VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 31 • JANUARY 11, 2022
INTERNATIONAL
SPORTS
OPINION
Omicron causes international airline cancellations P. 4
COVID-19 hits college sports hard P. 6-7
Why do we fear distraction? P. 11
CONTENTS
COVER BY ANASTASIA PARGETT
INTERNATIONAL OMICRON SURGE SCRAMBLES INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
P. 4
THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
P. 5
SPORTS NCAA UPDATES ITS COVID POLICES
P. 6-7
ARTS & CULTURE VALIDATING THE DEEP, DARK AND PAINFUL
P. 8
STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Béla Kurzenhauser
OPINION EDITOR Justin Cory
MANAGING EDITOR Karisa Yuasa
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Tanner Todd
PHOTO EDITOR Sofie Brandt
PHOTO EDITOR Sofie Brandt
NEWS EDITOR Jazzminn Morecraft
ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings
SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby
COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell
CONTRIBUTORS Wyatt Dillman Nova Johnson Kat Leon Milo Loza
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani
EXPERIENCE THE LIFE OF SURREALIST POET FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA IN DUENDE DE LORCA
P. 9
OPINION SATIRE: ANGER OVER WASHINGTON COUNTY’S NEW BAN ON FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS
P. 10
ARE WE ADDICTED TO OUR OWN DISTRACTION?
P. 11
SCIENCE & TECH ELIZABETH HOLMES: FROM FREETHINKER TO FELON
P. 12
PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed
A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
DESIGNERS Leo Clark Whitney Griffith Mia Levy Astrid Luong Anastasia Pargett
STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Maria Dominguez
T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Kahela Fickle George Olson Kwanmanus Thardomrong
To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Vacant
MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.
A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
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PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
INTERNATIONAL
OMICRON SURGE SCRAMBLES INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL NEW GUIDELINES CREATE TRAVELER CONFUSION FOLLOWING OMICRON’S SPREAD
ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI Following further information about the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention issued a statement on Monday, Dec. 27, shortening the recommended isolation period for the public. The isolation period for individuals infected with COVID-19 was shortened to five days, followed by an additional five days of mask-wearing when around others if they are asymptomatic or recovering from symptoms. The CDC also stated that individuals who have received a booster shot do not need to quarantined following an exposure, but they should wear a mask for 10 days after. Despite the CDC recommending that infected or exposed individuals only have to wear a mask for 10 days after exposure or the onset of symptoms, there are still 11 U.S. states with a mask mandate in place. These CDC guidelines were only the most recent updates in the constant shifts regarding COVID-19 and how public health officials suggest the public respond to the pandemic and infection or exposure. Rolling out these updated guidelines has drawn criticism from the American Medical Association, who pointed out that about 31% of people “remain infectious five days after a positive COVID-19 test.” It is no surprise that reducing the isolation period may seem counterproductive considering that, on Jan. 4, the U.S. reported nearly one million new cases, setting a global record as well as almost doubling the previous U.S. peak, as reported by Reuters. This surge in cases has caused massive interference in the flight industry, causing a surge of cancellations. International travel into the U.S. requires a negative COVID-19 viral test taken one day before the flight, though different countries have different guidelines and requirements regarding international travel. For instance, Canada requires travelers entering the country to be fully vaccinated with at least 14 full days having passed since receiving the second dose, according to the Canadian government’s most recent travel
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INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL
advisory. All air and land travelers entering Canada are subject to random selection for a mandatory arrival test. While waiting for the arrival test, travelers are required to quarantine until receiving a negative result. If the test result is positive, then they must isolate for another 10 days. Similar to the CDC’s reduction of the isolation period for individuals infected with COVID-19, the United Kingdom has loosened their travel restrictions by dismissing the requirement of vaccinated travelers providing a pre-departure negative test, as reported by Forbes. This change in policy resulted in a surge of international travel bookings to and from the UK. The policy has since been adopted by Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Vaccinated travelers are also no longer required to self-isolate on their return. Unvaccinated travelers still have to provide a pre-departure test and are required to enter self-isolation upon their return. Germany has lifted the entry ban on UK travelers approximately two weeks after classifying the UK as “an area of variants of concern” and instating the ban, according to Forbes. Fully-vaccinated travelers from the UK are now allowed to enter Germany for any reason without needing to quarantine; nonfully vaccinated individuals are subject to a 10day quarantine upon arrival in Germany. UK travelers will be subjected to more stringent requirements with only children under the age of five not required to provide a negative RT-PCR test to enter Germany from the UK. Meanwhile, the Indian government’s latest travel restriction update requires that all travelers quarantine at home for seven days and take a RT-PCR test on the eighth day after arriving in India, as reported by Forbes. All travelers are required to submit a selfdeclaration form with their information on the online Air Suvidha portal along with a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR which was taken at most 72 hours prior to their departure. Only passengers who completed the form and submitted a negative test result will be allowed to board by airlines. Passengers must then go through a thermal screening
before being allowed to board the flight. They will also go through thermal screening upon arrival, and if showing symptoms, they will be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility. Individuals from the U.S. were allowed to resume travel to India on Nov. 15, but only if they were issued a tourist visa after Oct. 6. Regularly scheduled international flights between the UK and India remain suspended, aside from a limited number of flights allowed to operate between the UK and India under a bilateral agreement between the two nations. Individuals showing symptoms will not be allowed to travel.
