scene, she accidentally started the lines for the later scene. So we skipped a couple pages in the show. This was the first [time Sutton and Carroll] had done this. I’m listening to them on headset, and they’re like, ‘Ttari, what do we do?’ I said, ‘Find the page and skip to those queues.’ Poor Charlie is like, ‘Does this happen all the time?’ . . . Instead of going from that scene on, they backed up and did the rest of the show. So this [is] also one of my favorite theater mess-ups. This and… well, the Cinderella one wasn’t a favorite. What Cinderella one? The front panel for one of Cinderella’s set pieces fell off during the show, and came down towards the audience. [Head of
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What’s your favorite thing that’s happened at here at Roeper? So many cool things. My favorite moments at Roeper are always when we go “House to half” before a show: when everything is ready opening night. “House to half” is the queue you do when you dim the lights and everybody sits down;it’s such a cool moment. So every time we do that is a special moment. Each of the graduation speeches that I’ve been able to do are very special to me, and mean a lot to me. I think there have just been so many cool things that have happened - it’s hard to name just one. Those are definitely two things that mean a lot to me.:pening shows, and graduation speeches. How long have you worked at Roeper? Full-time this is my 6th year, but I’ve been working here for probably about 10 years.
If you could change one thing, what would it be? When the Cinderella thing feel down. The hinges were bolted into the wrong piece of wood, and it was something I didn’t catch. So if there was one thing I could change, it would be [that] I inspected that. Before you came to Roeper, where did you think you would be today? I thought that I would continue with my own theater company,because that’s what I went to school to do. I also got a Perfor-
mance degree, but that’s so I could direct. I don’t think I’m meant to run my own theater company. Where do you see yourself in the future? I am either going to move to Ecuador or Portugal with my husband: we can’t decide which one to retire to. I might -when I retire - become a flight attendant, so then I can travel the world, and I know they hire older flight attendants now!
Happy Holidays! from the
Tuna Talk Staff
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Honesty, Journalism and You: How to Avoid News Bias by Rory Popp
In today’s world it is difficult to turn around and not face heavy controversies that split our community into opposing sides. Ranging from views on climate change to the rights of minority groups, the current political environment is a hurricane of topics that get people’s blood boiling. In a perfect world, readers could form unadulterated opinions based purely on the facts presented to them, but, of course, this is not a perfect world. The news we are presented with is rife with misrepresentation of fact, with political molehills being made into mountains, and gross overshadowing of important events. Everything we know about what’s going on around us is given to us by the one community that we don’t even know if we can trust: journalists. The strange thing is, many journalists believe themselves to be unbiased when reporting, but we as readers know that this is not always the case. While honest journalism is what we as a society need in order to form our own educated opinions on many important subjects, it’s not something that a curious reader can easily find. Of course, a reporter should try to keep their own political opinions out of the workplace when they’re relaying news to the world, but often it’s not that simple. One might consider themselves to be middle of the road when typing up an article on, say, the right to get an abortion, but through usage of certain words in certain phrases, a very different perception is given to the audience and the piece becomes biased. On sensitive and controversial subjects, it is imperative that a reader keeps in mind that what they are reading is not always pure fact and can be distorted with bias from the journalist. Let’s continue on the train of the right to get an abortion. It is, after all, a subject that divides our country quite profoundly. If you were to check out a right-wing source, like the Daily Wire, you would find a very opinion based story. Abortion is characterized as the murder of a child when, medically, a fetus isn’t fully developed until about 24
