Volume 34, Ed. 2

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the communicator

Vol. 33, Edition 2, January 2016

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letter from the editors/about the cover Dear Readers, There are times when we find ourselves at a loss for what to write. We struggle to find a topic that will interest us, interest our readers, and be able to be turned in before the impending doom of a due date.

During these past few months, however, there has been no shortage of things to talk and write about.

On an international scale, we see change in the Canadian government, acts of terrorism in Paris and a climate change summit that could be one of the first big steps toward fixing global warming. On a national scale, we see a long list of shootings, only the most recent of which took place in San Bernadino. We see the subsequent propositions that America should ban Syrian immigrants or even all Muslims from entering the United States. On a local level, we see debates over the deer cull.

We are living in times of global turbulence. The war-machine imagery on our cover seeks to represent that. With information on all of these topics so readily available, it is easy to start to believe that no generation has grown up in the same state of upheaval and unrest. While it is true that nobody has grown up facing these exact issues, we look to history and see that unrest is not a new

state of being. We remember that our parents grew up in a time of Civil Rights movements and protests.

Their parents grew up during a World War. We are facing our own problems when it comes to gun control, police brutality or climate change, just to name a few, but we are by no means the first ones to face problems on this same level of complexity.

That being said, the biggest mistake we could make in acknowledging the problems faced by past generations is to assume that, because some of those problems went away, ours will too. Change comes when people demand it, and being in high school does not stop us from doing and saying what is right.

For that reason, you’ll see in this edition of the Communicator that we have an abundance of editorials. We are working with a group of thoughtful teenagers who want to have their voices heard, but it doesn’t have to stop with those on the Communicator staff; we will readily take submissions from other students or staff members at Community if they have an issue that they feel needs to be addressed or an opposing argument to those made in our staff-written pieces.

2 t he c o mmun i c a t o r

With love, your editors

Washtenaw Ave. serves as a corridor between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and is a place of both opportunity and disparity.

16 a tale of two cities, and what runs between

Ann Arbor debates the newly proposed deer cull.

12 cull of the wild

Bill No. 4883 attempts to censor sex education in Michigan.

8 editing sex ed

20 pop-x

Exhibits in Liberty Plaza ad to Ann Arbor’s artistic environment.

32 poets present and represent On Dec. 8, students and staff gathered in Craft Theater to explore love, hate and politics through the written word.

38 chs fashion

Check out the latest trends in Community as winter begins.

56 op-ed

Read opinions covering anything from #AllLivesMatter to the Great Lakes to vaccinations.

68 humans of community

Community High students and staff around the school share some of their favorite memories.

january

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communicator staff Print Editors-in-Chief Eva Rosenfeld Hannah Rubenstein Web Editors-in-Chief Matthew Ferraro Matty Hack Anumina Kumar Sophia Werthmann Managing Editors Cameron Fortune Jack Kelley Grace Koepele Frances MacKercher Sophia Simon Hannah Tschirhart Business and Public Relations Manager Abe Weiner Assistant Business Manager Dario Zullo Copy Editor Alexandra Hobrecht Arts and Entertainment Editor Andrew Gechter Music Editor Erez Dessel Social Media Editors Megan Syer Kate Burns Mentor Isabel Ratner Adviser Tracy Anderson

Staff Jasper Anderson Madeline Basanta Carson Borberly Conan Cekola Olivia Comai Hannah Davis Mary DeBona Brennan Eicher Sabina Fall Danny Freiband Lily Gechter Sophie Haviland Shane Hoffman M Howard Rachel Hystad Sebastian Inguez Audrey Jeffords Grace Jensen Charles Kotila Myles Markey Caitlin Mahoney KT Meono Alexis Metzler Sam Millman Juliette Nanos Catherine Nicoli Emily Ojeda Omolara Osofisan Ellen Reed Angel Rich Sophia Rosewarne Kenneth Simpson Sophie Steinberg Suephia Saam Alexander Shaw Natalie Sherson Firavich Hannah Simon Stavi Tennenbaum Emily Tschirhart Taylor Tucker-Gray Samuel Uribe Devin Weeks Jada Wilson Matthew Vetort Grace York

The Communicator, being committed to the free exchange of ideas, is an open forum for expression of opinions. It is student-run; students make all content decisions. Letters to the editor are encouraged and can be sent to thecommunicator@googlegroups. com. Signed articles will be accepted with no prior administrative review as space is available. The Communicator reserves the right to edit submissions. Furthermore, opinions expressed therein are those of the authors and not of this newspaper, Community High School, or Ann Arbor Public Schools. For our complete policy, please see www.chscommunicator.com.

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we’re ready now THE COMMUNICATOR

advertise. andersont@aaps.k12.mi.us

Printing thanks to Edwards Brothers Malloy.

words from a local creator stavi tennenbaum

G

enera Fields is a senior at Pioneer High School who participated in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, an internet-based creative writing initiative that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word original novel during the month of November.

Fields: “You write 50,000 words, which is about 2,000 words a day. I’m going to have to make up a lot of [the writing] during break, because 2,000 words a day isn’t really working right now with school and work and college apps.

Some people plot it ahead of time, but I don’t. I just wing it.

I have an idea, sort of, of what I want to go with, but I make most of it up as I go. I like it that way because then I can include details from my own

life, like not being able to find my socks in the morning…

This is my fourth year doing it, but the first time I tried I wasn’t successful. I only got to 25,000, but I think I really underestimated how much 50,000 words was. I did it successfully the first two years of high school, but last year, junior year, I didn’t even try. I just knew I was too busy.”

This year, Genera is taking creative writing at Pioneer with Jeff Kass. Her novel is based on an idea she had from a dream.

Fields: “It’s written in different perspectives, but basically there’s a group of teenagers who burn in this house.

There’s a mortician, a detective and two survivors, and it switches between their perspectives to try to figure out what happened there.”

chloe root “My brother Julian and I went and spent the day walking around downtown and we went to Bubble Tea and went to Angell school on the playground to play on the play equipment. Later we got into a huge bubble tea fight and it was just really fun.”

ellie vandermark “First time on a horse when I was five. It was at a friend’s birthday party and it made me really want to start horseback riding.”

robert morgan “On my birhday my friends surprised me at Blank Slate. I saw a few of them sneaking in but I thought it was a crazy coincidence and about a dozen of my friends were there and we ate a lot of ice cream .”

the sweet life

what were some of the sweetest moments in the lives of students and staff?

sophia rosewarne and omolara osofisan

sadie zinn “When I found out I was going to be able to travel.

When I found out I could go to Sweden, and then earlier London, and now I’m going to San Francisco, just finding out. I’m hoping better moments are to come.”

emily fishman “When I got my cat Max. It was very exciting because we got him as a kitten and he was so cute and he loved me so much. Now I don’t have him so that’s really sad, but it was just one of the best days of my life.”

lindsey dye “When one of my best friends came up from Georgia to come spend my birthday with me and surprise me. It was one of the best days in my life because I got to see her again and it was just really nice.”

january

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news story

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shorts

to do list: students discuss what needs to get done today and this year Juliette Nanos

Camille Konrad has to redo and re-

Jaleana Pace needs to do her nails.

Will Welch has to do all of his home-

ly presents for the holidays.

Vlad Kuklev needs to stop procras-

Zane Jones has to go to Launch and

Sam Uribe has to sign up for a Univer-

Lilo DiGiovanni needs to go to col-

Lindsey Helberg has to go to her

Will Carol has to finish his Amer’s job

Julian Mayes-Burnett needs to

Louisa Judge needs to catch up on

organize her room.

Sean MacLatchy has to get his fami-

sity of Michigan class and needs to get ready for a gig that’s coming up.

application.

6 t he c o m m un i c a t o r

tinating.

lege and get new yoga pants.

happy.

be

work.

buy new grip tape for his skateboard.

horseback riding lesson and unload the dishwasher.

supplementary essays.

10

QUESTIONS

EMILY FISHMAN cameron fortune

Emily Fishman, a spider-fearing junior at Community High School, is preparing for her role in the upcoming play, Shrek the Musical.

What’s your comfort food?

I really like pasta with parmesan cheese because sometimes my mom asks me to make dinner and that is the only thing I know how to make so I eat that a lot.

What sports team upsets you the most?

Ohio State and Huron because that’s my home school and it is embarrassing since they are so terrible.

What do you do in your free time?

Everyday after school I go to rehearsal for whatever play I am in currently.

Right now I am in “Shrek the Musical”, so everyday I go and rehearsal for a couple hours. That takes up all of my time, but soon I’ll be adding on another musical so I will really have no free time.

If you could talk to any person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Sutton Foster, she has played a lot of really iconic roles on Broadway, including Fiona in “Shrek the Musical”. I would love to hear about how she became who she is today.

What’s something new that you have tried recently?

I just learned how to tap dance for the first time and my knees are really sore, but it is a lot of fun. I have a tapping

scene in Shrek.

What’s a hidden talent that you have?

I’m double jointed. I always thought it was just normal to be able to bend my fingers in weird ways, but then people made fun of me for it because they thought it was so weird.

What’s the last song you listened to?

Every morning on the way to school I listen to “Freak Flag” from Shrek so that I remember the song later in the day.

What’s your biggest fear?

That when I sleep a spider is going to crawl into my mouth. I am so afraid of spiders that I can’t look at a photo of one in a magazine; I have to turn the page.

What are you looking forward to this fall?

I’m looking forward to auditioning for summer programs and other shows.

What inspires you?

Getting into college and having a solid good life where I am not stressed. Sutton Foster went to a really good musical theater program in college and now she’s super successful in her career and that’s what I am aiming for.

january

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editing sex ed

The capitol building in Lansing, where the state legislature will vote on Bill no.4883.

bill no. 4883 attempts to censor sex education in michigan frances mackercher catherine nicoli gabe linderman photo

Representative Thomas Hooker introduced Bill Number 4338 in Sept. 2015.

The bill targets sex education, proposing changes to the sex ed curriculum in Michigan.

“My concern is that Planned Parenthood has kind of a reverse incentive for teaching sex education,” Rep. Hooker 8 t he c o m m un i c a t o r

said. “I know that we as a state, and we as a federal government, fund Planned Parenthood and give them our tax dollars every year, $527,000,000 last year... that they banked $550,000,000 for a ‘non-profit’. Again, I’m putting parentheses around it because they’re not a non-profit. They are making a big profit.

They made somewhere around 1.2 billion last year.”

Over the past few months, Planned Parenthood has been under attack for allegedly selling fetal tissue for profit.

Many pro-life advocates and high-ranking politicians have supported these claims, which almost caused the government to shut down on Oct. 1, 2015.

Despite these accusations, the latest research has shown that Planned Parenthood does not, in fact, make a profit, and to refute these attacks even more, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced that the non-profit would no longer be taking reimburse-

ment for fetal tissue. While Planned Parenthood evaded defunding in Congress, it still faces scrutiny throughout the country.

Although Ann Arbor leans heavily to the Democratic side of the political spectrum, the rest of Michigan is generally conservative when it comes to state elections. In Lansing, many state representatives continue to propose laws that would limit sex education and prevent Planned Parenthood from presenting to students.

“I felt that it was important to eliminate Planned Parenthood from teaching sex education,” Rep. Hooker said. The bill would prevent Planned Parenthood, and any other individual or entity that provides abortion, abortion counseling or abortion referrals from giving presentations in health classes.

The bill would also limit a student’s ability to learn how to correctly use a condom and their ability to practice on

any object: plastic models of penises, bananas or an instructor’s arm. Hooker draws comparisons between the condoms Planned Parenthood offers to the public and whether or not students should be learning from Planned Parenthood presenters.

“The condoms, for example, that Planned Parenthood passes out are one of the least effective condoms,” Hooker said. “It has the highest failure rate. Now there’s a reason for that, why would you want, as a organization that’s teaching sex ed, to offer to young people the least effective contraceptive condom? What do you suppose would be a reason for that?... because you want them to get pregnant so that they’ll come to you for an abortion or an STD.” Planned Parenthood has previously offered Lifestyle condoms to the public—supplied to them by the government. Though these condoms have higher failure rates than brands like Trojan, they are still effective, failing at a rate of slightly more than 1.5 percent. However, regardless of the brand, condoms as a whole have been proven to be 98-99 percent effective; this effectiveness decreases to 80 percent when users do not follow the correct steps to put the condom on. Planned Parenthood has recently discontinued their use of Lifestyle condoms and is looking into offering Trojan or One condoms instead.

Hooker believes that adolescents have the ability and responsibility to remain safe, and that Planned Parenthood treats teens as if they need guidance.

“I talked to other instructors in Kent County, talked to hundreds of students over the years, and again one of the things that I try to help them understand is that they’re not an animal,” Hooker said. “They’re different from animals.

You have the ability to say no, you have the responsibility to say no.”

Gabe Linderman, a senior at Greenhills High School, has been a Planned Parenthood Peer Educator for two years. Peer Educators are a community resource for teens, and give presentations on HIV/AIDS, contraception and abstinence in health classes.

“This bill is close to worst case scenario for sex educators in Michigan. Not only will it obliterate any chance of Michigan falling from 20th in teen pregnancy rates, but House Bill 4883 will set the state back years in education,” Linderman said.

“It’s based off of a horrible piece of information that contraceptive education increases sexual activity. The very basis of this bill is flawed on many levels.”

In studies performed by Guttmacher Institute, a leading organization in reproductive research,

comprehensive sex education has consistently been shown as the more effective method of sex education. Comprehensive sex ed is most commonly found in northern European countries like Denmark and the Netherlands, where teen pregnancy and STI rates are much lower than the United States. However, not everyone recognizes this data, including Representative Hooker.

“A lot of studies show that the abstinence-only program actually is successful,” Hooker said.

“One of the reasons why if there is less abortion in Michigan today, it’s not because Planned Parenthood is not trying, it’s because the word is getting out, obviously, and young people are starting to realize that life is valuable, life is important.”

Despite the conservative views held by many state representatives, whether the bill will pass is debatable.

“It is unclear whether Governor Snyder would veto this bill or not, but chances that it gets to the governor’s desk are slim to none,” Linderman said.

Rep. Hooker is hopeful, and considers Governor Snyder a prospective ally.

“I’m hopeful that we can move it forward,” Hooker said. “Obviously, with the videos that have come out and everything else, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as something less than, I think, the majority of people in our state would want to have filling their children’s minds with the ‘proper role of sex’.”

The bill is currently in the Committee of Education and will proceed to the House if it is approved. Meanwhile, politicians and educators must wait to find out the future of sex education in Michigan.

“Not only is this a dangerous political stunt that puts millions of youth at a huge risk, but Rep. Hooker is playing with political fire,” Linderman concluded.

“House Bill 4883 will set the state back years in education,” Linderman said. “It’s based off of a horrible piece of information that contraceptive education increases sexual activity.

The very basis of this bill is flawed on many levels.”

january

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10 STORIES

students recollect on funny moments hannah tschirhart

Jack Belden

Sean Maclatchy

Avery Hartsock

Hawa Dicko

“When I was about seven years old I really liked CapriSun and I was sitting in the car on the way to Florida and I had a CapriSun in my hand except I couldn’t get the straw into the pouch so I took a little wind up to shove it in there and when I cocked my hand back I stabbed myself in the eye with the CapriSun straw and I scratched my cornea and almost blinded myself. But I was fine.”

“Once, I was in the second story of my house and I had a pie. I was walking downstairs and I fell on top of the pie and it got all over everything.

My clothes and the stairs.”

“I was walking and talking to my friend on a dock next to the Huron River and I walked off the edge of the dock in my clothes.”

“This is why I am traumatized and I hate math. In sixth grade math class, I was sitting next to this girl named Poloma who didn’t really like me. I had been feeling kind of sick that day, and all of a sudden, I projectile vomited on her. It was horrible. We stayed quiet for two minutes, with the vomit on her, and we just looked at each other.

She was pissed. And then the teacher was like, “Does anyone want to walk Hawa to the office?” and it was dead quiet. No one wanted to talk to me. I just had hot cheetos so it was like red. And then my dad took 45 minutes to get to the school.”

Kasey Neff “Okay, one time I was playing capture the flag with my neighbors and my van was parked in our driveway. I turned around to see if someone was about to tag me and I ran into the car with my face. So, I got knocked out for a half an hour. But instead of the car hitting me, I hit the car.”

Fiona Lynch

Clarence Collins III

Katy Pasquariello

Terah Blakemore

“We were having a picnic in Gallup Park. We set up the Bob Marley blanket and sitting down, we got all set up. My friend told me that there was a spider on my leg and I was trying not to freak out, but I did and I flipped my toast everywhere. We finally killed it after ten intense minutes.”

“Me and my cousin’s husband, we…You know that thing where you sit on a pillow and fly down the stairs? So we were doing that. I landed safely and didn’t hurt myself, and he wound up smashing his head against the railing.

He had a bloody nose and I had to help him clean it.”

“Okay, so I was in McDonalds and there were really cute high school boys behind us. And my friend drank her soda and started laughing and spit all over my face. So then I just started cracking up and I kind of peed in front of all these people and had to get up.”

10 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

“When I was younger I had one of my friends over and I had a crush on him. He told this really funny story while I was drinking milk, and I ended up snorting milk out of my nose onto him.”

Yasmeen Shakour “So me and my friend Sophie were walking- No wait scratch that. I was volunteering at Top of the Park and this little kid came up to me and peed on the ground.

And then later, a person with bare feet came and stepped in the pee. And it splashed.”

full-time superhuman, part-time teacher: judith’s decision

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sabina fall

udith DeWoskin always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

Growing up with a father who didn’t retire until the age of 87 made her sure that she would never retire. However, superhumans also need to take a break sometimes; deciding to work 60 percent is still an idea that Judith is getting used too.

DeWoskin’s decision was a lengthy and difficult process. She offered three reasons why she chose to go part-time.

“There are funny reasons, there are serious reasons and then there are reasons that I’m not even sure I understand myself,” DeWoskin said. For starters, Tracy Anderson and Liz Stern have devised a secret plan to make sure DeWoskin never retires. The deal is if DeWoskin is only working 60 percent of the time she doesn’t have to retire until she’s 90, making it possible for Dewoskin and Anderson’s joint retirement party to become a reality. In the end, Dewoskin chose to go part-time because teaching is a stressful, demanding and rewarding job. “There’s a cliché that everyone says when they retire, and clichés are often based on truth and the cliché is I need more time for my family, and I need more time for my three children,” DeWoskin said. “I have three children that live all over the place and when I visit them I’m always pressed to do school work.”

It was time that DeWoskin allowed

herself to let go of some of that stress, and take more time for her family and getting to know herself.