LEO CLARK
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THIS WEEK
around the
WORLD
Jan. 2–9
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3 1
1
January 3-4
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
During a stopover of a flight from Jamaica to Colombia, Panama authorities detained Mario Antonio Palacios, a former Colombian military member who was wanted for questioning in connection with the assasination of the late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, according to Reuters. The 42-year-old man was in the process of being deported to Colombia from Jamaica after being detained in October. Palacios was instead placed on the flight to the United States by immigration officers, with Panamanian officers stating they would enforce an Interpol Red Notice—issued by the U.S.—if he resisted. The U.S., Panama and Colombia all communicated and coordinated to complete the extradition of Palacios to the U.S., who was accused of being part of a mercenary group that carried out the assasination of Moïse in his own home. Palacios is charged with conspiracy to commit murder or kidnapping outside the United States, effectively making him the first arrest made in connection with the assassination—following several arrests in Haiti that have yet to been followed up with charges. If convicted, Palacios faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, though according to CNN, his lawyer Alfredo Izaguirre stated Palacios is “probably going to plead not guilty.”
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
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January 5
MADRID, SPAIN
In a decision considered a major step in progress towards improving animal’s legal rights, a law passed in Spain will now require judges to consider a pet’s welfare in divorce or break-up cases, according to Reuters. Spain follows France and Portugal, which had already passed laws requiring pets to be considered sentient beings rather than property. Prior to the passage of the law, a lawyer would have to prove the animal was jointly-owned property, giving an advantage to whoever had registered the pet. Because pet ownership is high in Europe, the coalition government plans to further strengthen animal rights with future legislation. Mariló Lozano, the President of the Spanish Association of Family Lawyers, told SUR, “any incident of animal mistreatment, gender-based violence and child sexual abuse is very important in the sense that the guardianship and custody of children is limited if there was a history of animal abuse.” 3
January 6
ZACATECAS, MÉXICO
An SUV with the remains of 10 people was left outside a Mexican state governor’s office in a public square, according to Reuters. The governor of Zacatecas, David Monreal, stated the bodies had apparent signs of beating and bruising. Two suspects have since been arrested by Mexican authorities. The car was found after a
Zacatecas public security agency noticed a vehicle they deemed suspicious driving in the area. Zacatecas is known to have cartel presence, including the Jalisco, Sinaloa, Gulf and Northeast cartels as well as others. Monreal previously stated his goal in reducing violence in Zacatecas, despite the state registered approximately 260 more murders in 2021 than in 2020. “Bit by bit we will recover our peace,” said Monreal in a video following the incident. “What we received was a cursed inheritance.” 4
January 5-7
KAZAKHSTAN
Following a hike in gasoline prices in Kazakhstan on New Years Day, protests are ongoing against former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had ruled Kazakhstan since the Soviet era, according to Reuters. The uprising swelled on Jan. 5 as protesters marched in Almaty. Nazarbayev’s successor, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev responded by dismissing his cabinet and reversing the fuel price hike. However, on Jan. 6, Russian paratroopers engaged in violence with the protestors, and Almaty police reported killing dozens of protestors overnight. On Jan. 7, Tokayev issued a “fire without warning” authorization to security forces and thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for intervening. In response to pleas for peaceful negotiations, Tokayev called it “nonsense.” “What negotiations can there be with criminals and murderers,” Tokayev said, according to The New York Times.