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weeks and according to the CDC only about 1.3 percent of abortions are performed past 21, and legally murder is a human killing another human (without basis of self-defense) and a fetus is not considered a human until it is viable outside the mother’s womb, as established in the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe V. Wade, viability occurs at around 2122 weeks gestation (this, of course, is with a lot of outside support). This is not to say that their opinion is wrong or that people with a moral standing against abortion are wrong, everyone is entitled to whatever opinion they may have, but discussing something as major as an abortion should be backed up with facts, not scare tactics. Now, if one were to visit a more left leaning source, such as the Washington Post, you’d find a fairly different story to be told. Hardly any opinions are explicitly written into the piece, however there are word choices present that make it clear that the author believes abortion should be legal and one should have the choice to get one if they feel it necessary. The piece also carries a bit of an air of disdain towards those who don’t agree with abortion, which isn’t really on the topic of what’s being discussed and the article would be absolutely fine without it. However, this doesn’t change the fact that multiple medical studies are cited and statistics are given whereas in our conservative piece the topic was presented in a very in your face way that compared abortion to things ridiculously larger than it, such as slavery and the Holocaust. As abortion isn’t exactly a subject that has any legal or medical premises against it, to call out an anti-abortion article for not having fact supporting its argument is somewhat absurd and not wholly what needs to be discussed. The matter at hand is not necessarily the content of the article, more so how articles are written as if the author is assuming that we, the audience, come without any previous knowledge on, experience with, or understanding of the topic. Yes, this approach can sometimes be a necessary element, but
to dumb down content seems more than a little condescending towards the audience. Furthermore, a reader must be wary of the racial bias in articles covering mass shootings or bombings. Have you noticed how a white shooter is always “troubled” or mentally ill, but the second a shooter happens to be Muslim or Middle Eastern, they’re labeled a terrorist or, through radical assumption, linked to ISIS? It’s easy to dismiss if you’re just scanning the piece, but that’s the danger right there. If a reader is getting the impression that the crimes of white people are excusable because they couldn’t control themselves or they were provoked, but the crimes of Muslim or Middle Eastern people are always motivated by a mentality that is shared by an entire religion or an entire race of people,
or make sure the source they are using is reliable and so won’t know if the knowledge they’ve absorbed contains everything they need to know. Worse still, a reporter can ignore important events that are happening in favor of writing about more superficial and likeable topics that people will want to read about. For example, the Flint water crisis is still going on, but can you recall one article that’s been written about it since it was initially covered nationally? Because of this lack of coverage, the people of Flint are actually doing worse. No one is donating time, money, or clean water because no one is hearing about the issue anymore. Flint’s population is now struggling with more illness because of the even worse lack of resources available to them.
“The problem is in reporters who only report to further an agenda or who keep important events under wraps or overshadow them with minor occurrences.” then a bias is going to grow inside the reader even if they’ve never thought of themselves as racist or prejudiced. This more subtle kind of racial bias is a very dangerous thing because it’s not an isolated case; the more we hear about all Muslim or Middle Eastern people all being terrorists, the more likely we are to believe it. This is due to the neurological illusion of truth effect, which means that if you hear something enough times you will start to believe it regardless of whether or not it’s actually true. This, as well as other factors, enables some authors to hope that by using tangents, loud opinion, and attacks on the character of the person reading the article that we will overlook how bare the article is, how little fact is presented, how often only one side and one perspective is discussed. The sad part is, they’re pretty much right. This can be attributed to long held bias and opinion from the reader, but also, for the most part, people reading the news will tend to take what they’re reading at face value. The reader won’t always have the time to fact check
Of course, the audience cannot be blamed for this because everyone has responsibilities outside of meticulously making sure what they read is totally reliable and relevant, but then, the problem isn’t in the audience, it’s in the content. The problem is in reporters who only report to further an agenda or who keep important events under wraps or overshadow them with minor occurrences. When we’re only given one side of an argument, or certain facts are covered up to sugar-coat a problem, it makes it difficult to form a solid opinion and to understand where other people are coming from. Reading an article should not create conflict between people but rather discussion about what’s going on in the world.