DeWoskin, who is now only working with around 68 students and about 26 in her forum, has come to the realization that in an ideal world, that would be the amount of students every teacher would have. DeWoskin can now even handle time-consuming recommendation letters. However, working part-time also results in some sacrifice: that is, feeling more disconnected from students and not knowing as many students as she use to or hoped to. Outside of school with the little free time that DeWoskin has, she’s started to take some time for herself doing new things now that she isn’t pressured to do x, y and z.

“At the end of the day, I am finding that I’m reading a lot more, I’m exercising a lot more, hanging out with my own children more,” DeWoskin said. “So I’m getting the time for those things that I really wanted.” Doing more of her own things DeWoskin has been able to unwind a little. There are still people requesting her to do things and she may eventually give in but as of right now, DeWoskin gets to experience a relaxed, less frantic and less high-strung version of herself.

People have been nagging DeWoskin about when she was going to retire for “a thousand years,” she said. But DeWoskin

has no plans of retirement in the near future, or even far-off future. However, when the time comes, DeWoskin would like to be remembered as a strong woman. She wants to be a role model in the sense that she pursued what she was passionate about and did exactly what she wanted to do. She hopes to be able to inspire students to read and fall in love with books they might not ever look at otherwise, and then further discuss those books. Bottom line, DeWoskin hopes to have made a lasting impact on this generation and the ones to follow.

As much as DeWoskin has taught, she has also learned from these 34 years of educating and impacting students.

“I’ve learned that the pressures that students face are so enormous and difficult,” Dewoskin said. “That I have to be aware of a zillion things with every student all the time and that’s not always possible. And so I have to learn to ask a lot of questions, I have to be incredibly sensitive to kids body language. I have to know when a kid really needs an extension and when the students really being lazy.”

DeWoskin finds teaching to be a humbling experience, realizing that she doesn’t always know as much as she thought she did. She’s also learned that kids simply remain the same as they did when she first started, give or take a few tattoos and piercings. january 11

cull of the wild ann arbor debates the newly proposed deer cull

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danny freiband

nn Arbor Public Schools Media Specialist and Citizens for Safe Deer Management Co-founder Jeri Schneider spoke the minds of many Ann Arbor citizens when she said she was “shocked and appalled” at Ann Arbor City Council’s 8-1 approval of a deer cull program on Aug. 18. It was an important turning point in an ongoing struggle to deal with Ann Arbor’s increasingly prevalent deer problems.

Perhaps “deer problems” is a bad way to put it. Schneider pointed out that the issue at hand is less of a “deer problem” 12 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

and more of a “deer-human conflict,” highlighting the importance of figuring out how to coexist with deer as opposed to getting rid of them. Her organization is opposed to a deer cull, or an organized killing of deer as a population reduction technique, in Ann Arbor.

The question of deer management was first raised several years ago, when a group of Ann Arbor residents came to City Council with concerns about their landscaping being eaten by deer. Since then, several other deer complaints have received relatively little public attention, never resulting in any major decisions.

The recent push for a cull stems from reports of increasing deer populations, although such reports are not supported by actual data and are purely anecdotal.

Other than consumption of vegetation, there are several reasons why people support a cull. For one, they often claim that deer increase the spread of Lyme disease, although Schneider pointed out that this is not necessarily the case.

“When you look at a map of the deer populations in the state versus a map of the Lyme disease instances, there’s no direct correlation,” she said. “There have been studies done where they’ve done

deer culls and they’ve tracked the incidents of Lyme disease in those areas, and the results have been mixed. Some have shown that by culling deer it has reduced the incidence of Lyme disease, but others studies have shown no change.”

Another common argument for a cull is that the number of car collisions involving deer has been increasing, although this seems to be false as well. It seems that the number of deer-related car crashes is fluctuating. Even if there is an upward trend, it is clearly in accordance with an increase in the total number of crashes, to the point that there has been a general decrease in the percentage of total crashes that are deer-related.

A major criticism of a deer cull is its cost. For this year alone, $90,000 have been authorized for use in culling; this includes the cost of scouting the area where a cull will occur, the cost of laying out bait several nights in a row, the cost of public engagement (public meetings about the issue), the cost of aerial deer counts throughout the winter and the cost of actually hiring sharpshooters to come and shoot deer. Furthermore, a cull is not a one time solution.

As Schneider said, “There are a number of places where they do culls, and they have to repeat the culls year after year after year after year because it never really reduces the population.”

So what is the alternative to a cull?

“Non-lethal” is a broad term that includes all possible methods of reducing deer-human conflicts besides culling.

There are two categories of non-lethal methods: birth-control methods and changes to the behaviors and policies of the people or the city.

Methods other than birth-control, which don’t involve direct changes to the deer, are often ignored due to their lack of immediacy. The reality is, however, that if citizens of Ann Arbor wish to have a long-term solution to the current deer-human conflicts, there may be a need for long-term methods of solving them. These methods include putting up better signage to alert vehicles, using scare tactics, building fences and removing vegetation from the sides of roads, because deer don’t like wide open spaces. Still, while these methods may aid in resolving deer-human conflicts, it is unlikely that they alone would be employed

as solutions.

There are two main ways to sterilize a doe. One is through injection of the porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccine, which, if successful, makes a doe infertile for one to three years. The PZP vaccine is still in an experimental stage throughout the country, and has an unfortunately limited success rate.

Perhaps the most plausible non-lethal method is ovariectomy. Ovariectomy has a greater up-front cost than injection of the PZP vaccine, but it only has to be done once, and it has a nearly perfect success rate.

No method of deer sterilization is well-tested and certain to work, but there’s no reason that Ann Arbor can’t be the first place to test it. This is what Christopher Taylor, Mayor of Ann Arbor, pointed out. Taylor cast the lone dissenting vote on the proposal for a cull, and he did so partly due to a feeling that non-lethal methods had not been sufficiently explored.

“There are no broad studies analyzing and seeking to deploy non-lethal birth control methods in an environment such as ours,” he said. “We have not tried to explore whether we can get such a study off the ground, working with DNR [Department of Natural Resources] or a principal investigator from, say, MSU, or some similar institution in the state. I’d rather we give that a shot before moving to a cull.”

Why, then, with so little research done as to whether non-lethal methods are possible, did eight City Council members vote to approve a cull? Taylor explained his take on their stances, saying, “They’re not bloodthirsty folks. I think they concluded that the deer are negatively affecting our natural areas by their consumption, and that the only way to effectively reduce their numbers is through shooting them. They would take the position, ‘Look, I’m sorry. I would rather there be no cull. I would rather nonlethal methods be successful. But,’ they would say, ‘they’re not proven, so we have to take a choice, and the choice is to be effective or not effective.’”

The main reason Taylor voted against the proposal, however, was that he felt there was an “insufficient community

consensus” on a cull. Ultimately, Ann Arbor citizens’ views are what matter the most, and there are a variety of things citizens can do, independently of the city, to try to ease deer-human conflicts without having to kill any deer.

First of all, people can avoid feeding the deer. City Council recently passed an ordinance that makes deer-feeding a civil infraction, but if not to avoid a fine, people should avoid deer-feeding because it makes deer feel more welcome in neighborhoods, causing the sort of deer-human conflicts that made culling an option in the first place. People should feel free to resort to scare tactics; if a person has an unwanted deer in their yard, they

“This issue is very deep-seated with many people,” Taylor said. “The notion of shooting animals in the city affects people very deeply.” can admire its beauty, but then chase it away so it doesn’t come back.

People can “deer proof ” their yards.

The obvious way is to put up fencing, but there are other ways as well. Certain aromatic plants (like sage, thyme, lavender, etc.), when interspersed throughout a garden, tend to repel deer from that garden. There are also deer-repellant solutions that can be purchased and applied to gardens to repel deer, although they have varying levels of success.

Most importantly, people can contact their city council members and let them know whether or not they support a cull.

They can write comments or letters to editors of deer cull related articles on MLive.com, with hopes of getting their views published. As Taylor said, “This issue is very deep-seated with many people. The notion of shooting animals in the city affects people very deeply.” In an issue as important and controversial as the killing of deer, it is essential that people speak up to ensure that their City Council members make the decision that most supports the views of their constituents. january

13

a teacher by day, a hunter by knight

rachel hystad grace koepele graphic

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ason McKnight is calm and ready as he places the cross hairs of the rifle scope just above the deer’s armpit for his signature lung shot. McKnight has been hunting for the past 15 years and has successfully killed and processed a deer every year except for two. McKnight values his hunts by eating what he kills. “I love good food; there is nothing like a venison tenderloin grilled medium-rare. When you can taste that and you know that you brought that deer down and you are responsible for it, that is a feeling that nothing else in the world will give you,” McKnight said.

Even though McKnight has killed a deer almost every year for the past 15, he has only been shooting at whitetail deer on the same 40 acres of land. To McKnight, it is not just about putting a pair of antlers on his wall, but the alone time he has in the woods, connected to nature. Although McKnight enjoys hunting in Northern Michigan, he wants to travel somewhere else eventually and hunt a larger animal. McKnight would like to shoot pronghorn, elk, caribou or some other large antlered animal.

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Since McKnight has been hunting for the past 15 years, he has many stories to tell. His most memorable hunt happened during his second year of hunting.

He remembers seeing one of the biggest bucks; however, the buck would not give him the shot he needed.

“He stuck his head out, I got to see his antlers and I said ‘Two more steps and I am going to shoot you’ and he would not give me those two steps,” McKnight said.

McKnight comes from Northern Michigan where many people like to hunt. When he was a kid, he got the first day of hunting season off of school.

However, it was always a holiday for him because he was never really taught how to hunt. McKnight has taught hunting with his daughters. The first few times he would want them just go out with a camera and take pictures. McKnight would then have his daughters come and watch him gut a deer because he believes that gutting is the hardest part of killing an animal.

“It is getting the blood up to your elbows and actually gutting it and getting

it ready for processing, and that is the hardest part and that would have to be done very gently with a lot of preparation,” McKnight said. He hopes to allow his girls to get comfortable with the gun in the years to come. Finally, he would take them into the blind, talking them through what to do and having them pull the trigger. He would, however, give them the option of not killing an animal.

He believes that no one should be forced to hunt.

In later years he met his wife and her father had always been a hunter.

“I started talking to him about always wanting to hunt so he gave me a gun and put me out in a blind and when a deer walks in front of you shoot it,” McKnight said. This year, McKnight plans on taking the year off from hunting because there is still meat from last year in the freezer.

“I am going to be up north for Thanksgiving and I am really terrible at saying no,” McKnight said. “So if my fatherin-law presses the right buttons with me I could very well end up out in a blind over Thanksgiving.”

artist profile:

coyne gatto

caitlin mahoney

Is it your goal to make a graphic novel?

Yes, I would like to do something like that. I have a bunch of [characters], I have too many to name and they exist but not in a set universe yet because I have not written out a story I would like to put them in yet. I just use them to draw and practice drawing. I have always wanted to make [a graphic novel] since I started seriously drawing. A friend I had and I would make comic books together. And we would use our own characters, I have always liked the idea of having our own story. This was in 4th or 5th grade.

Why is art important to you?

A lot of people write what they’re feeling, but some people interpret things more visually, and I’ve always been like that. I’ve always been bad with words. I was dyslexic as a kid. I just didn’t learn things that easily, so drawing was very visual and I could understand it. [Art] is a way for me to vent out my feelings and explore.

What mediums do you prefer working in?

I like using just pencil and paper and sketching or using my tablet and doing digital art. I do digital art with my drawing tablet in PaintTool SAI and I use a wacom tablet. They are easier to use. I don’t like Illustrator since you can’t get nice lines because it does not have a pen stabilizer. My hand shakes a lot when I draw so my lines end up shaky if I don’t have a pen stabilizer to smooth out the lines.

Who or what inspires your art?

I have a couple of artists on social media that I follow and a lot of my style comes from looking at their work.

There are too many to pick just one or two. I have quite a few inspirations. Their work and style influences me.

What inspired you to start creating art?

I had a friend who drew in the fourth grade, and they drew better than me. So I learned how to draw better then them out of spite. It’s not a joke. I’ve been drawing since then. january

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, s e i t i c o w a tale of t n e e w t e b s n and what ru

W eva rosenfeld

ASHTENAW AVE. -When Abdulah Salim walked into Haifa Falafel and asked if they needed workers, he was hired on the spot.

He hadn’t known his boss before, Salim said, “but we’re from the same country, so we kinda know each other.”

Salim is Palestinian, although his maternal grandparents moved to Kuwait in 1948. His father came to the U.S. at age 15, his mother just after she married.

Heritage was what drove Salim to apply for the job to begin with. And the location of the restaurant, he noted, is significant.

“There’s a lot of Muslims and Arabs around this part of town, a lot of Palestinians,” Salim said. “We have a big community full of our people. It makes me feel like I’m still at home.”

Salim’s is not the only cultural pocket on the road. Just down the road is Yee Siang Dumplings, which serves the food of Liaoning Province in China.

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Naisi Chow, who uses the English name Aaron, constructed the restaurant with his father-in-law and opened it in 2015.

The area has a concentrated Asian population, and Chow estimated that about half of the customer base is Chinese.

“They come to our restaurant to have a taste of our dumplings,” he said.

“They’re really authentic.”

Washtenaw Ave., which connects Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, represents its county in more than just its name. The seven-mile stretch is lined with a hospital, three college campuses, a juvenile detention center, a Lululemon, a Whole Foods and an Asian market. Look into the variety of communities that exist along the road, and you will see the county’s diversity. Look into their varied resources, and you will see its disparity.

As of a 2013 census, Ypsilanti’s black population per capita triples Ann Arbor’s. It has double the unemployment rate and half the median family income of Ann Arbor.

And there are many angles at which to view disparity as Washtenaw Ave. runs east. The U.S. Environmental Protection agency identifies areas that are in the 5095 national percentile of proximity to hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities. The entire four-mile

stretch of Washtenaw east of the Ann Arbor city limits is in that range. Of the three-mile stretch in Ann Arbor, about a half mile is in that range. Ypsilanti has in the past also faced allegations of being a food desert—an urban area where fresh food is inaccessible.

Bussing between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti has stirred up conflict within the past decade. Route 4 is the main bus route that runs between the cities. It is also the Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority’s (AAATA) most-used route, which has introduced a big question: when two cities ride, who pays? Bus services are funded by federal dollars, state dollars, and bus ticket revenue, but this does not cover the costs. So enters the millage, in this case a local tax funding a public service. Ann Arbor’s citizens have historically been able to shoulder a millage. With Ypsilanti’s fiscal situation on the decline, however, the city couldn’t afford to support the buses, so the options were either to charge people traveling from Ypsilanti more for bus service, or to subsidize service for Ypsilanti.

If bus fees for people traveling west on Washtenaw were to go up, Ypsilanti residents would pay the price, primarily transit-dependent people working at the University of Michigan and in Ann Arbor businesses. Of the 100,000 jobs in Ann Arbor, roughly 80,000 of them are filled by people who come into the city each day. These workers are integral to Ann Arbor’s economy: Ann Arbor businesses, especially restaurants, are strug-

washtenaw ave. serves as a corridor between ann arbor and ypsilanti, and is a place of both opportunity and disparity.

gling with lack of workers. Washtenaw County economists predict hundreds of jobs to be created in the next year in food and drink services -- jobs that will need to be filled. Eventually, AAATA decided to subsidize service from Ypsilanti. There were also issues specific to late night dishwashers, mostly Mexican-Americans, working late hours in Ann Arbor and then not having bus service back to Ypsilanti. Instead there was an alternative, subsidized taxi service.

The AAATA millage has also mostly resolved these issues. “[In Ypsilanti], a lot of people are first generation college students, surrounded by other people who are making their way into the world, unlike Ann Arbor students who are often growing up into the knowledge economy from privileged homes,” said David Nacht, AAATA’s former Board Chair, who was a strident supporter of Ann Arbor subsidizing Ypsilanti bus service. “Ypsilanti is a place of opportunity.”

However, Ypsilanti is arguably not the place of opportunity it was several decades ago. In the 1940s, Henry Ford built the Willow Run Plant to build B-24 airplanes. He recruited workers from the South, largely white coal miners from Kentucky and black field workers from Alabama. This was intentional Ford was known to hire black and white workers so that they would clash and fail to unionize. But they did. By the 1970s the plant had been bought by General Motors to become an auto plant. fourteen-thousand workers were making good livings. These communities of auto workers, descendants of coal min-

ers and cotton pickers, largely uneducated, were making incomes above the national median.

Meanwhile, Ann Arbor grew up around the University of Michigan.

At Willow Run, increasingly-advanced machinery and outsourced production led to the decline of the plant, and in 2009 it filed for bankruptcy. Over the past decade, Ypsilanti has lost over 12,000 jobs, while Ann Arbor has gained similar a similar number.

“Ann Arbor and Ypsi are so culturally different because the family stories are so different,” Nacht said. “Ideas of the American dream are different.”

An organization called ReImagine Washtenaw began work in 2014 to revitalize the road and its surrounding communities. A June 2015 press release announced the initiative’s immediate goals to be filling in sidewalk gaps for pedestrians and transit riders and putting in transit “super stops” as AAATA works to expand service along the corridor.

“I think what ReImagine Washtenaw, if it’s successful, will do, is actually create a much better connection between the two disparate markets, between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti,” said Nathan Vought, the organization’s Project Manager. “So as you increase access and as you make it a multi-modal corridor… it’s going to make it easier to get to services that they need, get to the schools, the universities, healthcare. It’s such a connector for the entire county and certainly for the urbanized areas. I think it will increase access; you’re going to lower barriers between those two markets over time.”

Zach Harris is an Ypsilanti resident who has worked at Whole Foods on Washtenaw Ave. for a little over four years. His co-workers come from both

Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, but he believes a large group of employees reside in Ypsilanti because of the cheaper cost of living. Even workers making $11 an hour, he commented, cannot afford to live in Ann Arbor.

The customer base as he’s observed, however, hails from Ann Arbor significantly more than Ypsilanti.

“Its prices are pretty high and most Ypsilanti residents can’t afford it,” Harris said. “A lot of our customer base seems to be wealthier Ann Arbor families and U of M students. I do see some Ypsilanti customers... who are seeking natural or organic product on a larger scale than Kroger or the co-op in Ypsi may offer.”

In 2013, Arbor Hills Shopping Center moved in across the street from Whole Foods. The complex comprises 20 stores, including a North Face, an Anthropologie and a Brooks Brothers.

They intentionally used local restaurants and worked to provide pedestrian and cyclist accessibility.

“Personally, being from Ann Arbor, it seemed like a nice opportunity to clean up an eyesore on Washtenaw Avenue,” Tom Stegeman, a cofounder of the shopping center, told MLive.