INTERNATIONAL
5
NCAA UPDATES ITS COVID-19 POLICIES
ABOVE: BASKETBALL ON VIKINGS LOGO AT VIKING PAVILLION. OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: PSU WOMEN'S LACROSSE AT PRACTICE. KATIE CAMARENA WARMING UP. CAM MCCHESNEY, DOM MORGANTI AND LUKE RAMIREZ RUNNING AT PRACTICE. ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD
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SECTION
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
BIG SKY CONFERENCE SCHEDULING SUBJECT TO CHANGE
ERIC SHELBY
NCAA AND COVID
In both men’s and women’s basketball, the Big Sky Conference recently updated its game cancellation policy and chose to reschedule the games that were postponed due to COVID-19 this season. Canceled games can—and will— also be rescheduled. Teams are only eligible to compete with their opponent if there are at least seven student athletes and one fulltime coach available. Any games that cannot be scheduled before league competition—for whatever reason—will be deemed a no-contest. The Big Sky Conference, like many other conferences in NCAA basketball, want forfeiture as the last resort as it continues to reschedule games. There were a combined 13 cancellations for the men’s and women’s basketball teams last year with the first six of seven women’s games being canceled due to COVID-19. The NCAA also recently updated their status on what fully vaccinated means: individuals who have received the Pfizer vaccine within the last five months, Moderna within the last six months or Johnson & Johnson within the last two months. Those who choose not to be vaccinated would have to provide documentation that sufficiently demonstrates their lack of COVID-19 infection in the past 90 days, in addition to being actively monitored throughout the season. In accordance with the CDC, quarantine after testing positive will only be five days for student athletes. Masking up is expected for five extra days after the isolation period. Fully-vaccinated students who have had close contacts do not need to quarantine, but are recommended to wear a mask during activities. In what initially looked like a return to regular schedules and college basketball, COVID-19 is here to stay and brings uncertainty to the game.
Most games have been postponed, but there were some cancellations at the beginning of this season. Despite the postponements, the NCAA was still able to pull off a successful March Madness tournament on both the men’s and women’s side. The college football committee has other plans for the playoff season. If one team is unavailable to play their semifinal game due to COVID-19, they would have to forfeit the game and the other team advances to the national championship. If both teams in one semifinal are unable to play, the winner of the semifinal on the other side would be declared national champions. If there are three teams unable to compete, the team that was lucky enough to avoid getting COVID-19 would be declared national champions. Luckily, both the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl semifinals were successful, with #3 ranked Georgia beating #2 Michigan. #1 Alabama dominating the new underdog #4 Cincinnati—which made history becoming the first power-five team to make the playoffs. If Georgia and/or Alabama are unable to play due to COVID-19, the national championship hosted in Indianapolis will be postponed to no later than Friday, Jan. 14. If one team is not able to be eligible before Jan. 14, then that team will have to forfeit and the other team will be declared national champions. If both teams are not eligible by Jan. 14, then it would become a nocontest and there will be no national champion.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 5-5 (0-2)
Four games had to be postponed and then rescheduled to later dates for the Park Block Vikings. Jan. 17 is the first rescheduled date at Eastern Washington, and Jan. 24 is also an away game against Idaho. Viks come back home for Southern Utah on Jan. 31 before heading away to Northern Colorado on Feb. 7. The Viks will be playing 11 games in 24 days giving these student
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
athletes little time to rest, playing a game every two days. The next Vikings home game is Jan. 15 at home against the 4-8 (0-3) Sacramento State, after not playing on the hardwood since Dec. 19.
MEN’S BASKETBALL 3-8 (1-2)
The Viks are one of 70 basketball teams in the NCAA that have postponed their games due to the resurgence of COVID-19. There are three rescheduled games for the men’s basketball team as they attempt to break their five-game losing streak. The Viks lost their second conference game to Eastern Washington in a close 58-63 game, without key players Michael Carter, James Jean-Marie and Marlon Ruffin. The Viks have three rescheduled regular season games, including an away game at Southern Utah on Jan. 17, and home games the next two Mondays on Jan. 24 against Idaho and Jan. 31 against Northern Colorado. The next Viking home game is Jan. 15 at 5-6 (1-3) Sacramento State.
TRACK AND FIELD
The indoor track season started on Dec. 4 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener where school record-breaking Katie Camarena was the sole Viking in Boston. She had a time of 15:51.49 in the 5k, shaving 42 seconds off the original Portland State record—originally claimed by Kaila Gibson in 2019. The indoor track season continues at the University of Washington indoor preview on Jan. 15. The UW invitational will be held on Jan. 28–29. The Big Sky indoor championships will be held in Bozeman, Montana from Feb. 24–26.
SOCCER
The Big Sky Conference released their conference schedule for 2022, and the Viks start conference play Sept. 23 at Northern Colo-
rado followed by a four-game home stretch including Montana, Sacramento State, Idaho State and Weber State. If the Viks qualify for the Big Sky tournament, they travel to Greely, Colorado from Nov. 2–6 in hopes for an automatic bid to the NCAA championship.