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The Halls Are Alive With the Sound of Construction By Michael Bosway
The disco block was the perfect opportunity to show a speech by Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Upper Schoolers had gathered in the Commons to watch the presentation. Only seconds in, the video was practically inaudible over the booming sounds of construction. With the construction in full swing, the courtyard renovation is on the minds of most students and staff at the Birmingham campus. There are mixed opinions about this project. Many students are troubled about how the construction is affecting their school life. One of student’s major concerns is the noise. Math teacher Hale Williams’ classroom has an air vent that connects directly to the courtyard. Because of this, the construction noises were reverberating throughout his room, even more amplified with the echoing vent. Williams temporarily fixed the problem by shoving cardboard into the air vent to deafen the noise. Some students think that the construction noise is no problem, and that halting construction for every test would be inconvenient and inefficient. “Changing the construction process would upset progress greatly,” freshman Tristen Wilson says. “I really feel that for the sake of time management, it would not be efficient for core classes to take priority. For us to take something as serious as safety and timeliness under a few tests when the noise produced isn’t even that bothersome is wrong.” What is bothersome for some students is the lack of windows in the halls. “While I know that it is necessary for a safe construction site, the lack of natural light darkens the halls and gives a more claustrophobic atmosphere,” junior Miles Hicks says. To brighten up the halls, some stu-
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dents and faculty are taking steps - including creating murals - to help the situation. “The original idea for the murals was a simple utilization of the temporary walls for a few of my art classes,” art teacher Janet Szeto says. “I had no intent of using the murals to ‘liven up’ the halls, but I can see how they would.” Students who have an idea for a tape mural are asked to talk to Szeto before putting it up. Even with the halls being livened up by the murals, some students have addressed other concerns. With the Birmingham Campus building being built almost a century ago, the insulative material asbestos was used in the initial construction. When asked if they had any concerns about the possibility of asbestos being uncovered during the construction, most students were not bothered. “Well, the front-most wing of the school was built . . . when asbestos was in common construction use,” freshman Jackson Campbell says. “I’d be surprised if there wasn’t asbestos, but the construction crew has a great deal of experience, so I do not have any concerns.” Head of School David Feldman dismisses asbestos concerns. “Throughout the years of renovation of the Upper Campus, all of the asbestos has been removed from the walls and floors.” Many students have been hesitant with regard to the design on the new courtyard, with most fearing the dissolvement of the Student Life Center (SLC). The end of such a memorable and uniquely Roeperian setting will be difficult for students. “I never used the SLC much, but I do fear that it and the rest of the courtyard will feel detached from the main building,” Wilson explains. “There is a certain atmosphere of the SLC, and I fear that it would be damp-
ened by moving from the main building to the courtyard.” “I use the SLC every day, and it is really nice to have a room designated for upperclassmen,” senior John Kruszewski says. “I don’t know if they will incorporate a new space as well as they did the SLC, but I won’t be here much longer after the construction is complete, so it won’t really affect me.” While some students fear the changes that will come with the Courtyard Project, others look forward to the new space. “I’m really excited that the Upper School is getting such a large renovation,” freshman Dean Ersher says. “The Lower School has received so many in the past years, even with it having a less long-term importance role in student education.” With the project taking over a year, questions have been raised relating to the timeliness of the construction. According to
Courtyard Expansion Project
Feldman, the construction is only slightly behind schedule. “Over the summer, the construction crew had to replace a foundation in the courtyard, only to discover that they had to replace 10 more foundations, which set the construction back by three weeks,” he says. “While this caused an upset in progress, implementing the steel beams took quicker than expected, so most of the time lost was regained. Because of this, the construction is still expected to be completed [in] Spring, 2017.” When asked his main concerns surrounding the construction, Feldman responded, “I really concern myself around patience and safety. While I and many others are impatient for the completion, I want people to be safe, and for the construction crew to take as long as necessary for the courtyard to be as safe as possible.”
Photo by Michael Bosway
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Ari Teitel ‘12 Strikes a Chord With New Jazz Album By Zach Zarewych
“Ari Teitel is the total package. He is creatively expansive with a funky down-home feel. Expect big things from this young man,” renowned jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon says about this talented musician and Roeper alum. A 2016 graduate of the Jazz Program at Michigan State University, Teitel has experience playing in some of Detroit and Chicago’s most famous venues. He is currently working on his debut album. Tuna Talk connected with Teitel to talk about his experience in music and his upcoming album. Can you tell me a little bit about how you got into music?