Brett Lenart, the interim Director of Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, said that the presence of these businesses demonstrates a level of demand in our community where these businesses can thrive and contribute to a vibrant, desirable place. But, he added, therein lies one of the challenges.

“As a community thrives, with an eclectic mix of businesses, it drives up demand and real estate prices,” he said.

“This has the effect of making the community less accessible to more members of the workforce.” This is something the county has focused on by adopting the january

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university of michigan palmer field

Housing Affordability and Equity Analysis, which attempts to provide a snapshot of housing market conditions and address them in order to improve affordability across Washtenaw County.

Harris sees the center having mixed effect on its surrounding communities.

“I know a lot of Ypsilanti residents who work in these businesses because they can afford to pay a higher wage then somewhere in Ypsilanti,” he said, “and people tip better, because they can.”

Harris commutes across Washtenaw via bicycle, and noted that the Pittsfield Township section of the road seems neglected, particularly in the wintertime in terms of plowing and weather hazards.

‘So Washtenaw Ave. becomes a corridor but almost a little portal between the two cities and economic inequality,” Harris said. “You do have [Washtenaw Community College] in between the two cities, [which] itself claims an Ann Arbor address, which I think speaks volumes there despite its relative location to Ypsilanti.”

Washtenaw has a huge population density because of the apartment complexes that run along it, in addition to its direct proximity to a number of schools, including Eastern Michigan University, Washtenaw Community College, Ypsilanti Community High School, Carpenter Elementary School and Tappan Middle School.

“Washtenaw Avenue is a connector within our county,” Lenart said. The size of communities, the character of neighborhoods is different. The way EMU and U of M interact with the surrounding community from a practical sense is different. They’re both wonderful communities, for unique reasons, and everyone across the County benefits when all of our communities thrive.”

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january 19 january 19

pop-x

TOP One of the artists, Chazz Miller, encourages the public to create their own butterflies. Here shows the beautiful butterflies created by the public drying in the sun. His vision is to spread the people’s creations all around michigan.

exhibits in liberty plaza add to ann arbor’s artistic environment. sophie haviland jasper anderson

The techno music booming from the speakers could not be subsided as pedestrians peeked in different pavilions displayed in Liberty Plaza.

This year, a ten-day festival created by the Ann Arbor Art Center called POP-X took place downtown at Liberty Plaza. The event featured numerous artists from various backgrounds who were given their own space to display contemporary art.

POP-X consisted of walk-through pavilions. Each artist had a different theme of contemporary art, some of which were interactive. “Through this [exhibition], we wanted to highlight different artists in town and make the arts more accessible by putting it in a highly public place,” said Omari Rush, Project Director of POP-X. Though this is the first year of the festival, Rush hopes that it will attract more artists and add to the artistic environ20 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

ment that this town provides. Another hope is that this exhibition will create a sense of curiosity among the citizens of Ann Arbor, thus stimulating the economy by bringing more people downtown.

The reactions of POP-X have been positive. With other activities that go on in Ann Arbor, such as the Summer Festival and Sonic Lunch, this exhibition, being in the fall, will hopefully continue to entertain the public. “People like the way that this adds one more thing to our community that makes it a more dynamic place to live, work and play,” Rush said.

Brenda Oelbaum, Social Practice Artist and Creator of the pavilion, “Take Your Troubles to Market,” sits day in and day out, embroidering numbers onto black velveteen bags. The idea came from her grandmother. “If we all put our problems out in the street in bags, we would reach for our own after seeing what ev-

erybody else had put out there,” Oelbaum said.

This idea has blossomed into an interactive exhibit, where she encourages people to read the problems of others, as well as share their own. “It makes them feel less alone or feel some relief about their problems in comparison […] they should walk out feeling a little lighter,” Oelbaum said.

However, Oelbaum is concerned about the location of the exhibition, she feels the homeless­—who usually occupy Liberty Plaza, feel ousted. “It’s great that we all get to use it for this 10 days, but I think it’s sad that they feel like: hurry up and end this already so we can go back to our lives as usual,” Oelbaum said. She doesn’t want to take up their space, but also wonders if it belongs to just them.

At the front of the exhibition was a pavilion called “The Picnic,” created by the Ann Arbor Women Artists (AAWA).

Their space is a multi-media display with influences from Judy Chicago, and her installation of “The Dinner Party,” with an overlying theme of art nouveau. “We wanted to combine those two things, so the art has the flavor of art nouveau, and the installation is themed after ‘The Dinner Party,’” said Deborah Campbell, Volunteer for the Ann Arbor Women Artists.

The AAWA spent many hours creating this multimedia space, complete with sound, paper mache and glass blowing. As one steps into this display, they instantly hear the sounds of birds and bees, and are greeted by butterflies.

For the AAWA, this exhibit has been about having fun. They get together multiple times a week, and relive their second grade memories of paper mache.

Towards the back of the exhibit is a pavilion by the artist Chaz Miller. His vision was to create an exhibit that centers around the concept of a butterfly. In the installation, butterflies represent the act of migration and immigration.

In one piece, there are panels that de-

pict people and inventions that are from Detroit, such as Joe Louis and the streetcar. “One thing that’s going to be unique about our mural is that it’s going to be comprised of the windows, the people in the windows are going to be comprised completely of selfies,” said Steve Bryant, accomplice of Chazz Miller.

Another piece in Miller’s exhibit is a

“We think [POP-X] will make people in Ann Arbor happier you know, and just more excited about their community.” large American flag made out of wood with signed finger-painted butterflies.

This active art piece is supposed to represent the diversity and variety of cultures in the United States. “We call our flag the ‘Wings of Liberty.’ You see, we are ‘one mind, one love,’” Bryant said.

Public participation is important in this

exhibit, such as the finger-painting and selfie uploading. There is another activity, which allows anyone to create their own butterfly. White wooden butterflies were scattered about on a table that people could paint and put up in the installation. Miller is a firm believer that everybody has the ability to create art. One goal for them is to place the differently designed butterflies around the city.

“We are a community. Our organization and art is for the community, art for the people,” Bryant said.

The Ann Arbor Arts Center has a long-range plan for this festival. The first year, since it was somewhat experimental, kept the exhibitions all in one place and built the same way.

Rush has many ideas of how they can expand this project, one being they will start to scatter the pavilions throughout the town. “By year four we hope to have each structure be different and each represent an architect and artist collaboration” Rush said. “So the outside mirrors the inside. They talk to each other.”

BELOW In this pavilion, the artist Chazz Miller uses the American flag to represent diversity within the United States. People are encouraged to finger-paint butterflies and sign their names on this piece. Some of the butterflies surrounding it have also been decorated by the public. Miller hoped to include a lot of participation in this structure.

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second time’s the charm

A member of Zebrotics works with team mentors to de-bug the robot’s code and ensure that it follows regulation.

community’s robotics team looks to improve this coming season alex shaw zebrotics photo courtesy

T

he arena gates for the FIRST(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition field open and students carry in six robots.

Three on the red side form the Red Alliance and three on the blue side form the Blue Alliance. After placing the 120-pound metal robots in exact locations, the student drivers head back to their control stations and the gates close.

A buzzer sounds and the robots spring to life following pre-programed instructions, without any control from the drivers, who are standing back from the controls. Some of the robots pick up game pieces such as plastic totes, recycling containers or pool noodles, but most just move a few feet.

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After the 15-second autonomous time ends, all the robots stop moving and a second buzzer sounds. The drivers spring into action with the robots. For the next two minutes, the red team’s robots compete against the blue team’s robots to gain as many points as possible. Two drivers control each robot, stacking and arranging plastic totes and bins, while the third rushes from place to place, sometimes throwing pool noodles to get points, other times loading extra totes into the field. Each gray tote is worth two points. The bins are worth four points for every tote that is stacked beneath.

As the match continues, a robot picks up two yellow totes, instead of the usual gray and places it onto a platform in the middle of the arena, where both teams can reach. A robot from the other alliance places a third yellow tote on top, a bell sounds and there are wild cheers from the crowd as both teams earn an extra 40 points in a shared activity called coopertition, boosting their rankings in the competition.

Last year, the Community High robotics team–Zebrotics, team 5708–started off with several difficulties: lack of time, space, members, mentors and funds.

The build season, which is the six week period in which the teams can build their robot, starts in early January, while the Zebrotics team was founded in December. This greatly reduced the time they had to train and prepare for the season.

A difficult task for even an experienced team, a rookie team such as the Zebrotics faced even bigger hurdles, as Christia West, science teacher at Community, and lead mentor for the Zebrotics said: “We didn’t have mentors, we didn’t have team members in December. We had just our grant money. We had no other funding and it really takes more than just the grant money to build a competitive robot.”

To compete, a team has to build a robot and recruit members, which requires time. One strategy to complete both of these tasks is to do most of a team’s recruiting during the preseason, when not building or competing. Team 5708 had to balance both at the same time, although they got reasonable results.

“We actually have almost 23 students on our team now, which is a pretty good sized team for the size school we are,” West said. But having a smaller team is not entirely bad: “We were like ‘we’re not gonna win anything,’ so everyone got to

drive who wanted to drive in competition so it was kind of fun,” West said.

Despite these challenges, Zebrotics designed, built and programmed their robot within the time limit, and competed in tournaments in Livonia and Bedford.

“We had no mechanical or software failures on the field and we thought just doing that from where we were,” West said, “We thought that was really an awesome success.”

One big concept that FIRST strongly emphasizes is cooperative plus competition, or “coopertition.” According to FIRSTS site: “Coopertition is founded on the concept and philosophy that teams can and should help and cooperate with each other even as they compete.” Team Zebrotics plans to engage in coopertition by joining the Huron Ratpack Robotics, Pioneer’s Pi Hi Samurai and the Dexter Dreadbots at a shared working space, known as “3808” Team members gather around the “pit,” and joining MakerWorks, a nearby work- the work area used during a competishop. “If we want to do any machining, tion. anything that’s going to require anything As team member Logan Hayner put it, more than hand tools, [we will] really “Last year it was really pretty disorganeed access to bigger tools and so that’s nized as it was all our first time. This year part of why we decided to go and get a we’re getting more into different groups, membership at Makerworks,” West said. and we had some adults who were good

at individual things. It was also partly run by us to some degree, so they were backing [us] up, as they really wanted it to be student focused.”

This year, Zebrotics hopes to increase organization by adding more official roles and doing more planning before working on the robot. They also plan on spending the time before January on training new and existing students, as well as creating a more stable financial situation. “We need to focus on fundamental things, we need to get money, we need to get some things put in place,” West said. “I want to use the pre-season for fundraising and getting the team up to speed understanding their roles within FRC (FIRST Robotic Competition).”

Launched in1989 by Dean Kamen, FIRST has over 3,100 high school teams, around 78,000 high school students, according to their site.

A robotic competition field (photo by Angie Shaw) january

23

“Russia has a greater surface area than Pluto.”

-Ruby Lowenstein

“The band Daft Punk got their name from a negative review about their previous band which called them ‘Daft Punky Trash’.” -Jacob Melchi “There are landfills devoted entirely to the surplus of candy corn because they make so many for Halloween and it’s the number one most hated candy during Halloween.”

-Marie Jacobson

“The hippocampus, a structure in the brain that is thought to be the center of memory, was found to be larger in the brains of London taxi drivers than in the brains of average humans.”

-Sara Jackson

“Squirrels can climb trees faster than they can run on pavement.”

-Joel Apple-Kraut

“The president of Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee was a republican from Oklahoma and he brought a snowball in from outside as evidence that global warming wasn’t happening.”

-Natalie Delph

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“Van Gogh didn’t actually commit suicide. He was shot by some kids and bled to death two days later.” -Lanie Queen

things

“Bears can climb faster than they “Hippos sweat red when they’re run.” -Zane Jones angry.” -Katy Mckay

“Fully grown giraffe adults make noise but it’s too low for humans to hear.”

-John Fisher

“You can only fold a piece of paper seven times evenly.”

-Miranda Ianelli

“Only 1 percent of the population is willing and capable of being in the Armed Forces.”

-Phoenix Patterson

“I can lick my elbow.” *This was proven in person* -Kaiya Wolf 24 t he c o mmu n i c a t o r

“Wombats poop in squares.”

-Monica Nedeltchev

“Biggie, Jay Z, DMX and Busta Rhymes went to highschool together.”

-Avery Farmer

“When lizards lose their tail, they can grow it back.” -Jenny Dean “It’s typical for koalas to have chlamydia.” -Janie Burns

“Cows have best friends.”

-Max Meza

to know “Sometimes when you cut a head off of a chicken it can still live for a while.”

-Emily Fishman

“You have a bigger chance of getting attacked by a polar bear, a regular bear, and being struck by lightning than winning the lottery.” -Aidan Cotner

“Bananas are more closely related to berries than strawberries are.”

-Camille Konrad

products in the spotlight

maddie mccarver shares her five favorite beauty products and why you should try them

grace koepele

NYX Cosmetics Matte Finish Makeup Setting Spray $7.99 at Ulta reduces shine and sets makeup for a full day of durable wear

Revlon Grow Luscious Lash Potion Mascara $4.99 at Target provides clump-free curl that lasts all day long

Revlon ColorStay Liquid Liner $5.99 at Target “[with] the eyeliner, I can do a cat eye, which I’m kind of known for doing­. I absolutely cannot Iive without that one. If I do my makeup, eyeliner is the only thing I’ll do if I’m in a rush.”

CLINIQUE Stay-Matte Sheer Pressed Powder $25.00 at Sephora evens out skin tone without without requiring multiple layers MAC Lipstick $17.00 at Macy’s “[the lipstick makes me feel] a little bit edgier, because it’s more red [and] daring.”

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tudents in Steve’s Beginner Digital Photography class were sent to capture the apocalypse.

Freshman Sacha Verlon headed to the Argo bridge on the bank of the Huron River, and two friends joined him. Mira Simonton-Chao, also a CHS freshman, and Katerina Ellison-Batt, a Washtenaw Technical Middle College freshman, climbed onto a beam under the bridge and Verlon asked them to look outwards, to add drama to the shot.

“I think when I saw it, it [felt] like where they live, almost,” Verlon said. “As if the bridge is one of the only things that’s left in humanity. They camp out on the bridge because that’s the safest place.”

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sister anne, with the camera, in the emergency room

a woman uses photography to improve lives.

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alexandra hobrecht

n her way to visit a friend who had recently been admitted to Saint Joseph Mercy hospital, Sister Anne Marilyn Tyler found herself in an elevator next to a woman holding a bouquet of white roses. She was heading upstairs to be married before her ill husband died of cancer.

“The nurses really got into it,” Sister Anne said. “They had the room all decorated, they had bought a cake, plates, little silverware. We made it so special for those two, and that was very rewarding for me to see.”

In her 50 years of being in the convent, Sister Anne has seen hundreds of people come and go as a hospital photographer.

She first joined in 1963 after struggling with the decision since her junior year in high school. Although she believed God had called her, she had a boyfriend at the time and wanted to have multiple children. She worked for two years after high school, learning how to live on her own, an exception among many of the other sisters who joined much earlier in their lives. But at 21 years old, she made the commitment that would shape her life and eventually bring her to a full time ministry of photography.

finding her passion for photography

As a young woman, Sister Anne had been interested in photography. The hobby first began when she took pictures of her black lab dressed in baby clothes. Film was expensive, however, and she mowed lawns in order to pay for the equipment. Her time spent working on the yearbook at her high school also peaked her interest, but when she joined the convent, she had no idea she would ever return to photography. Instead, she worked in the emergency room at Lila Post Montgomery Hospital in Battle Creek, Mich., and then at the Mercy Hospital in Port Huron until, along with two aid workers, she decided to take photography classes in Can28 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

ada. This proved an advantage because the classes were much cheaper. “[They] took us right into the dark room and I was fascinated by that,” she said. Feeling that God was directing her in the way of photography, she agreed when asked to photograph patients before and after skin cancer treatments.

“We kept on taking classes and before I knew it I was taking [shots of] tumors on a light box for pathology, for the laboratories. And then, after that, came autopsies,” she said.

When the doctors needed an organ photographed, she would stand on a table top as they weighed it. Her first case was to photograph the lungs of a smoker.

“None of that gory stuff bothered me because I saw everything in the ER,” she said, more intrigued than disturbed.

Wanting to continue her study of photography, Sister Anne transferred to one

jeremy borton photo

of the larger hospitals that had a photography department, Saint Joseph Mercy, to avoid having the community pay for college classes. Thirty-five years later she can still be found in the same hospital wing, her former intention of a yearlong internship long forgotten.

work at the hospital

Spreading her time among a variety of projects, Sister Anne documents woman and child abuse, newborns, weddings, families and occasional autopsies. Many of her photographs are featured on billboards as well. Though she enjoys most aspects of her work, the abuse cases are difficult to deal with.

“That’s where justice is going to help in the long run,” she said. “That patient, for that to be reported and documented, it’s more than just a picture. I’m trying to help society and make it a better place.”

Patients she works with do not have

“just a scratch or slap on the arm,” but are sometimes so severely injured they pass away.

“When I get that, it’s almost like my tongue sinks in my throat,” she said. “If it’s before my lunch, and it’s a bad, bad case, I can’t even eat.”

Among these cases lie other subjects difficult to photograph, such as newborns who are not expected to live, and weddings for dying patients. In the case of the woman she met on the elevator, Sister Anne photographed the wedding and was able to give the couple an unredeemable gift while they were still together.

photographing school portraits for the readiness center

Sister Anne also participates in multiple charity events, including driving to Benton Harbor, Mich. every year to photograph children and give portraits to their families. The Readiness Center, a preschool started by another nun around the time she first came to Ann Arbor, gives underprivileged children a significant foundation for their education. The

area is very poor, and the gift of a professional portrait for the 3-5 year old children is well deserved, she believes.

Children who attend the Readiness Center are admitted after their families have been interviewed. “[Sister Paulita] goes out to their homes and gets probably around 90 children every year because everyone wants to be in her program,” she said. What makes the school unique is that children who attend the preschool must be accompanied by an adult, such as a parent, grandmother or aunt, who will learn as well in order to carry out lessons back in their homes. Workers from the community come and volunteer in another program called After School that focuses on helping children with their homework.

Because of these courses, many of the children go on to graduate from high school and college from their strong beginnings.

holiday craft show

There is such a high demand for her prints that the hospital holds a show every year in November. Employees bring in homemade crafts, such as jewelry and

student photography

wood work, with a common Christmas theme since it is held in the holiday season. A large percentage of the money is used to provide nursing scholarships, though Sister Anne donates her profits to an area of the cancer department because she lost a few close friends to the disease.

Sister Anne currently resides in a house on hospital property with three other nuns, still fascinated when it comes to photographing at the hospital.

“I’ve gone up into surgery,” she said.