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TENNIS
The women’s team was picked fourth in the Big Sky preseason poll ahead of the 2022 season, starting on Jan. 16 against the Oregon Ducks in Eugene. The men’s team was picked eighth in the poll—after making it to the 2021 Big Sky tournament—preparing to play Boise State on Jan. 14 for their season opener in Eugene. Both Northern Arizona men’s and women’s tennis has been picked to win the Big Sky.
WOMEN’S LACROSSE CLUB
The Lax Vikings released their schedule for the 2022 season after a canceled 2020-21 season. They begin the season at home against the University of Idaho Vandals and the Central Washington Wildcats on Jan. 29. The last home game of the season is on Feb. 19 against the crosstown rivals: the University of Portland Pilots. All home games are at PSU Stott Field, right on campus, for fans to support the Viks. The second half of the season will be away in Moscow, Idaho playing schools like the Montana State Bobcats and Pacific Lutheran University Lutes. University of Portland will host the next two games on the schedule as the Viks take on Northwest Nazarene University and the Portland Pilots. The last game of the regular season will be hosted in Spokane, playing the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The last time the Vikings had a season, they were ranked #15 in the nation in the Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (WCLA) standings.
SPORTS
7
VALIDATING THE DEEP, DARK AND PAINFUL A REVIEW OF BIANCA STONE'S NEW BOOK,
WHAT IS OTHERWISE INFINITE UPCOMING COVER OF WHAT IS OTHERWISE INFINITE. COURTESY OF TIN HOUSE.
KAT LEON Who are we? Why are we here? What makes us alive? Scholars and artists have pondered and drawn inspiration from these core questions of identity for millennia—and poet and visual artist Bianca Stone is no different. Her upcoming book of poetry, What is Otherwise Infinite—due to be released on Jan. 18, 2022—explores our place in this world and the many ways in which we form and create our identity. "I knew I was going to be a poet because I was good at it,” Stone said. “I was not good at a lot of other things." Stone published her first book—Someone Else's Wedding Vows—in 2010, and since then, has written, illustrated and edited several other works, including another book of poetry, The Möbius Strip Club of Grief. According to Stone, inspiration for her work changes and is primarily dependent on her life experiences and interests at the time. In many cases, the topics of her inspiration will become an obsession. In What is Otherwise Infinite, for example, Stone explained that she was obsessed with exploring the concept of human consciousness and identity. Like many poets before, one way in which Stone explored identity and consciousness was by looking at spirituality. "Spirituality is always going to be something that poets are interested in because it is similar to poetry, in that it questions why we are here and why we do the things we do,” Stone said. Her childhood was not one of avidly-held religious beliefs. Stone believes this was beneficial to her work, allowing her to explore
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ARTS & CULTURE
spiritual themes from a more neutral place. "I did not have as much bias as those who might have grown up religious," Stone explained. "I am very interested in the individual human’s idea of God and faith and not any kind of institutionalized religion, which I find repulsive." With an open mind, Stone explored religious texts, specifically the Gnostic Gospels, where she found a personal connection with the idea of a “creative communication with God as being a form of spiritual practice.” This spiritual relationship that Stone found in the Gospels manifested itself throughout her work. In the poem “Apocrypha,” Stone explored the identity of Jesus: “It is said that Jesus couldn't admit to himself that he was a simile. / That he hung out with tax collectors and whores. / That he was profound allegory and data compression. / He said he'd ‘explain later’ but rarely did. / He fostered over a billion abandoned children.” The Bible and other religious texts were far from Stones' only source of inspiration. References to other literary works are frequent throughout the book, and allusions to other poets are also common. "What I love about poetry is that it is very much a conversation, throughout time, between poets,” Stone said. “So for me, I think of it as continuing a conversation…that is how poetry works and how it should work.” Stone believes strongly in reclaiming and continuing conversations that poets of other times engaged in, and uses those dialogues to question our lives in the present. Literary figures
like John Milton are frequently referenced in her work and, despite being over three centuries apart, both of them grapple with the same questions about existence: questions regarding religion, identity and the private domains of the human experience. Many poets throughout time have grappled with these same questions and, while her work might not hold all the answers, they attempt to recognize and even accept these things of which we know so little. Nature's connection to humans also served as inspiration for Stone's work. "I feel this anxiety of being separated from [nature], and I want to get back to it,” Stone said. “And in writing [about nature], I look out into the world and try and put us all back together.” Perhaps because of this, Stone's work brilliantly combines nature, existence, and our sense of place in the world. In a poem called “Dear Sir or Madam,” she writes: "We are all only this. / We are roused by thunder, / tortured into pleasure by lightning, / fertilized by the wind and rain, / raised up by the sun, / dismembered by the moon." "Most poets write about nature right now because global warming is so frightening,” Stone explained. “There is a real sense of grief and loss at what we have already lost." This urgency and anxiety are ever-present in Stone's work, but there is also a sense of celebration, commemoration and enjoyment of what we have here and now—for as long as it lasts. Stone often validates the human experience through a beautiful combination of tragedy and comedy. Poems like "You Could Spend