I started playing piano when I was four, and I started playing guitar when I was nine. Why did you choose to play the guitar? I listened to a band called The Allman Brothers Band, and there was a lot of guitar, and that made me want to play it. When did you start playing in public and were there any memorable moments? I started sitting in at local jam sessions when I was 10-years-old, and within two years I played my own gigs. Through some Roeper connections, I got to play at Arts Beats & Eats and the Motown Winter
Blast, and that helped me get connected into the scene. When I was 11, I sat in with Robert Randolph and The Family Band in Ann Arbor at The Michigan Theater, which was pretty crazy. You can look up the YouTube video. How would you describe your style? I play a little bit of everything. I’d say I take elements of soul, r&b, funk, rock, jazz, and blues, and kinda mix it all up. Would you say being at Roeper since 9th grade helped you become a successful musician? Well, I didn’t really participate in music at Roeper. I think academically it prepared me for any tough mental tasks I had to face. It made that much easier. Was it hard to balance school with playing music? No, school always came first. Were you doing anything to further your career while you were in high school? During my last two years of high school, I performed in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Jazz Ensembles [and] I performed frequently with local bands. I would say my last two years of high school is when I started taking my music more seriously. Do you have any special memories of your time at
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Roeper? It was always fun to hang out in the SLC, and make Primos and Qdoba runs. I definitely had some good times in class. Some of the teachers were quite funny and entertaining, but I can’t think of anything specific right now. What was your time at MSU like? I was in the Music School, which was surprisingly more similar to Roeper than you’d think, because there was kind of a community vibe. The jazz program that I was in was very small, so it was kind of like we were family. It was a very fostering and nurturing community. You recently moved to New Orleans. Why? New Orleans has a more concentrated music scene, and I felt like I would have some different opportunities here. It’s a city that parties all the time, so it’s a conducive environment for live music. Music pretty much starts around noon every day, and sometimes runs past 4 a.m. I think there’s some great healthy competition here, which forces me to stay on top of my game at all times. Is there anything you miss about Michigan? I kind of miss the seasons in Michigan. Right now, it’s Halloween and it’s 80 degrees. But at the same time I don’t miss the cold. I definitely miss my friends and family. Are you enjoying life in the music industry? It’s good right now. It’s kind of a struggle, but it also very rewarding. What’s challenging about it?
There are lots of challenges. I think some big keys to success are having good relationships with others and being professional. It can be a daunting task to meet a lot of people and foster good relationships with them, while staying on a high professional level. Some of that has to do with simple stuff - like making sure I’m on time and dressed appropriately - and also making sure I’m prepared musically, which means learning all the music I’m supposed to, not playing too loud, not playing too many notes, etc. With making an album and being a bandleader, funding is a big challenge. I put forth a lot of money that I had saved up over the years towards my album, and I’m also using crowdfunding as a source. I also have to make a product that people want to buy. So a lot has been challenging, but it is also rewarding to figure out how to overcome challenges. What’s been your best experience playing live? That’s a tough one. There have been a lot of great experiences playing. Playing in Detroit, or even down here [in New Orleans], you never know who’s gonna walk in. Something that happened recently was I was playing in Detroit, and the great Motown singer Martha Reeves showed up to my gig. We got her to sing a song, and I ended up hanging out with her till like four in the morning. Besides Martha Reeves, what other famous musicians have you toured with? Other famous musicians I’ve played with, there’s Larry McCray, Ralphe Arm-