“That’s a clean atmosphere. Everything is clean, except for a spurt of blood or something. It’s thrilling to see, to be there and watch them taking a tumor out and they need a quick picture of an artery. You have to do it in just a second and pull back and you can’t touch anything. It’s all so sterile. And that’s kind of exciting for me.”

But what Sister Anne loves most is the variety her work offers.

“I might be doing a nice doctor’s portrait one day and the next day I could be photographing a terrible abuse case in the ER,” she said. “You have to be on your toes all the time.”

sara jackson

janie burns

josh krauth-harding

“I really like [photography] because you capture things that might not necessarily happen again. You kind of just get a snapshot of something. I mainly photograph nature, but when you do photograph people, sometimes you can just catch a certain emotion that they’re portraying. Even when they’re not paying attention you get a part of them in the photograph. When it comes to nature, it’s just nice to photograph because it’s so quaint and beautiful. It could be destroyed but you have to preserve at least some of it through your photographs.”

“[I started taking pictures] this year.

This is going to sound a little cliché but when you take a picture it’s cool to look back on it and notice different things that you wouldn’t [have seen]. I like seeing life through a different lense. To be honest, I took digital photo as a filler class and my sister, she was really into photography, she has a really nice camera so I’m getting to use hers. Since then I’ve just really enjoyed taking pictures. I like to bake and cook, and I like taking pictures of food.”

“I think I started taking photos when I was probably eight or nine years old.

My dad was into photography and I [thought] it looked really fun. I really liked exploring and trying new stuff when I was littler, so I did a lot of that.

And when I saw my dad do something I wanted to try it. I focus more on graphic design than photography but a lot of times photography and graphic design will merge because you need one for part of a project that you’re doing, so it kind of is one of my main hobbies because it blends with graphic design, which is my other main hobby.” january 29

sights & sounds of

ann arbor

30 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

mary debona and megan syer

1

grizzly peak

Grizzly Peak is a small brewing company that opened in August of 1995 and is located at the corner of Washington and Ashley. A small restaurant, the Old German, is in the cellar below Grizzly Peak. The menu features seasonal and fresh ingredients used in their dishes such including pizza, burgers, steaks, sandwhiches and fish.

1

2

UMMA

The University of Michigan Museum of Art has been a free art gallery for university students and the public to enjoy since 1856 and is located in the Alumni Memorial Hall on State Street. It is also one of the largest university art museums in the country and is home to art by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.

3

Amer’s Mediterranean Delicatessen has been around since 1987.

They have been best known for their sandwiches and deli as well as their coffee by Ann Arborites. Their coffee is among the cheapest in town with prices as low as $1.50. They have two locations—State St. and Church St.

4

2

amers

blank slate

Blank Slate Creamery is a locally owned ice cream shop that opened in the summer of 2014. They make their own ice cream with dairy products purchased from other local businesses like Guernsey Farms.

Some of their season-specific original flavors include apple cinnamon donut (made with doughnuts from Zingerman’s Roadhouse), snowball (coconut ice cream, chocolate, marshmallows and devil’s food cake) and Apple Cider Sorbet (with apple cider from Dexter Cider Mill).

5

neutral zone

The Neutral Zone started in 1998, when Ann Arbor highschoolers decided that they needed a gathering place for after school and weekends that offered a safe and fun learning environment. Programs for visual arts, music, community leadership and literary arts for teens are currently being offered there as well as free tutoring.

3

4

6

silvio’s

Silvio’s opened in 2005. They sell authentic, organic Italian pizza. The pizzeria is a part of the Slow Food Movement (alternative to fast food), where small businesses are promoted and the process of growing, cooking and eating food isn’t sped up, but is rather an enjoyable experience for their customers.

5

6

january

31

poets present and represent

On Dec. 8, students and staff gathered in Craft Theater to explore love, hate and politics through the written word.

Control by Carson Borbely Every Tuesday at 3:30, the trickle Of my therapist’s voice leaches into my ear.

She tells me to “sit with the feeling”, “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”

I slant my eyes. Bristle incredulous.

Her name is Susan. She has grey hair streaked with indigo dye. A smile wide as a deck of cards.

Loves personality tests and classical guitar. Her office is a safe and tiny island.

Walls painted a soft blue & covered in sticky decals of lions and fish and flowers.

None of this is her fault and I still want to blame her.

I don’t want to stay pinned under what keeps me up at night.

The kind of desperation that coats [everything], green like algae in a dirty fish tank.

The worry that tints what I imagine while I try to fall asleep.

I sit in the middle of the couch and try not to disrupt the neat, cheery pile of throw pillows.

I sit with my feet flat on the floor, arms a fortress over my stomach.

I am rifling through her lessons and coping mechanisms for an exit, Or a hiding place Or a permanent fate.

I am trying to love so much the things I cannot control, To find dignity in the unquantifiable free fall that I wake up in And call my Grandmother in And brush my teeth in 32 t he c o mmu n i c a t o r

And walk home in.

I know I need to find a way, and so I do, I try, I wrestle towards getting well, I don’t restack the papers on my desk until the corners align perfectly.

I let my parents give me advice on my love life.

I finish my math homework.

I uncurl my fists from their tight clench.

I don’t shred the skin of my nail beds.

I let what must blend, blend, past the line of control, dribbling like watercolor, I know the blurring is out of my hands and I let the colors meet each other in imperfect blotches.

I cry in front of her. I don’t fight it.

Raise my eyes to meet hers and blink through the thick warmth.

Try to find bravery in the loose wire of vulnerability, Try not to flinch at the potential of a shock.

I’m breaking in the life where I am the soft thing, Not the steel thing, The gloved hand Not the loose brick I’m learning to attempt to trust my tiny scrap of Earth, The connection of numbers & feelings & pixels & days that make up my life To unfold my crossed arms From their lock against my chest To extend them out, And forward, And open.

Another Gun Poem by Avery Farmer I sit at the family dinner table.

It is cheap and old, falling apart.

But we don’t mind because on it sit dishes whose scrumptious aromas arouse my taste buds, and around it sit the people I love.

It is family dinner time, Mom and Dad look to me and my brother, waiting for us to share something.

I let him go first -- this time.

He speaks quickly between too-big bites of Caesar salad school, (munch munch) minecraft, (munch munch) more school, (munch munch) “Did you know” (munch) “that if there is a shooter at slauson” (munch munch munch) “we’re supposed to run to the YMCA?” (munch) I wonder if our kids would be smarter if their brains didn’t have to use space intended for memorizing poems to memorize instructions on what to do when they’re told to leave class by the blast of guns instead of bells.

I wonder if he would feel safer knowing that there are good guys with guns.

I wonder if he can tell the difference anymore, or if he is beginning to realize after San Bernardino, Paris, Planned Parenthood, Charleston,

that the only difference between a terrorist and a proud American is the color of your skin -but both can kill him faster than he can say “I’m only 12.”

On Thursday night, half an hour away from Ann Arbor, a man shot and killed a 7-year-old girl at soccer practice, then her mom, then himself.

He used a pistol he had bought legally and was licensed to carry.

A gun he bought with his constitutional rights, that he carried with the blessing of the American people and that he used for its intended purpose in our name.

To those who are too cowardly to save a life in America by giving up their guns.

Go f--- yourselves.

Do not silence our voices.

We said the same thing after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Newtown, Aurora, San Bernardino, etc.

So I wonder, how long before it is our turn to lose loved ones to the second amendment?

top right across: carson borbely, eleanor olson, will carroll, ellen stone, eva rosenfeld bottom right across: avery farmer, katy pasquariello and nyah sclassie

check out the rest of the poets’ poems on our website at chscommunicator.com december

33

proust questionaire

robert morgan

“Quirky, fun, enthusiastic, funny,” is how senior Katy Mckay described Community’s resident teacher, friend and advice-giver Robert Morgan.

sabina fall

Your idea of misery?

I think losing someone would be pretty miserable.

What is your main fault?

I can be very forgetful. I just lose things.

What is your favorite color and flower?

Blue and peonies.

Your ideal occupation?

Besides my own? I like thinking about things. Critical observation, especially things that pople don’t normally think about.

Your heros in real life?

I’ll go with my friend Charlie. Charlie, he’s a great guy.

Your favorite food and drink?

Pizza and green lattes.

Your favorite poet?

I just recently listened to some poetry Ken gave me by Jack Kerouac.

34 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

What is your chief characteristic?

I’m very talkative, I talk a lot but only in large groups of people. I hate talking one on one.

Where would you like to live?

Here, Michigan, I don’t know. I really love Detroit but I feel like that’s the hipster thing to say. But I don’t know, I lived there as a kid because my mom worked there downtown.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I think of Sunday mornings and a warm towel or clothes out of the dryer.

What are your favorite names?

So if I ever had a child I would want to name it Spaceship. I think that would just be the best name.

This is why I’m not allowed to have children.

What is a naturaul talent you would like to be gifted with?

Being able to do a backflip.

Favorite virtue?

This is such a cop-out but I’m going to say courage.

What do you like most about your friends?

Reliability. They are there when I need them.

What is your favorite quality in a woman?

Someone who can make conversation.

Your favorite authors?

Ooh! I actually have an answer to this one, I feel like favorites are so tough but Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

What is your currrent state of mind?

Anxious. I have lots of papers that need to be graded for the end of the quarter.

If not yourself, who would you like to be?

My mother.

“One of the biggest things for me is base layers. Merino wool is a great natural tech fiber: it’s warm when it’s cold out, it keeps you cool when it’s warm, and it does good moisture management. [That’s important because] often times the big thing about colder temps is that you want to keep sweat away from the body, so you don’t feel a chill.”

-Hadley Whittemore, General Manager, Bivouac

“Stay inside as much as possible. Try to eat a lot of nuts and hibernate, like a squirrel. I’m already working on it..”

-Hannah Davis, Community Junior

winter survival guide

stavi tennenbaum

“I wear leggings under jeans. If you have jeans that are a little bigger or that you haven’t washed in a while I’ll always throw a pair of leggings on under those. We sell lots of tight long sleeves, like thermal-esque or wool, which I always wear under a big sweater. I also like those big scarves that are more like shawls, because you can wrap them in a lot of different ways, like around your whole shoulder and your face.”

-Hannah Wasserman, Fashion Floor Worker, Bivouac

“I drink a lot of coffee and cry.

But good socks and shoes are the most important. Wool and fuzzy socks, and boots like [L.L. Bean] duck boots, not Uggs because they aren’t waterproof. And don’t underestimate the power of hats and gloves.”

-Fiona Greeley, Skyline Senior

“We generally recommend one of two things: either a layering system, where you utilize a base layer, a thin mid-layer, an insulation layer and then a windproof or waterproof shell, or a parka, where you can wear what you normally wear in the fall, such as long sleeves and pants, but you don’t have to layer up quite as much, because they’re made of very plush, thick, insulated layers that already have a weather-resistant shell on the outside.”

-Hadley Whittemore, General Manager, Bivouac

“Definitely invest in long underwear. They’re not only secretly the sexiest things I’ve ever worn, but they’re amazing. They keep you so warm. Also, buy lots of thigh highs. And don’t get too obsessed with Netflix — try not to get into that horrible place.

If you have to, just try to go outside every so often and at least do something [other than watching it].”

-Aleyah Austin, Pioneer Senior

january

35

a rapid turnaround

The Argo and Gallup canoe liveries during the off season. Lines over an hour long were a common sight at both liveries last summer.

cheryl saam has transformed the ann arbor parks and recreation department.

S

myles markey

ince 2004, the City of Ann Arbor canoe livery has gone from a city service struggling to break even, to a business that, in 2015, made nearly one million dollars in revenue, becoming one of the city’s leading sources of funding. The 11 year overhaul of the liveries can be credited to their manager, Cheryl Saam.

Saam commenced her career in the Ann Arbor Parks Department as a volunteer at the Leslie Science Center in 1990, where she spearheaded many of the programs and services that the Center is now known for. Her relentless goal 36 t he c o mmu n i c a t o r

for improvement earned Cheryl a promotion to Director of the Center.

The building of the science center proved challenging though, as it was provided a very shallow budget from the Parks Department’s funds.

In 2003, the previous Manager of Argo and Gallup canoe liveries retired, which opened the door for Cheryl.

“I had wanted to start a camp on the river because because the Leslie Science Center camps were full and the Argo building was perfect,” she said.

Her proposal of this idea to city officials went better than planned as in the spring of 2004, she was granted the job of Livery Manager.

“I grew up on a lake and canoeing everyday so I was really excited to make that change.”

Saam’s new task presented a substantially higher potential budget which was needed due to the state of the liveries she described as “condemned”.

She immediately began her improvements on the liveries, demanding that Argo be completely demolished and rebuilt where it is today.

Arguably Cheryl’s greatest triumph as

livery manager was the 2008 construction of the Argo park cascades: an engineered embankment that provides rivergoers a convenient, safe and fun passage around the Argo dam. The cascades were built to provide a more efficient route down river for paddlers and to take stress of water pressure off the Argo dam and its mill race, which were constructed over 100 years ago.

Today, the white-water creation is a landmark attraction in Ann Arbor, luring an incredible 68,300 people to the city’s liveries last summer.

“She does very well to relate to other coworkers and customers. She is a genuinely friendly person,” said Thomas Logue, an employee of the Livery and sophomore at the University of Michigan.

Cheryl hasn’t missed a beat with the constantly rising crowds. In 2015, the livery obtained a fleet of over 500 rental boats—more than any other livery in Michigan.

The livery has grown so much in the past years that even the industrious Saam said that she’s hopes to “plateau” in sales for her ever-expanding business, which

mushroomed to an incredible 40 percent in sales this summer from 2014.

But Cheryl is always looking for improvement and has grand plans for a possible third livery to be constructed across the river from Argo in what is now a three-acre plot of land owned by DTE. The new livery would house canoe and tube rentals while the original Argo livery would service kayaks and still water paddlers. This addition would drastically reduce weekend lines by expediting the entire rental process. The project is now only an idea, and would require a great deal of public support along with DTE’s cooperation to make it into reality. However, based on Cheryl’s track record and work ethic, it’s hard to put any goal past her.

Argo Canoe Livery (pictured above) glistens in the fall sun. Its greatest attraction is the Argo Cascades (pictured below). Constructed in 2012, the cascades provide a fun and safe way around the Argo dam, which paddlers used to have to walk around.

october

37

january

37

chs

fashion

eva rosenfeld I bought this dress from a street vendor in Hong Kong from a little stand under a pet fish store. They wouldn’t let me try it on, so it was a bit of a gamble, I know, but it was only $11 so I thought why not!

I think that’s how people generally describe my style, mostly clothes from stands under fish stores.

38 t he c o mmu n i c a t o r

hannah simon and sophia simon

hannah simon I wear black because it distracts from the fact that I have no style.

Johnny Cash said, “I wore black because I liked it.” I also wear black because I like it. Johnny and I have a lot in common.

carson borbely

I try to dress in a way that’s funky and off beat but still comfortable and down to earth. I shop at a wide variety of stores, but I really like thrifting to find things that are more interesting and unique. I think expressing yourself through clothing is an easy way of showing the world who you are.

jaleana pace

clara kaul

I think about my outfits the day before. I get most of my stuff from Salvation Army. My jewelry is from Ragstock mostly. If I’m going out shopping and I’ve been wearing the same rings for a while, I buy new ones. My favorite outfit is high waisted jeans with a crop top and a jean jacket.

For me, style and the clothes I wear is one of the most obvious reflections of my growth. I’ve always thought a lot about what I wear but it’s warped from being more aesthetically driven to how the outfit makes me feel.

eleanor olson I’ve always been really inspired by 1950’s fashion because it fits my body type really well. I have a smaller waist and bigger hips so longer skirts and blouses are really fun.

Usually when I go shopping I look for pieces that are comfortable. I hate being uncomfortable, but I like heels...so I don’t even know. january

39

swim city, usa

ABOVE: Skyline Women’s Swimming head coach, Mojo Isaac, and state team members.

ann arbor is the best swim city in america.

A

mary debona

nn Arbor, Mich., was announced as the “best swim city in America” for the second year in a row by USA Swimming and Speedo USA this year.

The search for the top swim cities only began in 2014, therefore Ann Arbor has been the only city to ever be awarded with this title. Some of the factors that determined the rankings of swim cities were the percentage of swimmers, swim clubs, amount of pools and national-level swimmers in the city.

“All of the high school teams, the club teams and even the WISC teams [are what makes Ann Arbor #1]” said An40 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

drea Stanczak, Huron women’s swimming head coach and men’s assistant coach. “It pulls in some of those kids that wouldn’t necessarily swim and they like it, so they join the high school team.”

WISC (Washtenaw Interclub Swimming Conference) is a swim league with nearly 20 teams from the Ann Arbor area that participate every summer. Ann Arbor high school swim coaches argue that WISC is the reason that swimming is so big in the area.

“Whether you want to swim at Huron Valley, or swim at Vets Park or at Forestbrooke—wherever you live, whatever you’ve got going on in the summer, there’s a spot for you to swim and that’s what I think makes it such a big part of this community,” said Maureen “Mojo” Isaac, Skyline women’s swimming head coach.

Swimmers from various high schools in the Ann Arbor area are united during the summer at Fuller Pool, through a program that Huron science teacher, Jenni Wilkening, and Mojo inherited from retired Pioneer swim coach, Denny Hill.

The practices start early in the morning and the program runs concurrent with the WISC season, so that high schoolers have the option to swim for one of the WISC teams and compete at the conference meet after the end of the program.

“I love having that contact and in-

“Whether you want to swim at Huron Valley, or swim at Vets Park or at Forestbrooke—wherever you live, whatever you’ve got going on in the summer, there’s a spot for you to swim and that’s what I think makes it such a big part of this community,” Mojo Isaac said.

teraction with high schoolers from all over southeast Michigan and I feel really blessed to coach the program that Hill started,” Mojo said. “That’s a great service that he gave to this community for a really long time and I love that I get to keep it going.”

WISC isn’t the only organization that is bringing kids into the world of competitive swimming. “The university has a lot to do with it… their camps bring in between five and seven hundred kids a year,” said Stefanie Kerska, Pioneer women’s and men’s swimming head coach.

The University of Michigan is known to attract many olympic swimmers, with the UM Swim Camp drawing younger swimmers to Ann Arbor each year.

In the future, Ann Arbor high school coaches want to see another large swim facility in the city. Even though there are a fair amount of high school, public, private and college pools in the area, coaches still feel like they have limited working space.

ABOVE: Huron Women’s Swimming head coach, Andrea Stanczak.

“As many summer pools as we have, there are not a lot of indoor pools, and we live in Michigan, after all,” Kerska said. Another indoor pool would be an ideal place for high school swimmers to train during their off-season.