strong, Rodney Whitaker, Christian McBride, Jimmy Cobb, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Karen ClarkSheard, and I backed up a great local singer named Thornetta Davis a lot. Do you have a favorite guitarists or one you really look up too? Why? There are a lot of guitarists I look up to. One of my favorites is Wes Montgomery - probably the greatest jazz guitarist of all time. I’ve had a lot of great teachers and mentors in Michigan that you can see live - Perry Hughes, Randy Napoleon, Rob Bourassa and Larry McCray. I actually ran into [Chemistry teacher] Jamie Benigna a couple times at Perry’s weekly performances at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit. All of the guitarists who played with The Allman Brothers have been influential, especially Derek Trucks. He’s one of the baddest motherf*****s alive right now. Of course I have to mention Jimi Hendrix. Then there are a lot of lesser known guitarists - Eric Gale, Eric Gales, Cornell Dupree, Leo Nocentelli, Peter Bernstein, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, David T Walker, Phil Upchurch, Freddie Stone. I could talk your ear off all day about these dudes. I’ve read you have a new album coming out soon. Can you tell me a little bit about that? So I went to the studio, first in February, and did some more recordings in July (2016), and I recorded at a place called Tempermill Studios. We recorded it to tape, which a lot of people don’t do anymore. I’d say most people record digitally now - pretty much straight to a computer. We did it
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the same way they did in the old days - so you get a warmer sound - and we recorded it live, whereas a lot of people would track the drums, bass, keyboard, guitar, and vocals separately. . . We recorded all the instrumental stuff live at the same time. What’s the name of your album and when is it coming out? The tentative title of my album is Unteiteled. I should
have some music out around the end of the year, or early 2017. What advice would you give to a student at Roeper who is interested in pursuing a career in music? Figure out what direction you want to go in musically. Learn the business. Seek out the best teachers and mentors. Study as much music history as you can.
For example, If you’re trying to be the next Mariah Carey, you should probably be familiar with singers who came before her like Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith, etc. And of course, practice a lot, have fun on the journey, and don’t be a d*ck.
Ari Teitel ‘12 and Motown great Martha Reeves pose after a performance.
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celebrate the season at the Winter Concerts vocal music
solos & groups
thursday - 12/8
7 p.m. birmingham campus gym
instrumental music bands & orchestra
wednesday - 12/14 7 p.m. birmingham campus gym
How to Have Hope by Nadav Pais-Greenapple
So, here we are. The precincts are closed, the ballots have been tallied, the electoral college has been counted, and the results are in: Donald J. Trump has won the 2016 presidential race with 279 electoral votes, and Hillary Clinton has lost with a total count of 218 electoral votes. It’s over. And if you, like me, supported Clinton (and maybe previously Bernie Sanders), you’re probably wondering: what now? What do we do now that someone like Trump— who has called for the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, supported the banning of Muslims entering the United States, declared that Mexicans are rapists, and referred to sexually assaulting women into a hot microphone— is our President-Elect? How do we move forward? How do we have hope? For some, it’s protesting. Large rallies have been organized in cities across the country in recent weeks, from Phoenix, Arizona, to New York City. Thousands have taken to the streets with chants of,“We reject the President-Elect!” While this is catchy, it unfortunately won’t really accomplish much in the long run. Airing your grievances, making your voice heard— that’s all fine. But if people want real change, well, that takes organizing. And the fact is that no matter how much we may protest (and believe me, I want to), Trump is still going to be President as of Friday, January 20, 2017. That’s the bad news. But here’s the good news: If you’re angry, if you want to do something, then there are issues to be angry and do something about that, whether Trump, Clinton, Obama, or Vermin Supreme are President, will still be here. And we can still fight like hell to solve these issues.