Ann Arbor swimmers represented their city well at Division 1 states this

year, with Skyline placing 1st out of nearly 50 of the best teams in the state, stripping Saline of their previous title.

Pioneer placed 14th and Huron placed 20th, contiuing Ann Arbor’s strong tradition of swimming.

ABOVE: Pioneer Women’s Swimming head coach, Stefanie Kerska, with assistant coach, Frankie DeMaria, and state team. january

41

hacking the hacks do these life hacks work or do they need work? lily gechter

If you think someone is staring at you, fake a yawn. If they yawn as well, then they’ve been staring. (Source: Caitlin Mahoney) Let’s face it; there are times when we think someone is staring at us in class. For a day, I yawned whenever I thought someone was staring. A few people yawned as well, yet some didn’t. It might have been because they weren’t looking, but I discovered a few who were looking my way.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5 STARS

Use the heat from your computer/laptop to keep coffee or another drink warm for longer. (Source: Archiengi.com) I had a nice cup of hot chocolate, which I forgot about for a couple minutes (ok, maybe 20). While working on an essay, I kept the cup relatively close to the vent on my computer. I felt that my legs got much warmer than the actual beverage. It wasn’t the most conventional with my Apple MacBook, but it has potential with other computers.

OVERALL RATING: 3/5 STARS

Pull off the bottom section of cupcakes to make mini sandwich-esque treats and avoid frosting messes. (Source: Pinterest) This hack is simpler than it sounds. All that’s needed is to pull off the bottom of the cupcake and plop it on top. It resembles a sandwich, so you can hold the cake without making a mess. This simple hack surely isn’t necessary, but it takes a different view on devouring party snacks.

OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5 STARS

Chew an interesting flavor while studying, and then chew the same flavor during the test. It helps trigger parts of the brain relating to memory.

(Source: BuzzFeed) While doing some quick studying for an algebra test, I popped in a bright blob of fruity gum. When my test came around the next day, I chewed on the same flavor of gum. I didn’t notice too great of a difference, but my mind was able to remember a formula I would have forgotten otherwise.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5 STARS

42 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

katy stegemann cheyanne anderson

2 2

sports athletes

sport: Swimming competes for: Huron High School (HHS) best event: 100 back, (1:05:45 time) advice to someone who is thinking about joining a high school swim team: “Don’t get discouraged because you will get really fast. I know a lot of girls who started out and hadn’t really swam on a swim team at all, and were like ‘this is kinda weird,’ and a few of them quit because it’s super intense, but by the time you get to sophomore [year], you’re making a lot of progress.”

How did the season go?

She made finals for both of

her events. “The only place that you can make points is in finals. So there’s prelims and then there’s finals. Only the top 24 make finals.”

sport: Soccer

experience: This is her eleventh year swimming competitively, and her third year swimming for HHS.

position: right defender

favorite post-game meal: Pasta and salad because the salad is always better when pasta is served: the dressing is better, and there is a bigger variety of vegetables.

competes for: MPSA Crush

experience: She has been playing soccer for eight years. favorite post-game meal: A hamburger with some sort of sugary drink, like a shake or a frosty.

good memory from this season: Morning practices which are 5:45 to 7:00 during the school year.

good memory from this season: Getting stuck in a soccer net at practice and laughing about it for a long time with a friend.

food before morning practice: Nothing or a banana.

future plans: To be a referee or coach for

little kids. jersey number: 6 athlete mentors: Abby Wambach and Hope Solo. more on Abby: “Abby, she doesn’t really focus on herself, she focuses on her teammates around her, and she’s there to support them and she’s not the one just taking the ball and doing it all by herself.” on how the season went: “Pretty good, we finished second in division one, so that’s good.” advice to someone who is interested in playing club soccer: “Not to be afraid... Just to open up and start talking to people.” january

43

staying in state

four community high 2015 graduates share their story on the transition from high school to college. emily tschirhart and brennan eicher

T

caitilin mahoney art

he high school class of 2015 is the newest to the college experience. For those moving from a moderately dependent lifestyle to a fully independent lifestyle, college can be rough in some cases.

“The thing that’s been most challenging for me has been creating a new routine for myself,” said Alex Wood, Community High graduate. “There’s a lot less structure in college. I go to class for 16 hours a week and high schoolers go to school 35 hours a week, so there’s a big difference there. You also have a lot more work in college, but there’s a lot more time to do it. The biggest challenge 44 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

is figuring out when you’re going to do stuff and getting a new routine.”

Ben Wier finds that the change can be relatively undemanding.

“The transition was very natural for me, and I don’t know if it was partly because I grew up in this town,” he said.

“I wouldn’t get physically lost very often, which I think would definitely happen to me a lot if I was in a new town. I transitioned into dorm life pretty quick and I get along with my roommate, luckily.

I’m in this learning community for people who write and it’s just a cool environment to live with people who have at least one similar interest,” Wier said.

Oren Levin, talented musician, CHS graduate and Eastern Michigan University student was surprised with the level of comfortableness when it came to moving to a new home. “It felt like camp when I first went to college,” Levin said.

“And it was the first time I was more fully independent. I’m still adjusting, but it’s been really cool to meet new people,” Overall, the new freshman were happy to have stayed in their hometown. The setting they’ve grown up in has been

comfortable to adjust to as adults.

Wood had a lot to say about going to college down the road from his house.

Not only was it extremely convenient, but Wood had a sense of familiarity and home.

“On a Sunday night when I realize I don’t have any laundry done and it’s really loud in my dorm, I’m really glad to be able to bike home or to call my parents and ask them to pick me up,” Wood said. “There aren’t many new things to see but that’s really outmatched by how many new faces and people there are to meet and how many new things there are to do on campus.”

For Wier, staying in Ann Arbor was both a pro and a con. In-state tuition was quite convenient and Wier found that he thoroughly enjoyed staying in the town.

Wier found that living in Ann Arbor made him more familiar with the area but he was also looking forward to traveling further away.

“Even though it would be nice to leave town, I think I like Ann Arbor more than I’d like Lafayette, Indiana, or some other place,” Wier said.

Liz Roy, a CHS graduate and hockey enthusiast, was overjoyed to have gotten into University of Michigan, as she has been passionate about living in Michigan since an early age.

“There are definitely some people, who, when they graduate, are ready to go, but Michigan is in my blood,” Roy said. Roy was grateful to know the downtown area as well as she does and felt far more prepared to go to college in a place she recognized and loved. Levin, on the other hand was mildly neutral when it came to remaining in Michigan.

“People always think that there are two steps, home and college,” Levin said. “Going to college in Michigan is like a nice middle step. You can stay home and go to college and play it all by ear.” Levin originally wanted to attend Berklee College of Music, in Boston, but decided to attend Eastern instead.

All of the new freshman shared one major difficulty: the amount of work that is distributed in college is far greater than they had anticipated. For some, it has been the most formidable change in their new lives. Wood, Roy and Levin all shared the problems that arose with greater amounts of work.

“The biggest difficulty is the workload adjustment,” Roy said.

“It’s very easy to slack off and not do your work because there are so many fun things to do,” Wood said. Wood has found that with the hundreds of clubs, student groups and organizations, he is able to still participate in his favorite hobbies such as club sports, climate change activism and a business fraternity. Wier is active in a theatre community and an educational entertainment troupe.

Roy continues to play field hockey, on a lower competitive level than she is used to. Levin has been looking for a new band to play with, and consistently plays music in his dorm room so that he won’t fall out of practice.

Community High School was preparation for college, and the new college freshmen were well prepared after they left. Roy enjoyed the relationship she had with the teachers and the passion that the teachers showed on their subjects. Wier appreciated the diversity of Community and the outlook it gave him on people in general.

“I think being open-minded about every person that you meet and understanding that

where everybody is from is different from where you come from,” Wier said, referencing how CHS has changed him. “All of their experiences and interests led them to where they are now and it’s important to respect people.”

Wood claims that the most helpful thing at Community was being able to create your own schedules and have CRs and block scheduling.

“The biggest thing academically, has been creating my own schedule,” Wood said. “At

“On a Sunday night when I realize I don’t have any laundry done and it’s loud in my dorm, I’m really glad to be able to bike home or call my parents and ask them to pick me up.”

Community, there’s a lot more flexibility to change things in your schedule. If you go to a bigger school, you just put your name into a computer and it spits it back out and there aren’t any CRs or classes at other schools,” Wood said.

Levin was quick to applaud the English department at Community, claiming that the preparation for essay writing was very helpful.

The overall advice the students had was that it’s important to take your time. Applying for college can seem daunting, but if you remember to reach out for help and take advantage of every opportunity, you’ll be just fine.

“I would definitely keep it in perspective that you don’t know what you want to do,” Wood said. “What you’ll want to do will change. I think I’m a different person than I was a month ago when I started school and I’ll definitely be a different person when this year is over.” january

45

What Should I Listen to? hannah simon what to listen to

listen to when you are

how to listen

Better Than- Lake Street Dive

reading the Communicator

Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash

playing pool

If you want to hear the playlist:

Trapped By a Thing Called Love- Danise LaSalle

slow dancing

Midnight Rider- The Allman Brothers

midnight driving

Midnight Train to Georgia- Gladys Knights & The Pips

riding a midnight train to Georgia

Recess- Eli Paperboy Reed

chillin’ on the back lawn

Welcome 2 Detroit- Trick Trick

wacthing a Detroit sports team

Small Things- Ben Howard

taking a bubble bath

Thunderstruck- AC/DC

needing an adrenaline rush

Delilah- Florence + The Machine

in the mood to canoe

Every Other Freckle- alt-J

feeling twirly

In a Week- Hozier

watching leaves/snow fall

Pyro- Kings of Leon

sad driving

Breaker- Deerhunter

playing Catan

The Blower’s Daughter- Damien Rice

falling asleep

L$D- Mayaeni (cover)

I Know It’s You- Guards

Bold As Love- John Mayer (cover) Just One Look- Doris Troy At Once- Beirut

46 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

mellowed out reflecting on your summer feeling poetic experiencing love at first sight babysitting

1. download a QR code scanner on your smartphone 2. take a picture of the code below 3. your phone will open the sptoify app to the songs 4. plug in your earbuds 5. have a listen

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Teens aged 12-19 can join the Y for $15/ month and access all the Y has to offer.

Get in shape with pick-up basketball, teen yoga, studio cycling, strength and conditioning, free weights and two indoor pools and an indoor track.

Not into sports? Our Youth in Government provides opportunities to get involved with governmental processes (including a three-day trip to Lansing!) and Youth Volunteer Corps gets you involved with service in your community during the school year and all summer long.

The Y is open 5:30 am to 10 pm Monday through Friday, and 7 am to 7 pm on weekends, so, no matter what your schedule, there’s time to hang out at the Y. For more information, go to www.annarborymca.org, call 734.996.9622 or stop by after school.

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Q&A

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samuel uribe

“The Jazz program at Ann Arbor’s Community High School under the direction of Jack Wagner is superior on an international level. I’ve never encountered such a concentration of mature and genuinely talented, focused young jazz musicians as those students in Jack’s program.”

-Benny Green Grammy-winning pianist

50 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

C

Can you give me an overview of what the jazz masterclasses mean to you as a teacher and what it would mean for a student?

I think it’s really inspiring for all of us to have these masters come in that are living the life. It’s different when you have committed your whole life to performance and to the jazz art form. So for us to be around people that are that serious is really important. I find it, for me personally, extremely inspiring and I always get new, great ideas from them. New ideas about how to teach or how to be a better musician. I look for various patterns, things that are repeated from guest to guest. These things are all important to me. Also, since there is a certain percentage of kids that are coming out of here that want to major in jazz performance in college, it helps me keep a perspective for kids who want to make this their life. It’s always a shock to the system to see how dedicated these folks are to the music.

It’s also a real draw for the program. I think kids like rubbing shoulders with these masters. When you hang out with a fivetime grammy winner like Victor Wooten or someone like Dave Liebman, who came in third in the Downbeat poll for best soprano player in the world this year, when you get to actually talk to these folks, hear them play in front of you and have them critique your own playing, I think that the students really get a lot out of them. I think they will find a lot of value in being able to be around such heavy musicians.

ing too. Players that may not have a national presence, but are amazing players.

How did it all start? Was it already happening when you came to the program?

I think they had some guests from time to time before I was here, I’m not really sure exactly what was happening. When I got here, I just started to realize that with the budget that we had from the gigs that we were doing we could actually afford to pay some players to come in. Right away we were able to partner with Pioneer High School to have Ambrose Akinmusire and Marcus Belgrave come in. So, that was like within in the first week of school and that was really exciting. We had that joint thing with them and then after that, I remember talking to Dianne Dudley and she said to me: “You know, my sister is really good friends with Victor Wooten, do you know who he is? And I said of course I do, he’s like the best electric bass player in the world and she said, “You know, maybe we can get him to come out.” Moments like that got me thinking that we could make a regular thing of all this stuff where we could bring in people, even if they are relatively large acts, if we can get them enough money to make it worth their time, while they are blowing through town on some tour, that we could snag some really great players if they are in Detroit or Ann Arbor. So, it just kinda started snowballing from those early days and just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and we just kept getting more and more world-class players.

We also get a lot of local town players and that’s also amaz-

What do these masters think about the program you have been building up? Some of them have said great things about it, so I don’t know if you want to add something about that?

Yeah! There are some testimonials on the website.There are some quotes on there from Victor, Dave Leibman, Steve Wilson and Weiss. Almost, I think, every time they come in they seem to love it and think that this is a model situation. The way we’ve got all these combos. They seem to really like the fact that we are taking care of doing combos here, which is so unusual. So, we get a lot of compliments about that and how well the students perform, how well they listen, the quality of the questions they ask. They have been really impressed with all of that.

Are there any big and memorable moments in the past few years from these masterclasses that really stick out for you?

Yeah! They have all been terrific in various ways. I remember the Matt Wilson and Gary Versace masterclass as being such a ball, it was just so much fun. They were so energetic, so into the kids, they were really helpful, they really dug in and helped them a ton. And these guys are just at the tippy top of the jazz world right now. So that was fantastic. Last year we had Bob Hurst and he played his butt off and he really helped the kids.

This one with Dave Liebman was terrific. I really loved seeing an old teacher of mine, Steve Wilson, last year. They did a fantastic masterclass and concert for us and my favorite drummer in the world, Bill Stuart, was in that band. To have him in our building playing on our drum set for our kids was, you know.

There are just too many to remember and I feel bad just leaving some people out because there are just so many great ones.

Rodney Whitaker, Michael Weiss, Billy Hart sounded incredible earlier this semester and it was just great to meet him and hear him speak. It was very inspiring. So, too many to remember. We’re up almost, since I started this eight years ago, we’ve had over 80 people. So, it’s too much to remember now.

Do you have any last comments you want to make?

I hope that the students don’t ever take it for granted because it’s unusual to have Grammy winners regularly visiting a public school and working with students. I hope they realize that is not necessarily the everyday experience for many kids in America or in the world. And they embrace it and run with it. Make sure they attend these things and get as much out of it as they can. We still have some kids that don’t show up to them and it’s always so surprising. It’s like “really, why not”?

(Laughs) That’s it.

january

51

head space: one person, one vote abe weiner grace koepele illustration

The other night I was watching Sacha Baron Cohen’s infamous television show Da Ali G Show which aired on HBO in the early 2000s. I was watching one of my favorite episodes, where Cohen asked a panel of politicians and political scientists why smart people don’t get to vote more than stupid people.

This is an example of the provocative, satirical questions he poses, which usually leave me laughing hysterically. However, this time I did not laugh because even though the question may seem ridiculous, it is very similar to a very prevalent ethical predicament that I have been struggling with: should there be a limit to the amount of money certain individuals or groups are allowed to donate to a presidential campaign? In other words, should a person’s potential influence in a presidential campaign be determined by their monetary wealth?

Even though the official 2016 presidential election is about a year away many presidential campaigns have already raised unfathomable amounts of money and, for some candidates, the majority of this money has been from very few people. For example, Ted Cruz has received $11 million from Robert Mercer and $15 million from The Wilks Family in Texas. One of Cruz’s republican opponents, Scott Walker, received $5 million from a Wyoming family. With these numbers the statistic that just 158 families have provided nearly half of the money so far to political campaigns becomes less surprising. Another imperative fact about this statistic is that 138 of those 158 families have donated their money to Republican candidates.

While I generally believe that people should have the right to spend their money how they want it, I believe that donating absurd amounts of money to these presidential campaigns should be 52 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

illegal. Donating that much money to a political campaign dilutes the democratic process this country was founded upon and is in direct conflict with the idea behind universal suffrage, “One person, one vote.”

As a matter of fact federal law agrees with me. Individuals are only allowed to give up to $5,000 to PACs (Political Action Committees), private organizations directly associated with a political campaign. However, after two monumental court cases in 2010, SpeechNow.org vs.

Federal Election Commission (FEC)and

Citizens United vs. FEC, Super PACs were formed, drastically changing campaign funding. There is no limit to how much one can donate to a Super PAC. Super PACs are also private organizations created to support a political campaign. However, there is one distinct difference between Super PACs and PACs that make them “legal” and that is that there is no direct association with the actual campaign. They make advertisements, conduct phone calls, and perform outreach independently from the official political campaign that the organization is supporting.

Essentially, these Super PACs are a loophole that wealthy people are able to take advantage of, because the that the government is not actively regulating them. The majority of 2016 presidential campaigns are mostly funded through these Super PACs.

Vermont senator and current democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has taken the position that he doesn’t want any Super PACs while both of his fellow democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, have received millions from their respective Super PACs. This will be the first presidential election I will be able to vote in and while I applaud Bernie Sanders for taking this position; I believe all presidential candidates should.

Around the world the United States presidential election is viewed as the epitome of an honest democratic process, and the fact that our candidates are clouding it with deceitfulness and bending rules disgusts me. I understand that presidential campaigns are expensive and a candidate’s natural inclination is to do whatever they can to be elected. But in this hysteria, I feel they have lost sight of the importance of the democratic foundations of our country and are caught up in their own lust for power.

Frankly, I find this hypocritical.

Presidents should not have access to unlimited funding. Individuals (not corporations or organizations) should be allowed to donate up to a fixed amount directly to a president’s campaign. This is how it used to be and how it needs to be if we want our government to remain respectable, democratic, and serve as a role-model. The best way to do this is go after the perpetrator of this very unfortunate conundrum: Super PACs. As a young voter I can only hope that future elections will not be clouded with this much corruption and that people can view the question “Should a person’s political influence be determined by their wealth?” as just as absurb as the one that Cohen originally posed in his television show.

2015:

movie highlights

Countless motor vehicles roam through the desert in George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” The movie explores themes of resource depletion, human trafficking and survival.

A

andrew gechter

t 2015’s end, we look back on a year that was hyped up for its big movie releases, such as “Furious 7,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Jurassic World,” “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” and “Spectre.” It has turned out, however, that many of these movies were not the real highlights at the movie theater in 2015. The world still has not seen the long-awaited “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Quentin Tarantino’s threehour epic “The Hateful Eight,” or even the movie that will supposedly, finally win Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar (“The Revenant”), but there have been a number of worthwhile movies that have come out this year. Those movies are as follows:

“THE GIFT”

The directorial debut from Joel Edgerton that also stars him is one of the most stressful, even most maddening movie experiences in a long time, but that is meant in the best of ways. What was advertised as a stalker/home-invasion thriller actually turned out to be more of an anti-bullying movie, and it is mesmerizing the whole way through. Edger-

ton is great both in front of and behind the camera and Jason Bateman demonstrates that he can play more than just the nice guy in movies, too.

“LOVE & MERCY”

A must for all music buffs and fans of the Beach Boys. It’s a moving portrait of Brian Wilson and his life, detailing all the trouble he went through during his adolescence and how playing music was his way of healing from that pain. The movie covers his well-known years in which he experimented with drugs and heard The Beatles’ “Rubber Soul,” only to be inspired and motivated to make the greatest rock and roll album of all time, and his later years in which he was tortured by his in-home psychiatrist. His menacing psychiatrist is played well by Paul Giamatti, but the real standouts are Paul Dano and John Cusack as young and old Wilson. They deserve Oscars.

“MAD MAX: FURY ROAD”

What a relentless ride. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is not as much about its story as it is about the experience; it is a movie worth seeing just for its stunning action scenes with genuine stuntwork and

a perfect blend of computer generated imagery and practical effects, even though it is set to a really interesting, dystopian backdrop where nihilstic chaos roams through the streets (or the lack thereof) every day. Coming from a studio like Warner Bros. that frequently puts out somewhat generic action movies, “Fury Road” comes seemingly out of nowhere, with strange villains, an even less familiar production design, and loads of energy buzzing through its veins.

“STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON”

If anything, 2015 has had a lot of good movies about music. “Straight Outta Compton” is evidence of this claim, recounting the 80s/90s rap group N.W.A. that was crucial to the future growth of hip hop. They experienced tons of racism and hatred growing up and express that through their music, which they got flack for because of its themes for which that people simply weren’t ready. It’s a culturally relevant movie, too, with all of the racist police violence going on across the country. january

53

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op-ed.

staff editorial:

save the lakes

The Great Lakes are not just beautiful, they are a priceless resource. Home to 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and 95 percent of the U.S.’s surface freshwater, the Great Lakes serve as a source of drinking water for thousands, and also provide food and nesting for many indigenous organisms. Three-thousand five-hundred species of plants and animals, including more than 200 globally rare species and 46 species found nowhere else in the world call the Great Lakes home.

Furthermore, the Great Lakes support fish and wildlife populations and the diverse habitats of the basin provide numerous critical ecological services, including water filtration and storage, flood control, nutrient cycling and carbon storage.

More than 60 million people visit the many parks lining the shores each year, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the region: stimulating the local economy. Moreover, the Great Lakes support fisheries valued at more than seven billion dollars annually.

But there is a threat posed against this natural beauty and thriving economy: Enbridge Line 5.

The oil pipeline, built in 1953, was meant to last for only 50 years: in 56 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

2015, it celebrated its 62nd birthday. It is the U.S.’s portion of the world’s longest petroleum carrying pipeline. Line 5 runs directly underneath the Straits of Mackinac.

The pipeline is a danger to the Great Lakes and all living things around it. As far as science has progressed, no organism can ingest oil without serious consequences. It must be decommissioned.

If a spill were to happen, it could easily prove fatal to the thousands of species which inhabit the Great Lakes, and devastating for the people who depend on the lake for water and their livelihoods.

As the seasons change, the threat of a

spill becomes more perilous. In winter the Straits freeze over. Two years ago, 90 percent of the Great Lakes froze. It does not take much to imagine the catastrophe that would ensue if the pipeline ruptured in winter, as accessibility would be severely limited. Keep in mind, Enbridge’s 2010 spill in Kalamazoo, the largest on-land oil spill in U.S. history, was only leaking for 17 hours.

Stopping a spill in winter could likely take much longer than that.

As is evident, the pipeline must be relegated to the past and decommissioned. It poses a huge potential threat to the Great Lakes system: a threat we cannot afford to let happen.

op-ed.

time out: a reconsideration of timed testing danny freiband

Timed testing has been around for so long that many of us consider it an unpleasant yet necessary part of our lives.

It is high time that its merits be called into question.

The true purpose of testing is too often forgotten: a test is meant to assess a student’s understanding of a subject or course matter. Supposedly, teachers use tests to get a better idea of how much their students have learned. Ultimately, they often end up as a sort of

“final enemy” that students aim to defeat in order to succeed in the academic world.

Yet if tests are supposed to assess understanding, time limits do little to help this process along. The basic assumption behind timed testing is that quicker answers mean better comprehension, or that students who better understand the material can answer more quickly. This is not always the case. Often times, the opposite is true; quick answers can mean superficial, shortterm memorization, instead of a more time-dependent, comprehensive understanding.

By this token, timed testing actively takes away from understanding, by teaching students how to “regurgitate” information instead of how to learn it. As for the students who actually understand the material, they may receive worse grades than those who memorize the material superficially. All of a sudden, the test is no longer assessing comprehension, but rather

ability to spit out answers without truly learning the subject material.

Time limits add an additional, unnecessary level of stress and anxiety to testing as well. For important tests like final exams or standardized assessments, people often worry just as much or more about being able to finish on time than they do about actually knowing the material. Extra stress on tests can cause a student to forget the material, make careless mistakes, or even take longer.

One thing that’s clear is that timed testing does not, as is often suggested, level the playing field. Rather, it introduces several variables—things like capacity to memorize or reaction to stress—which skew results and make a test less effective in its assessment of understanding. Ability to focus is another variable, which poses a problem for many students. When more factors are brought into the equation, there is more likelihood that a test is assessing something other than comprehension.

If conventional timed testing is problematic, what is the alternative?

There obviously can’t be an infinite amount of time to take tests, both because teachers don’t have time to proctor indefinitely and because students can only need so much time to take a test if they truly know the material. The trick is determining what amount of time is the right amount.

Personally, I would propose a minimum of twice the current amount of time on timed tests and quizzes. This would prevent people who know the material from being penalized and having their understanding falsely assessed, but would be short enough that people who don’t know the material very well don’t get a grade that is an inaccurate representation of their mastery.

january

57

op-ed.

editorial cartoon caitlin mahoney

hypocrisy is not for a president anurima kumar

Dr. Ben Carson is unraveling to reveal his true self. The 2016 presidential candidate is currently in the running to be the Republican representative for the election.

In the election, anyone, including Carson, has a chance to become the person leading our nation, but Carson should not be that person—he is only filled with hypocrisy that he believes will satisfy the people of the United States of America. He stands for positions that will not make the world’s melting pot happy.

Just a few weeks ago on “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd asked Carson whether a president’s faith matters, to which he said: “If it fits within the realm of America and is consistent with the Constitution I have no problem.”

Indirectly, that can be translated to “only Christianity follows the Constitution.” Later, he said that he said that he would neither advocate nor agree with a Muslim leading the United States. However, he states that the First Amendment speaks about our freedom to practice whatever faith we choose from any government intrusion, and that the rights to abstain from private prayer should also be protected.

58 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

John Adams, a founding father himself, said that the government of the United States is not founded on Christianity.

For Carson to say that we have the freedom to practice any faith without government intrusion, and to then state that the president cannot be Muslim is contradictory.

For Carson to say that Islam is not consistent with the Constitution, does not acknowledge how Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. How can he, if he is president, cater to this with his beliefs?

For Carson to say he wants to acknowledge everyone’s religious beliefs and protect non-Christians, then act on the exact opposite, screams either Christian privilege, or hypocrisy. Both are qualities people do not want in their president.

His thoughts on abortion are also clashing. He strongly opposes the idea that abortion is a woman’s unrestricted right, but he does not support Obamacare, which would provide healthcare to poor families, including the children who would be illegal to abort if it were his choice. To him, it is ok to not support the possibly impover-

ished child after it is born, but it is not more important to save it before. “My medical career was devoted to protecting and enhancing the lives of children and their families,” he said. This is exactly what Obamacare’s goal is.

Carson is a man who grew up in Detroit with a single mother, and struggled through poverty. On Fox News Sunday, he claimed to want a flat-tax— meaning that everybody in the country would pay the same percentage of their income as tax, regardless of how much they make­—and cited the Bible’s teachings as his inspiration. Not only does this go against keeping religion out of the government, he himself should know the struggles this would give many families in poverty based on his experiences.

Carson could be the Republican nominee for the upcoming election, and while he and Donald Trump stand for similar ideas, his hypocrisy should not be tolerated. He is talking himself up by claiming to be making plans that seem to benefit the country as a whole, but acting otherwise. We need a president who can cater to all sides and standpoints.

op-ed.

a ban on banning hannah rubenstein

Since 2001, the Office for Intellectual Freedom has received 6,108 reports of attempted book bannings. They were banned for reasons including their sexually explicit material, offensive language, violence, homosexuality, religious themes, Satanic themes or anti-family themes. Neither these reasons nor any other reason are suitable causes for taking away somebody’s right to decide for themselves what literature they wish to expose themselves too.

In modern America, books tend to be banned on a local level, especially in schools. From 2000 to 2009, there were 1,639 attempted bannings in school libraries, 1,811 in classrooms, and 1,217 in public libraries. There were about 100 in college classes.

But the history of banning books goes back for centuries, sometimes on much larger scales. For example, Ulysses by James Joyce was banned in the United States and other countries during the 1920s. Under Nazi Germany, about 100 million books were destroyed in Europe. More recently, bestselling novels such as the Harry Potter series have been banned in the U.S. and U.K. for promoting Satanism or setting bad examples.

In general, movements to get books removed from certain libraries come from parents. In fact, within the previous data mentioned, ranging from 2000 to 2009, 2,535 challenges to books came from parents, making up about half of the data. Patrons of libraries contributed 516 attempts, and administrators contributed 489.

Looking at that information, it makes sense that so many of the complaints about books are based in concerns over sex, language, violence or just general suitability for an age group; it makes sense that parents would want to protect their children from concepts or situations that are uncomfortable or even potentially scarring. What does not make sense is one parent trying to make it so that other parents do not even have the option to decide whether they wish to expose their children to certain writings. Every parent should be able to make that decision for themselves, and none of them should be judged based

Number of Books Banned (2001-2014)

Source: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

on the outcome of that decision. It comes down to an issue of diffe ent parenting styles, which can be decided on a family by family basis, not as an open court within a community.

Looking at a list of frequently banned books, it becomes fairly easy to see a pattern in some of the titles: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, “The Bluest Eye”, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”.

All of these books place issues of race at their forefronts. Though all of these novels work to combat racism, some more directly than others, “racism” was cited as one of the chief reasons for banning these books for all but “The Bluest Eye”, a novel primarily about a young African American girl who wishes she could get away from her abusive father and have blue eyes like all of the little white girls she sees in the culture surrounding her.

A few years ago, the former president of the Ohio State Board of Education, Debe Terhar, saw that “The Bluest Eye” was on an 11th suggested reading list and led a movement against it.

“I don’t want my grandchildren reading it, and I don’t want anyone else’s children reading it,” she said. “It should

not be used in any school for any Ohio K-12 child.”

The problem with this response, first of all, is the very fact that it takes away the ability for others to choose whether they wish to read it. Second, by saying she doesn’t want anybody, ages K-12, to read it, she is comparing the ability of a five year old to comprehend issues of race and sexual assault to that of an 18-year-old senior.

“The Bluest Eye” has been cited as being banned for being sexually explicit, unsuited for the age group, and “containing controversial issues.” The real issue with both this novel and countless others that have been banned at some point in American history, is that very subject of being “controversial”.

No material, whether about racism, sexual assault, Satanism or anything else, is ever so controversial that it has to be hidden from the public’s view.

Banning books doesn’t prevent ideas from entering society, it only means that they enter in a way that makes them taboo and difficult to address. Even if a certain topic is difficult to talk about, such as racism, that issue still exists and still needs to be addressed. january

59

op-ed.

the value of “free speech” carson borbely

As the 2016 presidential election approaches, campaign spending receives more and more attention as a hot-button issue. Republican frontrunning candidate, Donald Trump, recently made headlines by boldly declaring that by donating money to various politicians, he enables himself to receive favors later.

Trump acknowledges that this is significant, and quite demonstrative of dysfunction in American politics.

“I will tell you that our system is broken,” Trump said during the most recent Republican debate. “I gave to many people. Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.”

When Donald Trump sounds truly insightful, the situation is obviously dire.

News media moves at an incredible speed. People receive their news instantly and in small and easily digestible pieces. Americans are exceptionally loyal to their parties, regardless of the candidates they put forward. Often, U.S. citizens and voters get wrapped up in partisan arguments over which candidate is more qualified to hold a political office.

There are huge gaps between public understanding of campaign spending, and what occurs behind closed doors. From where the money comes from to where it ends up, the process is largely a mystery to the American public, and that is not an accident. In our fast-paced, advertisement-laden world, it is hard to pick out what is and is not being sold, 60 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

including political agendas.

Simply put, we live in a world that has normalized buying the government. Over the past few decades, Americans have been bombarded with political ads for every election, which often spread misinformation and lies and rely on scare tactics to convince voters.

In recent years, spending on campaign ads specifically has gone through the roof. These ads come from special interest groups and can be paid for anonymously. Donors have the ability to protect their identities, no matter how much money they contribute to the political agendas of their choice. When rich Americans back political candidates to the tune of millions of dollars, it is hard to argue against the fact that those candidates will be swayed towards the issues that are important to their deep-pocketed donors.

As a society, we have enabled this by our lack of collective attention towards this issue. Few citizens of the United States understand that there is a large loophole in the campaign finance system that allows contributions to and for candidates; though there is a limit on “hard money,” a term used to refer to the amount of money an individual can give directly to a campaign, there is no limit on “soft money,” or the amount of money one can give to a political action committee (PACs) or a 501c(4) group, (a tax exempt non-profit organization supposedly built to promote and support causes of social welfare). When millionaires and billionaires are able to gift millions to candidates by way of PACs and special interest groups, their “free speech” is valued more than that

of the common American, who speaks only with their vote, or a minor donation directly to the candidate of their choice. When the votes of the common people are valued less than donations, it becomes clear that our democracy is not working the way it is supposed to.

The other side argues that by limiting contributions to these groups, their own free speech is limited. They claim they should be allowed to direct their money wherever they want it to go: according to them, it is discriminatory and unfair to silence ‘’free speech’’ in the form of money.

Many questions need to be directed to the people who run these behindthe-scenes organizations, and to those who contribute exorbitant amounts of money to them. Firstly, where does democracy go when votes are not valued equally? What happens to democracy when wealth dominates the political system? The message sent to candidates is clear: chase the money. Win. Do what you are told by those who finance your campaigns. We are creating a political climate which is covertly controlled by the rich. Voting should be the way Americans express their voices politically. Voting should be considered the most important thing an American citizen can do, as opposed to donating money. People should speak with their votes and not their wallets. The fact that 158 families are putting up nearly half the money donated in the early attempts to secure the presidential election is atrocious, and policy surrounding campaign donation and spending must change in order to make the process truly democratic.

the future that TPAB represents erez dessel

Recently, a lot of opinions about Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” have surfaced, opinions that counter the initial wave of jubilance that followed the album’s release. An article from Complex asserted that, while TPAB was important and well put-together, nobody actually enjoyed it as much as they claimed.

Then, another journalist wrote a response on the website 2DopeBoyz saying that he did in fact like the album, going on to criticize the culture of microwave journalism that has become commonplace in the music industry. Reading both of these got me thinking about TPAB again, not that it has ever really left my mind since its release, but thinking about what it means to me. Whether you think it is an instant classic or a weak drop-off for Lamar, it is a controversial album that will probably divide listeners for as long as it is listened to. So what do you do when dissenting opinions spring up around an album?

You write about it. And the stance I’m taking on the album has nothing to do with shoddy music journalism or a fake affection for the album, but the artistic significance of the album, and especially what it means to me as a young musician influenced by both jazz and hiphop.

Let me establish one thing first: TPAB is not a jazz album. I’m not claiming to be an expert in jazz or hip-hop, and I certainly don’t appreciate the obsession so many people in the music industry have with breaking up music into genres, but if you’re going to throw a label on something, do it right. I don’t personally know the writers who wrote the aforementioned columns in Complex and 2DopeBoyz, but I have to believe that I’m more well-versed in the world of jazz than they are, simply because of the claims they made about TPAB being a jazz album. This is not going to turn into a rant, but I think it says something about today’s musical

hannah tschirhart graphic

scene and how starved it is for African-American music from 1955-1970 that as soon as a hip-hop album has some live instruments, some swing, and some spoken word, people think that it is a jazz album.

However, this album shows that there could be a tangible future for jazz in the contemporary music scene. On this album, Lamar brought in many jazz musicians to play, musicians like Kamasi Washington, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Robert Glasper. In fact, Terrace Martin, a producer on many Lamar works, is a jazz musician who got his start in music playing in Snoop Dogg’s touring band. All of these jazz musicians have one thing in common: They create jazz music with a very modern sound. As a young jazz musician, you often hear talk that “jazz is dead” and you’re often taught to imitate the sounds of musicians from the 50s and 60s. This creates somewhat of a vicious cycle, resulting in jazz musicians fading from the top musical charts. With TPAB, Kendrick Lamar showed that jazz musicians, if they are willing to evolve with the musical trends, still have a place in music.

Furthermore, the use of live musicians is part of the bigger point of why this album is so fantastic. TPAB is real art, something that is actually rarely produced by “artists.” Before releasing TPAB, Lamar was coming off of the success of “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” which went platinum. With such a well-received album, Lamar could have gone anywhere with TPAB. However, rather than pander to the general hip-hop audience and release something similar to GKMC, he created a project that is as unique and important as it is sonically enjoyable.

TPAB is full of unorthodox song structures, a variety of musical textures, and clean verses that cut right to the bone. Critics can make the comment that TPAB is a lot to take in, but portraying that in a negative light and saying that it is hard to enjoy is not true.

The problem isn’t with the artist, it’s with the consumer and the market. People aren’t used to hearing one of their most beloved rappers release such an intense album. Even now, months after the album dropped, I still applaud Lamar for what he did with TPAB, and I hope that he continues to push musical boundaries, never looking back at critics. january 61

op-ed.

vaccination for the nation sophia rosewarne

About 30,000 adverse reactions to vaccines have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) every year since 1990. About 10-15 percent of these, or 3,000-4,500, are considered serious reactions. Hospitalization, life-threatening illness, death and permanent disability are all considered serious reactions. However vaccines have also saved an estimated 732,000 children from death and have prevented childhood illnesses since 1994.