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Let’s start with global climate change: an existential threat to . . . well, pretty much everything we know and love. ne year ago, scientists revealed that we have officially reached one degree celsius of warming above the historical global average. If we reach two degrees above this pre-industrial average which, according to leading climate scientists, we will by the mid-2030’s’— the most conservative estimates say that this will result in four to seven meters (13 to 22 feet) of sea level rise. This will drown coastal cities all over the world, and Pacific Island nations like Vanuatu and Micronesia will be all but wiped off the map. Massive, non-seasonal droughts like the one that has currently afflicted the southwest of the U.S. will become more common. And remember: two degrees warming is just an average— two degrees globally means 3.5 degrees warming for places like Africa, India, Pakistan, Australia . . . the list goes on. Hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species are already going extinct because of human activity, and this will only continue. To put it simply: the end of the world as we know it, as our parents know it, as our grandparents knew it — is happening right now. It’s slow, it’s hard to see, and it might not be affecting us yet, but it’s real. And the reality is that as individual people, there’s not much we can do about it. But don’t lose hope. Just because you personally can’t change the fact that the world runs almost entirely on oil doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Here’s what you can do: write to your legislators in Lansing and in Washington, D.C. Call them, make sure they know that this is an issue that you— their constituent, the person they were ostensibly
elected to represent— care about. Attend protests about climate issues to raise awareness and educate people. Make your voice heard. As we were all caught up in the fervor surrounding the presidential election, very few people were aware of the voices being raised by the #NoDAPL protests by the Standing Rock Sioux/Lakota tribe in North Dakota. Since April, members of the Sioux Native American nation on the Standing Rock reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, have been protesting the construction of the 1,100 mile Dakota Access oil pipeline, which will, if completed, carry over 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken oil shale in North Dakota to a holding facility in Southern Illinois. Native activists fear that the pipeline will leak into the Missouri River (that
it passes under), which provides drinking water for millions and flows directly into the Mississippi. Peaceful protests on the reservation have been met with tear gas and rubber bullets from police. Journalists covering the civil disobedience have been arrested, assaulted, and even shot by heavily armored officers. Despite the lack of coverage in the main stream media, huge outpourings of support have come on social media and in the form of protests all around the world, including right here in Detroit. Hundreds of people gathered at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit on the night of November 15, to protest in support of the Standing Rock Sioux, including a group of 11 Roeper students and faculty. The atmosphere was electric— people of all backgrounds, ages, and races
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had come out to protest. For someone such as myself who has never been to a demonstration like this before, it was breathtaking. The feeling of being a part
company, was responsible for the largest land-based oil spill in U.S. history in 2010— in Michigan’s very own Kalamazoo River. These aging pipelines carry 22.7 million gallons of fossil fuels every day, and every day they threaten the ecologically unique and extremely important Straits of Mackinac. This goes to show that even if pipelines aren’t being built through our neighborhoods, they still threaten our livelihoods. As citizens of Michigan we have the privilege of living near the largest freshwater reserves on the planet, and we cannot take them for granted or let them be ruined by greedy oil interests. And while you might not
Democracy doesn’t work without you. of something greater— hundreds speaking with one voice against a great injustice— blossomed as the whole group, escorted by helpful Detroit police officers, marched as one down Michigan Avenue. Protesters waved homemade signs, chanting slogans such as,“Love water, not oil,” “Detroit stands with Standing Rock,” and others. But among these slogans was one that not many were familiar with: “No Dakota Access, no Line Five!” While everyone at the protest knew what Dakota Access was referring to— the eponymous Dakota Access pipeline that the #NoDAPL protests are against— most were confused by “Line Five,” and soon the chant turned into,“No Dakota Access, no pipelines!” So what is Line Five? Enbridge Line 5 is a pair of oil pipelines, both built in 1953— that’s 63 years ago— that run directly under the Straits of Mackinac, between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Enbridge, Inc., a Canadian
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be able to drive to North Dakota and be on the front lines protesting the DAPL, you can protest Line 5. Write to your city council, to your mayor, to your state representative, to your state senator, to the governor, even to your representatives in Washington, D.C., and tell them what you think. Tell them what needs to be done. Democracy doesn’t work without you. If you are able, vote! Vote whenever there is an opportunity. Vote for mayor, for city council, for seemingly trivial down-ballot races. Vote for your national senators and representatives in midterm elections. If you can’t vote yet, volunteer for candidates and efforts to get out the vote. And in four years, vote for someone who you believe will do better in the Oval Office. So, to answer the question I posed back at the beginning of the article: “How do we have hope?” The answer is this: it is one thing to want hope, to want change, to want progress. It is another to stand
up and do something. Hope is not something that comes easily. Hope is something that must be fought for. And the reality is that over the next four years, people will need hope. Muslim Americans will need it, Hispanic Americans will need it, Black Americans will need it, immigrants will need it, women will need it, Native Americans will need it. Anyone who is on the receiving end of the hate and abuse that Donald Trump normalized and perpetuated during this election will need hope. And that’s where you come in.
You need to stand up for your neighbors who are Muslim, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, Jewish, immigrants, and/or women. If you see someone’s rights being trampled upon, speak out! And not just on Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr— in real life. Make sure those who might be targeted by discrimination know that you are someone who will stand up for them. Don’t just have hope. Be hope.
DONATE TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT HELP PEOPLE AND FIGHT DISCRIMINATION: Planned Parenthood: www.plannedparenthood.org Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund: www.maldef.org American Civil Liberties Union: www.aclu.org Greenpeace USA: www.greenpeace.org/usa NAACP Legal Defense Fund: www.naacpldf.org Trevor Project for LGBT Youth: www.thetrevorproject.org
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With Liberty and Justice for All Getting to Know Bryan Stevenson by annelise ivanescu
“If you love your community, then you need to be insisting on justice in all circumstances,” says founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson will be the Keynote Speaker at the Roeper Gala/Golden Apple Awards in February. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who has dedicated his life to enforcing fair trials. He has reopened many cases of death row prisoners who were proven guilty with little to no evidence. According to the Roeper 75th anniversary website, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu has called Stevenson “‘America’s young Nelson Mandela’ for his compassionate but unremitting efforts to reform a nation in thrall to extreme punishments and careless justice.” Stevenson was born in the late 1950s and grew up in southern Delaware. He attended a colored elementary school where he experienced racism. When his school
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was shut down, he moved to a integrated school where white kids had different areas to eat and play, and children of color had to use the back door. Stevenson played on his high school’s soccer and baseball teams, and was president of the student body. He earned scholarships to Eastern University in Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree and to Harvard University for law school. After graduating law school, Stevenson worked with nonprofits such as the Southern Center for Human Rights. He then founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), an organization focusing on racial justice, mass incarceration, and children in prison. During this time, Stevenson sought to make a change in his community. Alabama has some of the most prominent slave sites, but no markings acknowledging their historical context. Stevenson worked with an African-American group to gain spon sorship, and there is now a marker at each
site.
Stevenson has made a career of arguing the cases of individuals who have received unfair sentences. From 1970 to 2014, the U.S. incarceration rate increased from 300,000 to 2,300,000 - one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, Stevenson has sought out to change this. One of his defendants was Trina Garnett, a mentally-disabled African-American girl who, at the age of 14, set a building on fire that resulted in the deaths of two people and was tried with second degree murder. A homeless and abused young girl, she was tried as an adult and sentenced to life imprisonment. Years later, Stevenson reopened the case. While working with the EJI, he faced the Supreme Court and ultimately succeeded in proving Garnett innocent. When he is not speaking out for equal justice, Stevenson spends time writing books and teaching law at NYU. He has spoken at more than 150 events in the past two years, and appeared on the Daily Show in 2014. His book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, was published in 2014 and became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. Stevenson continues to work with the EJI on many projects - the latest, "Lynching in America," is a campaign to recognize the victims of lynching and acknowledge the horrors of racial injustice. The EJI also works to promote change in legislation, and to end racially discriminatory practices. Stevenson shares many of the same ideals as Roeper, such as fighting for racial equality, and promoting change in communities. “I think a core tenant of our philosophy is that we try to help students live in a world not necessarily how it is, but how we want it to be,” Upper School Director Lisa Baker says. According to Baker, Stevenson was chosen to speak at the Golden Apple Awards/Gala after “a couple people saw him speak at a national conference last year, and felt he would be a really good person with a strong message that is
aligned with the values and philosophy of the school.” Middle School Science teacher Wendy Mayer explained that our school’s McArthur Grant allows us to have any McArthur fellow speak at the school. “It was just a coincidence that [Stevenson] happened to be a McArthur fellow, also,” Mayer says. “Since we have that grant, we are going to have him speak at the Gala and to students.”
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COVER ART by kenji otani ‘17