Vaccines should be required for everyone who is physically able attending any type of school out of courtesy to others in the building. If everyone is vaccinated, fewer students will miss valuable education time and the school environment will be more comfortable.

Vaccines also save families time and money in the long run. If a child contracts a disease, a parent will often have to stay home from work, go to the doctor’s office and get the prescribed medicine. A child with the flu is contagious for around eight days, but with a more serious illness like rotavirus, a child may be contagious for up to 30 days. A vaccine, on the other hand, is often attainable at a low or no pay with medical insurance.

If a child isn’t kept home from school or other social activities while they are still contagious, they can greatly affect other children. If most children in the classroom are vaccinated they will most likely not obtain the disease, but if there is an immunocompromised student who isn’t able to receive a vaccine, an ordinary disease may be dead62 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

ly. Although it wasn’t the choice of the vulnerable student’s parents to not vaccinate, they end up facing the consequences of illness. The student may have to stay home for longer than the average student due to the state of their immune system, costing the family more in missed work and medical bills.

Whooping cough is a disease preventable by vaccines, yet there has been a recurrence of the disease. It can be deadly to babies, especially to those not old enough to be completely vaccinated.

Since 2010, around 10-20 babies have died yearly from the disease.

Vaccines do have controversial and dangerous ingredients. There is a belief that a mercury compound, called thimerosal, which is found in some flu shots is linked to autism but studies show no link between ASD and thimerosal. Two Hepatitis A vaccines, MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) and one chicken pox vaccine are raised in the cells of aborted fetuses. There are also vaccines made using animal products which contradict some vegetarian and vegan ideals. Some vaccines are even produced with a human blood plasma protein. While some of these can be dangerous, they are used in such small amounts that are safe for the human body.

Vaccines not only protect us now, but they also protect for the future. Many diseases have almost disappeared due to vaccines. For example, people no longer receive smallpox vaccines because the disease has been wiped out. There has not been a case of smallpox since 1977, which took place in Somalia. The count

of polio cases has also decreased drastically, going from 29,004 deaths yearly to no reported cases in the United States.

The use of vaccines has allowed many previously deadly diseases to decrease by 99 percent since the year 2012.

While many argue that achieving immunity naturally from diseases is more effective, there is often more risk. If a disease is deadly, there is always a chance that one may pass away instead of achieving immunity of the disease.

If a child has the vaccine, they will be less likely to contract the disease, and if they do, they will reach immunity that way. If a child contracts a disease and they are unvaccinated, the disease will often be more severe. This will cost the family more time off work and medical bills than being vaccinated would.

Serious diseases like leukemia can weaken the immune system. A weakened immune system makes a child much more susceptible to severe outcomes. When a parent makes a choice to get their child vaccinated, they are helping other children stay healthier. A sick child can spread the disease to others.

While most children get vaccines, it isn’t likely that everyone will suddenly realize the benefits of vaccines and shift their views. The most efficient and effective way to protect children from disease is to require vaccines within schools. Even if one child may not need a vaccine there is a child that does need extra protection against disease and doesn’t have the option to get it.

op-ed.

the issue with #AllLivesMatter taylor tucker-gray

It is of paramount interest to be informed and have an understanding of the difference between the statement #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter.

Black Lives Matter is a social movement that was founded in 2013, originating in the African-American community. The movement was established by three co-founders: Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors. Within the organization, members campaign against the violence toward African-Americans and organize protests around the deaths of black people killed by police officers.

After the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was introduced into the movement’s equation and started to circle the internet, with thousands of people all over the world using it. Through tweets, signs and other various forms of communication, the hashtag started to trend.

Black Lives Matter is a movement that needs to continually be supported and talked about. The term is a statement

louder than any hashtag could ever emphasize. Black Lives Matter illustrates how one race is being oppressed and giving support to that group of people.

Many have responded to #BlackLivesMatter with the new phrase #AllLivesMatter, stating that it would be a more “appropriate” phrase to use, that it would then be inclusive and more respectful to every race. Everything about this statement is misinformed and inaccurate.

Supporters of the new hashtag think that the Black Lives Matter movement is taking away from people of other races’ lives; this is not the case. Stating #BlackLivesMatter is not saying Caucasians are irrelevant or that Asians are unimportant. It is not intended to be used in that way, nor to offend people.

The hashtag is meant to highlight the issues of police brutality against African-Americans and to show support towards the black community.

Stating #AllLivesMatter is like saying, “Why aren’t we paying attention to me?” or, “Why do African-Americans get a hashtag but I don’t?” It is

showing disrespect towards black people and everyone that stands with and for black lives. The statement completely takes away from #BlackLivesMatter and deemphasizes the importance of the movement.

One poet, Anthony McPherson, took issues into his own hands by writing a powerful poem about why saying “All Lives Matter” is a horrible argument.

The poem, titled “All Lives Matter: 1800s Edition,” talks about the issues with slavery and racism. McPherson’s poem was posted on Button Poetry and has over 50,000 views. It has been praised and supported by thousands of people and by news sources like The Huffington Post.

The next time the phrase #AllLivesMatter is stated, think about the meaning behind the statement. “All Lives Matter” must end as it degrades the emphasis of the Black Lives Matter movement and its effects on the African-American community as well as people who support #BlackLivesMatter.

january

63

op-ed.

pro-veg why you should consider vegetarianism

grace jensen

Meat is tasty, I won’t deny it. Becoming a vegetarian probably doesn’t sound too appealing if you’re currently enjoying a bacon-wrapped-shrimp lifestyle. However, you make other decisions based on more than just your taste buds. Vegetarianism is more than just abstaining from meat; it’s about improving your health, the health of the environment, the health of the less fortunate and the health and well-being of all the other species with whom we share this planet.

Becoming a vegetarian is a simple way to improve your diet and have a healthier lifestyle. Although a common myth

is that vegetarians and vegans don’t get enough protein, they actually do. There are many meat-free sources of protein such as eggs and dairy products, and even vegan sources such as peas, beans, lentils, nuts, soy products and whole grains (according to Harvard Health Publications). Vegetarians don’t eat unhealthy meaty foods such as hamburgers, hot dogs and fried chicken. They also have a lower chance of obesity, as reported from a study done by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Vegetarians are 25 percent less likely to die from heart disease, less likely to get certain types of cancer and have a 50 percent smaller chance of developing type 2 diabetes (also according to Harvard). If your goal is to live to 100, you might reconsider

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all that bacon. Yet another study at Harvard Medical School showed a 13 percent higher mortality rate when the subjects added another portion of red meat to their daily diet.

Another common argument I hear when I tell someone I’m vegetarian is, “but humans are meant to eat meat!”

Yes, early humans ate meat as a primary part of their diet, but following this logic, humans are also meant to live without the internet, since that’s what early humans did. If you want to give up your iPhone, let me know and I’ll take it off your hands. Besides, humans back then had a much shorter life expectancy—and this is the diet you want to follow?

The issue of the environment should be of special concern to young people today—with the Earth’s atmosphere warming at alarming rates, any possible solution should be seriously considered.

Vegetarianism is one of these solutions. The meat producing industry is an even bigger contributor to global warming than cars, according to research done at University of Leeds. So why isn’t going vegetarian in the media as much as buying eco-friendly cars? Probably because it’s easier to change your car than your lifestyle.

But we should consider the environment in our decision. As reported by William Reed Business Media, which does studies on food manufacturing, vegetarians contribute 27.8 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than non-vegetarians, and vegans contribute 41.7 percent less. Less greenhouse gas in the atmosphere helps calm global warming and makes our world a little cleaner for our children and their children.

In addition to polluting our air, the meat industry takes up land from our most beautiful natural landscapes, such as the Amazon Rainforest, to use for animals and the crops that feed them. A study done in 2002 by the Smithsonian Museum showed that several fields of land are taken over each minute for livestock and its food. Over the time it took you to read this far in this article, about two minutes, approximately 10 acres of land have been bulldozed to raise animals for slaughter.

Becoming a vegetarian also helps the people who live on our planet. According to UNICEF, every 3.6 seconds a child dies of malnutrition. While some might say that vegetarianism would make this worse because of wasted meat, it actually helps. Simple crops such as corn and grains are cheaper, easier, and use less space to produce than livestock. If Americans reduced their meat intake by 10 percent, 100 million people would have enough food to eat, as shown by John Robbins in Diet For A New America. Eating lower on the food chain also saves energy, because every time you eat an animal instead of the plants it eats, 90 percent of the energy is lost as heat for the animal. According to a study done by Stanford University, it takes 20 pounds of feed to produce one pound of edible meat. Your body gets 4 percent as much protein from eating beef as it would have gotten from eating all the grain it took to feed the cow.

Finally, the reason many people are vegetarians is that they believe in animal rights and not eating animals for their

pleasure. I became one when I was in fifth grade, and I was the first in my family to do so .I decided to stop eating meat because I was disgusted when I thought of the meat I was eating as a dead, but previously living, breathing creature.

One way to think of it is this: if you wouldn’t be willing to watch the animal you’re about to eat suffer in a slaughterhouse and be killed, should you really be willing to eat it? Or another way: if you wouldn’t be willing to eat your pet dog or cat, what’s the difference between that and eating a cow? They’re both animals who have emotions and feel pain, you just have a stronger emotional bond with your pet. As reported by The Atlantic. com, meat from stressed animals is lower quality than that of less stressed animals, showing that animals have emotions. Intelligent animals also cry for their offspring and mourn the loss of loved ones.

I recommend watching videos like “Undercover At Smithfield Foods” if you want to see how cruelly animals are treated before their deaths.

According to an in-depth calculation by Counting Animals.com, the average vegetarian saves between 371 and 582 animals per year. These animals are saved by the lowered demand for meat, and fewer animals killed to feed those animals.

When individuals band together against meat-eating, it makes a difference in how much meat is produced.

I don’t believe that everyone needs to be vegetarian. If you’re low on finances, you eat what you can get, for example. I also don’t think that people who eat meat are ‘bad people.’ But it’s a good idea to try a day without meat, consider the morality of eating animals, and be kind and respectful to people around you who have chosen not to. “Oh, I could never dream of living without steak!,” you might say. Please consider that other people do live without steak, it’s possible, and it’s a good thing to do, whether you decide to or not.

For me, becoming a vegetarian was a hard choice, but one I am very proud of.

It was definitely difficult in the beginning restraining from eating some of my old favorite foods, but it’s gotten easier as time goes on. Now I’m at the point where I rarely desire meat and it’s easy for me to find vegetarian dishes to make and eat. Meat may be tasty, but staying true to what I believe in always tastes better.

CHS Voices on Vegetarianism

“My dad had these documentaries... I saw these chickens get really abused, and it made me sad and all, that’s why I became vegetarian.”

-Nadia Johnson

“I kinda just wanted a healthier lifesyle.” -Camilla Del Giudice

“You see a deer in the woods with a fawn, you know that’s like a mom and her kid, you can’t just kill one of them. It just didn’t make sense.”

-Ed Kulka

“I didn’t like the idea of eating a dead animal.” -Taylor Tucker-Gray january

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op-ed.

anti-veg why the the world shound not go vegetarian

kt meono

kt meono

Matthew Ferraro isn’t a vegetarian, although he wanted to be when he was little. His sister, a passionate vegetarian, told him it was wrong to eat meat. Ferraro felt guilty under the accusing stare of his sister. To this day, he considers becoming a vegetarian. But, he shouldn’t without seriously thinking about the global impact that vegetarians, and their choices, have on our earth.

One commonly discussed, yet readily addressable problem for individual vegetarians, is lack of protein; if they cut out meat altogether they might lose a vital part of the food pyramid. They could

fill it in with beans or another vegetarian friendly protein source, but some vegetarians may still suffer from protein deficiency without knowing it. A key indicator of protein deficiency is experiencing mid-day fatigue even with having had a full night’s rest. Another symptom is a lack of concentration or weakness during strenuous activities, according to livestrong.com. Lacto-ovo vegetarians, who eat eggs and dairy, but not meat or fish, should make sure they are getting a sufficient amount of protein. One good source of protein, other than the standard and well-loved beans, is eggs. There

the average daily intake of protein needed:

(facts: webmd.com) 66 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

are six grams of protein in a single large egg. Milk is also a viable source, containing eight grams in one cup of lowfat milk. Lastly, nuts are another great option for protein intake. Even just topping a salad with some walnuts could be very beneficial in aiding vegetarians in daily intake. This is due to the fact that most nuts can have anywhere from four to eight grams of protein and nuts also come with other great health benefits, according to livestrong.com.

A study done in 2013 supports economic incentives to continue omnivorism. Meat and poultry manufacturing and processing employed over 482,100 workers. The total of these worker’s combined incomes is over $19 billion. Through the meat and poultry industry’s production and distribution connections, their relationships impact firms that span across all sectors of the economy in the U.S. They stretch to every single state and congressional district in the country. All in all, the companies involved in meat production, the suppliers, the retailers, and the distributors are responsible for the employment of 6.2 million people, and that’s only in the U.S. These jobs make $200 billion in wages. Without these job opportunities, the world would have to find these jobs in other places.

The taxes paid on behalf of the meat and poultry industries totals $81.2 billion

CHS Voices on Meat-Eating photos grace jensen

[Would you miss eating meat if you went vegetarian?] “Maybe, like ribs.”Kim Pieske

(facts: wikipedia) to federal, state and local governments in the form of in revenues. It also generates $2.4 billion in state sales taxes. The ripple effect from the meat and poultry industries affect the economy by $864.2 billion annually to the U.S. This is about six percent of the entire GDP. According to MeatInstitute.org, in 2014 alone, the meat and poultry industry sales totaled $186 billion.

Another issue that would arise from global vegetarianism, is the new land available due to the huge cut back in meat consumption. At the moment, the total land dedicated for animals to graze equals an immense 26 percent of the world’s ice free land. It is predicted by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in 2009, that about 10.4 million square miles of that grazing land would be freed up by global vegetarianism, along with about 386,000 square miles of land that’s currently used to grow crops for livestock’s food. Of course some of the freed-up land wouldn’t be suitable for human use. However, it could potentially cause a sudden drop in the price of land and cause some territorial squabbles from the drastic and largely unexpected influx of new available terrain according to Slate. com As far as the evolutionary standpoint goes, we have enzymes to break down meat proteins, so protein straight from meat is one of the fastest ways to build

muscle. We are not carnivores, but we are not herbivores either. We are built with the consumption of meat in mind.

Global hunger is a widely discussed issue, with many proposed solutions. As it is, we have enough food to feed everyone, it’s just not well-distributed, “The world already produces more than 1 ½ times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. That’s enough to feed 10 billion people, the population peak we expect by 2050,” as reported by Huffingtonpost.com. However, if we were to cut out meat altogether, the amount of food and its accessibility would diminish significantly.

So, overall, I do agree with the statement that we should reduce the consumption of meat. But a fast and unordered stop in eating meat would be, in the simplest terms, a bad idea. Stopping meat consumption all together is extremely unlikely and even if everyone did convert, it would be very problematic.

The total reasons and disincentives that global vegetarianism poses would affect is monumental. So in my opinion a slow, steady decrease in animal consumption, but not stopping all together or at once, would be very beneficial to the world.

“I just like meat too much, I actually when I was younger I wouldn’t eat meat at all... I don’t know why, but my taste buds have changed since then.”Calle Crawcke

“You can do whatever you want.”-Steve Coron “[But] they have to respect our choice for actually wanting to be, you know, omnivores... [it’s a] free country.”Kevin Davis

“I’ve heard so many bad health [issues] from [a] vegetarian diet, but I have a friend who is a vegetarian and as long as she keeps up with the protien that she needs to get, from like nuts or special vitamins or suppliments, she’s fine.”- Kayann Berger january

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What is a moment that sticks out to you?

“My little sister in middle school gets on the honor roll and everything and she has this ceremony where she gets a medal and that just really sticks out to me. I didn’t really do much in middle school so I’m really proud of her for doing well and keeping up with everything.”

What are some moments that stick out to you?

“Christmas memories or moments where my whole family is together or a time when I was really happy.”

Andie Tappenden

Jaleana Pace

humans of community sophia rosewarne and omolara osofisan

What is a moment that sticks out in your life?

Luna Johnston

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“When I was scuba diving when I was eleven years old, I had just got certified.

I was certified to 60 [feet] but I went 100 [feet] actually. There was this turtle and it came out of the dark, the black, it was so deep it looked black, and it came out and I grabbed the back of the turtle and I just started riding it and I swam with it because I would hurt it [if I didn’t], It kept swimming and I went with it and I got to see the fish and it was really cool.”

Ta

Can you tell us about yourself?

“I’m from Ghana which is in West Africa. I was there until I was ten and I came here at the age of ten. [Ann Arbor] is fine I guess. I went to Ghana last year actually for one year and then I came back here, it was fun, I got to see people I used to know. I actually remember them very well but they don’t remember me very well.

[My dreams are] kind of split, well, I kind of wanted to become a soccer player and that didn’t go so well so now I guess I’ll be a doctor, that’s what I’m aiming for.

[I don’t what kind of doctor] yet.”

Tawiah Yalley

Tawiah Yalley

What are your dreams for yourself?

“I am growing up everyday hopefully. Well I had a dream that I was drowning last week so I dream that I’ll be above water and breathing air and surrounded by wonderful beautiful people and I’m gonna teach for a little while longer and then I’m going to travel and see more of the world and maybe have grandchildren. [I want to travel to] Italy. I’ve already been there but I haven’t seen all of it and I haven’t seen enough. I want to live there for a while. I want to live there for at least three months of the year and then live the rest of the time here. I want to live in Florence for three months and just do art, talk about art, eat the good food, know the people and learn the language better. My favorite Italian dish is a toss-up between this wonderful dish called cinghiale which is wild boar from Tuscany and my chicken cacciatore which I make at home myself. It’s the recipe I got from my grandmother.”

Steve Coron

view more humans of community online at http://www.chscommunicator.com/

What is a moment that sticks out in your life?

“The day my sister came home from adoption. I was eight years old and my parents had decided to adopt a kid from Guatemala so they went to get her and three days later they came back and that’s the first time I saw her in my house.”

Can you tell us about your friendship?

Graeham Guindi Bright

Taylor Erhardt and Dominic Difranco

“We go way back, strong, strong as a donkey. Fishing is an integral part of our relationship. [Our future] together? Probably strong. I think we’ll make it through college. Wherever we end up going, we’ll always be together.” -Erhardt january

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what to watch this winter sophia rosewarne

Jenny Dean Junior “I always like watching whatever ABC Family has. All of the winter and seasonal ones.”

Laurel Landrum Teacher “I love John Oliver’s show on HBO, Last Week Tonight. It’s sort of daily show-esque but he does more investigative reporting.”

Eve Shikanov Freshman “I really like Tim Burton’s movies like I often watch Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, I haven’t seen Frankenweenie yet but I’m getting there.”

Sonny Newman Senior “Les Mis is always a good time.” Newman reccommends it to “literally everyone.”

Judith DeWoskin Teacher DeWoskin loves Chopped and Chopped After Hours, where the judges cook. “The judges are a riot. They are amazing, they are amazing cooks, just amazing.”

Ben Chambers Freshman “At my house we have this crate full of Christmas time movies that are kinda dumb but it’s what I like to do before Christmas cause I’m bored.”

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is his favorite from this crate.

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what’s on your mind? suephie saam art chloe di blassio

How calming baking is, it really helps me relax after school.

- Kasey Neff

CET, sleeping and food!

- Nicole Diaz- Pezua

Finishing an essay, Theater and how much I have to get done. In theater we put up lights and stuff.

- Vlad Kuklev

Next summer, it’s gonna be lit.

- Kaleb Doughten-Priuska

Boys, am I right ladies? But also school and pasta.

- Sabina Fall

I’m thinking about polynomials because I’m doing math homework.

- Sean MacLatchy

All I’m thinking about is getting my work done, school and the quarter ending. Also getting all the grades in.

- Laurel Landrum

Helping a friend of mine with some personal problems.

- Allison Garcia

january

71

&

then sophia rosewarne and omolara osofisan courtney kiley photo courtesy

now

courtney kiley

“I had the same hairstyle, I just brushed it, sometimes, in the morning, I got up and I went.”

“When I was in high school, I shopped at thrift stores and Gap Kids and now I shop at thrift stores and Gap.”

“Except for the six months where I went on this weird space mohawk goth binge, I’ve always looked the same.”

72 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

“In high school my favorite thing to do with friends was either to go play basketball or play a tag game in the park or go to Pinball Pete’s to play games and play euchre.

Now with friends I like to play board games or computer games where you shoot zombies or eat and hang out.”

the writer: clara kaul, senior alexandra hobrecht and kate burns

PLANTS HAVE NO GHOSTS in the arb, bob grese tells us about the erosion & how the dirt fell off the earth like it wasn’t wanted, how it tumbled, & got bossy, & and sat at the bottom of the ravine like a sleeping planet. he tells us about the invasive species, how they roared into the ecosystem, & how they wrap their tongues around the native plants, how they ask for too much, how they have a home somewhere else, & he tells us about the dirt, again. & the fire. how here smoke means nourish instead of run, how it makes the soil lush, & unforgiveable.

What type of writing do you think you are best at?

Probably either personal essay or performance poetry. I think a lot of times my poetry is sort of lame until I perform it.

What inspires you to write?

I think that at some point writing stopped being me looking for inspiration to write about and it started being me needing to write in order to understand what was going on around me. I think that a lot of times I have a feeling about a thing and I can’t put it into words immediately. I can’t be like, “Oh this feeling about this thing is anger, or hope about this thing.” I think that often times writing for me is a way to process it. I think that is probably why I like personal essays so much, because personal essay is literally just taking an aspect of yourself and just processing it for three pages. And so I think it is just a drive to understand.

When did you start feeling that way about writing?

I really don’t know. I don’t think I could tell you. Probably sometime after freshmen year. I know freshmen year I would always have to force myself to write. I’d always have to a Volume Youth Poetry project and I’d have to get a prompt and sit down and be like I’m going to write about this thing and just sort of stopped being like that. I think that it is just something that comes with experience.

Not necessarily like getting good just like doing it a lot.

What is one of your favorite pieces that you’ve written?

I’ll say one that I have written recently. I’m in Ecology this year. It’s a really fantastic class. It is low-key kind of changing my life. It is the most amazing science class I’ve ever been in. I’ve been writing a lot of poems about ecology recently, which is surprising to me because I also really hated nature poems, because I thought they were boring and now here I am writing a bunch of them, but awhile ago we went on a field trip to the arb and this man named Bob Grese took us around and we were in the prairie and told us about this history of the arb and how a long time ago a visitor found a weirdly shaped stone and she brought it the natural history museum and they identified it as a 3000 year old plow because there use to be ancient farm lands in the Arb. So I thought that was really cool so I wrote a poem about it.

this afternoon, I decided today was a good day. my face was still hot with the cold, the air musty with water, & everywhere I looked there was some plant I wanted to talk too. good things happened to people I love, & I saw two tulip trees on my walk home, the fingers of their leaves glued together. in the arb, bob tells us about the age. how a visitor found a 3,000 year old plow buried in the prairie, how it was farmland, & how we could see it if we stared hard enough, & so we do. on the walk here, I strolled past over a thousands ghosts. my hands were in the pockets of my favorite coat, striped and bold. Courtney shouted questions at us from the front of the line, & i bumped into all of my memories & they all let me be. in the arb, we crouch into the erosion, bob grese tells us to look harder. he tells us to look for fingerprints of the hands that kneaded this soil. who knew it best. he tells us to look for tools, smooth carved stones, ancient plows, dirt, seeds, a snoozing fish, a sturdy gear, a slow choir, something that is fragile & not. he tells us to look for the arched spine, the neck bent over, the strained wrists. he says: try to see what they saw. the dirt as opportunity. the earth as suggestion. the green: ocean. he tells us to look for the ghost, & so we do. the plants nod their heads approvingly. the roots of the prairie grass are over ten feet deep, & they know the old secrets, they know what is haunted, they know what we are looking for.

Do you want to be a famous writer?

I don’t want to be a famous writer but I definitely want to keep writing. I will probably study creative writing in some sort of regard in college. I don’t think it will be my major but probably my minor concentration, and I’d like to write books.

Do you publish your writing now?

Yeah, obviously I submit to Free Verse and I’ve been publishing in youth anthologies. And I’ve currently been working on a youth anthology for the whole Ann Arbor high school wide called Puffer Fish which is a high school anthology. I probably won’t be able to publish in that because I’m editor. Just in youth small works. january 73

Liz’s FOSome Sauce

COMMUNITY KITCHEN TEACHER’S RECIPES

a tasty spaghetti topping invented by your favorite forensics teacher 1 lb ground pork 1 t fresh ground fennel seed 2 large cloves garlic, crushed 1 medium onion diced 1 green pepper diced 1 1/4 ounce canned diced tomato 1 jar spaghetti marinara sauce Dried basil Salt and pepper 2 t worcestershire sauce Fry meat, fennel seed, onions, garlic, green pepper. Once the vegetables are soft, add the rest of the ingredients. Cook covered at low heat. Ladle over noodles and eat.

Judith’s Favorite Chicken Wings popular amongst the english teachers, judith’s soy sauce chicken dish will impress any dinner guest 2-3 lbs chicken wings 1/4 C soy sauce 2 T hoisin sauce 2 T white vinegar 1 T Chinese rice wine or pale dry sherry 1 t finely chopped garlic 1 t sugar 2 T chicken soup, fresh or canned or boxed Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash and dry chicken wings and place them in the marinade for a few hours. Then, remove marinade and lay the wings on broiler pans. Roast for approximately 35 minutes and turn over for another 15 minutes. Wings should be crispy.

Best served with plum sauce.

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sean maclatchy athlete profile devin weeks

What’s the most fun part about crew?

The best part about crew is the regattas, they’re so fun. Teams from all over coming together to compete but also to have fun.

When the boats go out people leave it all on the water.

Do you play crew, or do you do crew?

I don’t think either of those words properly describes what I do; I live crew. We practice nearly everyday and it takes up 8 months of my year. I feel at home in my crew spandex.

Why did you join the crew team?

I joined crew mostly because I wanted to be in shape but I didn’t have any talent for baseball or basketball. Crew seemed like a great way to release energy and stress and also keep me healthy and active.

Crew sounds like an arduous sport, do you enjoy it?

I really do enjoy it. The team aspect is real, and we all have to work together to succeed. It feels like we are all one cohesive unit rowing to reach the finish. It creates a lot of team camaraderie and makes us a family.

Does everyone abide with your opinions on crew?

A lot of people have quit the crew team because it’s so much work, obviously those people dislike it. The people who stay however do agree. We all suffer together and push through. It’s one of those things that you hate when you’re doing it but miss it when it’s gone.

What is one time where you had a really good experience with crew?

We were at the Canadian Nationals in Ontario and the wind was insane. It was above 30 mph. All of the boats are lined up in the water before the race, but the wind wouldn’t let us do that so they just said “GO!” and we took off. It was the most intense race I’ve been in and everyone was splashing and uncoordinated because the wind was pushing us all over the place. It was really difficult but we had a great time.

Sean Maclatchy, sophomore at Pioneer, silences the rumors that everyone hates crew. He stands tall and encourages people to give crew a shot. The sport has taught him self-discipline with managing responsibilities.

january

75

songs of the day

erez dessel

feel, and Sampa follows through with the thoughtful lyrics, “Some of us are dreamers/Some of us are not/Some got it together/Some of it lost/Some of us lust/Some of us love/Some of us trust/Some of us loyal.” I’m sure Sampa will be popping up all over the map after this mixtape, bringing a conscious, female voice to the world of hip-hop.

Female and Weoo by sampa the great

Smells Like Teen Spirit by ben williams

Covers of songs can often feel corny and overplayed, but Ben Williams’ version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is creative enough to give the song a fresh sound. Done on solo upright bass, Williams uses his excellent sense of rhythm and melody to make you forget that you’re listening to a single musician instead of an entire band. You can hear that Williams put in the time to arrange the song for solo bass, using interesting rhythmic figures to give the illusion of a drummer and some exaggerated strumming to mimic a guitar. This track comes from his second album as a leader, “Coming of Age,” and while he may primarily be a jazz musician, this cover is a perfect example of what Williams represents.

The tides of the jazz scene are turning, with the music lending itself more to fusing rock and hip-hop influences into the expressive, improvisational components of jazz. Solo bass is a sound that is rarely heard in the popular music scene, but in doing this cover, Williams is able to reach a broader audience and show music fans the beauty that exists in the deep, woodsy sound of the upright bass. view more songsof the day online at http://www.chscommunicator.com/

76 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

Every once and a while it is good to get out of the American music scene and check out some artists from across the sea. Today’s song(s) of the day come from Sampa the Great, a female rapper poet who was born in Zambia, raised in Botswana and is currently signed to an Australian-based record label. I found out about her because of her label, which also signed the neo-soul group and previous song of the day artist Hiatus Kaiyote. The two songs I picked, “F E M A L E” and “Weoo,” are not the brightest or most complex tracks from her debut mixtape, but they carry a lot of individuality in their lyrics and aesthetic. Sampa is a woman making rap music, and while that makes her a minority in the current music scene, her music is brimming with confidence and her unique sound come through in her songs. In “F E M A L E,” she raps about her identity as a woman, including being independent and owning who she is. This feminism-themed rap is laid over a hyper-compressed, new age beat (with a sample very reminiscent of One.Be.Lo’s “The Underground”) which, with its punchy sound, makes it clear that Sampa means what says and says exactly what she means.

“Weoo” starts slow and calm—a lot of ethereal bells going on in the background, just some bass drum and a gritty guitar riff over an industrial-inspired rhythm. Sampa starts off with intensely conscious lyrics; however, she never sounds too preachy, something conscious rappers are often criticized for.

The song continues with the ambient

16 Speakers

by chuck inglish

Chuck Inglish’s return to the hip-hop scene is one that could not have come soon enough. His newest album “Everybody’s Big Brother” has everything you’d expect from the veteran MC and loop digga: Smackin’ 808s, fat bass synths, and a commanding presence on the mic. This song of the day “16 Speakers” starts with a simple chorus, but don’t be fooled, Inglish delivers a strong verse soon afterwards. The beat is classic old-school fodder, complete with those retro high toms for some extra pop. I’ll be honest, all the features on this track are a little much, but I do have to applaud Fat Tony for dropping a little extra heat to grab you by the ears, as well as the out-of-place Tracy McGrady reference. One thing Inglish always does that I appreciate is changing the beat in very subtle ways. There are no sudden sample switches or “five fingers of death” cuts, but for each verse, if you listen carefully, you’ll be able to hear a clap switch to a snare, or a hi-hat pattern drop out. It’s the little details that Inglish pays attention to, and those same details are why Inglish remains one of my favorite contemporary producers.

crossword shane hoffmann and matt vetort

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3.

2.

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37.

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Down 1. Used to wipe your face 2. Type of windmill used to create energy 3. Vegetable that makes your pee smell 4. Type of fruit dessert 5. Type of plane 6. Castrated adult male cattle 7. British Airways 8. A common place for performances in ann arbor 9. This team/person often loses 10. Social media used for people to meet each other 11. People who practice buddhism 12. Food can be covered in it or it can be used as an adjective 13. Japanese grill 14. Wisconsin’s mascot 15. When you are great at something you could be called a _____

with this when working with wood 3. Students hate this 4. A person whose job it is to perform religious ceremonies 5.

6.

7.

2.

10.

9.

5. Shop downtown “_____ 11.

Lane” 3.

6. The edible seeds of 5.

13.

12. various plants 7. Something you work on 7. in the summer 8. To talk rhythmically to 9. a beat 14.

11.

9. This helps you open doors 12.

10. Pizza eating turtles 11. Something that people in 14.

16. the medical field wear 12. Common appetizer at 21.

19.

15.

20.

Mexican restaurants 13. 3.14 24.

23.

14. Eazy-E died from this 15. Rapper with an ice cream tattoo 16. A type of party 19.

17. A _____ is brought in and questioned during a 21.

26. crime 28.

18. Flying toy 26.

19. A way of scoring in 30. basketball 20. Translation of part of 33.

34.

27. 32.

Ann Arbor’s name 21. A chemical intended to 39.

37.

29.

38. cure an illness 22. Japanese currency 40.

23. A movement often associated with monks 24. A rod that passes 36. through the center of wheels 16. People love it, but too much 31. An informal response to a 25. Buzz lightyear’s weapon without protection can be bad question 26. A common gambling 17. A long reptile 32. A type of transportation similar game 18. Yoga features many of these to a taxi 27. A type of sandwich 19. Some people have bad ____ 33. An onomatopoeia for a sudden 28. An undercover enemy resulting in fights loud noise 29. African and Arabian Old 20. Small brass instrument 34. German for a biological World monkeys 21. Name for a fatal disease molecule 30. Someone you look up to 22. A form of singing that 35. A material produced from a 31. Someone who loves originated in the Alpine mountains kind or worm yoga 23. Russian slang term for a prison 36. The bad guy is ___ 32. A type of scooter inmate 37. Little kids eat, cry and ___ 33. Vegetable that can be 24. Type of drug which causes 38. If you walk in the forest you made into chips hallucinations might find some of these on you 34. An old restaurant 25. One of the first things rich when you come out downtown Ann Arbor near people buy 39. Ralph Lauren sweetwaters 26. An indefinite amount of time 40. Community High seniors race 35. A type of meat 27. One of the most common here in the morning for a good 36. A tropical yellow-orange desserts spot fruit 28. If you struggle in school you Across 37. Makes the whole world may need a ___ 1. The only bird that can walk blind 29. Protects your face on a helmet upside down 38. Primate found 30. A mythical beast 2. You may find the floor covered exclusively in Madagascar january 77

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1. Oil Hourglass, $3 at Marshall’s.

2. Exciting monkey puzzle, $5.50 at Mud Puddles.

3. Bagle and cream cheese combo, $1.35 at Sparrow’s.

4. Sparrow Market’s Honey Crisp apples, $3.49/lb.

5. TeaHaus coffee mug, $7.95.

6. Patterned iPhone case, $9.99 at T.J. Maxx.

78 t he c o m m u n i c a t o r

9

under cameron fortune

10

7. Midnight Pomegranate hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works for $3.

8. A2H2O water bottle available at City Hall for $5.

9. Apple Cider from Wasem’s, $2.50 a pint.

10. Go Fish from Mud Puddles in Kerrytown, $8.50.

picture this recalling influential loved ones through photographs

nate helberg

Every day after school, Lindsey Helberg and her brother Nate would race home and run down the stairs to find their after school treat. Their mother always got these for them, until Lindsey was about eight years old. This is one of Lindsey’s fondest memories with her brother.

“He would always trade with me or try to bargain with me to get the treat that he wanted,” she said.

Nate is two years older than Lindsey, and they depend on each other for many things.

“He comes to me for advice and what to do in certain situations and vice versa,” Lindsey said.

Before Lindsey began high school, she came to her brother for advice. “[He showed me] how to properly set yourself up so that you’re on track and you succeed,” Lindsey said.

For Lindsey, it can occasionally be difficult to figure out her parents. She can sometimes have difficulty understanding why they’re upset. Her brother helps her out with this.

“Sometimes I just don’t know how to deal with it in a good, proper way,” she

said. “He’s better at problem solving that way than I am.” Lindsey also appreciates the way her brother resolves fights with her.

“He’ll just walk into my room and explain why he was upset and try to make sure that I’m ok, instead of just leaving it as, ‘I’m pissed at you,’” she said Nate is a peer mediator at Pioneer, serving as someone who can help sort out issues between students. Lindsey believes this really reflects who he is as a person.

“He actually cares about people and the community and how their life is going,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey believes their relationship is so strong because of how real it is; They sort through their issues and they know how much they need each other.

“It’s not just all fluff and everything working out,” she said. “When we push through whatever happened, that makes it stronger.”

clara schueler

Hans and Clara Schueler are only a year apart but have a very close relationship. Hans admires many things about Clara, but especially her determination.

“She is very sure of what she wants to do with herself and she is very de-

termined to do what she knows is the right thing.

Hans and Clara are co-workers at Dominick’s Bar and Restaurant in Ann Arbor. Hans helped Clara get the job there, and he enjoys working with her.

Hans being a year older than Clara allows him to be a role model for her and teach her how to be a better person.

“She has learned how to stand up for yourself,” he said.

Hans saw Clara do just that when an issue arose with a co-worker at Dominick’s. Clara was there to help him out and his sister stood up in his defense.

“She spoke out for me when I wasn’t there to speak up for myself,” he said.

Coming from a German family, Clara and Hans used to do traditional ethnic German dancing together when they were younger. They also enjoyed swimming and playing dress up.

As for Clara’s last two years of high school, Hans hopes all the best for her.

“I hope she can go on to to do what she has always wanted to do in life, which is going to a big school in New York,” he said. “That’s what she’s always dreamed for. And I hope she’s able to do that.” january 79

art throb sean parmer