Every Night with the Television" present a depressive, but comedic look at how one might dissociate from existence. The immediately proceeding poem—“Beatrice”—explores what is, for some, a genuine and relatable pain: "The personality raped for years, / shredded like a milkweed husk. / How can you blame me? / I wanted to be loved right. / I wanted to pilgrim that / unknown territory." Throughout the book, Stones’s work beautifully combines pain and humor in a symbiotic dance, where words go from touching raw nerves of pain before stepping back to laugh into the darkness. When revisiting old wounds, finding relatable literary content can be healing. Poetry in particular is helpful because one can be more emotionally protected. "The hardest part of exploring the darker sides of our experience is admitting it to yourself and having a kinda character or persona in a poem allows one comfort in saying this is me but not me," Stone said. Despite providing emotional distance, poetry often gets deep fast, and the way poetry can illustrate pain can be challenging to readers. "That is why not a lot of people read poetry, because it demands something of you emotionally to do some work and to feel things… and it is terrifying,” Stone said. “But for me, that is the way I want to live….when you find a poem that just guts you, it makes it all worth it." In What is Otherwise Infinite, Stone managed to validate the deepest, darkest and most painful parts of the human experience, making it more than worth the read.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
EXPERIENCE THE LIFE OF SURREALIST POET
FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA IN DUENDE DE LORCA AN ONSTAGE PORTRAIT OF A CREATIVE LIFE TRAGICALLY CUT SHORT TANNER TODD On Aug. 19, 1936, Spanish fascist forces gunned down the Sur- visually arresting display in the realist playwright and poet Federico García Lorca—he was 38 background. years old. In doing so, they cut short the life and career of an “Projections can quickly overuncompromisingly creative mind, a man who Salvador Dalí take what’s going on onstage once called "an inventor of marvelous things." [but] in the sets that I’ve worked García Lorca's contemporaries, including Dalí, would live on to on, it's incorporated so that you make themselves known as international names in the art world, don’t notice it, you just notice but García Lorca would never have the chance. Now, almost 100 the feeling,” Siulagi explained. years after his violent death, Portland-based Milagro Theatre aims Careful sound design is also into shine a light on García Lorca's tragically short life with a play about tegrated into the play’s structure, the artist called Duende de Lorca. and the sounds of gunfire from “If Lorca had lived as long as Pablo Picasso and Dalí he other executions outside García probably would have continued to inspire the theater world Lorca’s prison cell interrupt the as well,” said Dañel Malán, the director of Milagro Theatre dream sequence, grounding the and the writer of Duende de Lorca. audience in the reality of the artThe play examines García Lorca’s life through dream-like flash- ist’s situation. backs while he sits in prison, awaiting his inevitable execution. This style of narrative becomes an inventive framework that the Milagro takes full advantage of, using dynamic light projections to build the settings of each scene in García Lorca's life. The playwright was closely affiliated with the Surrealist movement, and the play of light and color that makes up the drama’s scenery borrows heavily from the artistic history of Surrealism, even incorporating García Lorca’s own work into the projections. “We’re projecting films that we believe he was a part of, that he was represented in,” said Lawrence Siulagi, the play’s director. “Some of his abstract, more emotional pieces are going on, [and] because this is a dream, there’s a lot of visual elements going on in the background.” Siulagi, who has several years of experience in stage lighting and projection, said that the hardest part was striking a balance between the drama A SURREAL MOMENT ON STAGE. COURTESY OF MILAGRO THEATRE. unfolding in the play, and the
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
Even today in our own country, according to Malán, some of the educators in schools that present her plays in are unwilling to engage with the fact that García Lorca was gay, choosing instead to focus solely on his work. “You have to realize that the work, his body of work, comes from him, and you have to understand him in order to understand,” Malán said. “He’s a writer, how can you respect his work without respecting him?” In one extreme case, Malán presented a play in a school where the principal expressed their concerns bluntly: “Are you going to teach the kids how to be gay?” Encounters and attitudes like these underscore the importance of both educational theater and García Lorca’s life story and, in large part, this spirit of outreach and awareness is at the core of Malán’s playwriting. “I have always believed that theater is inherently political,” Malán said. “I don’t think there’s TWO ACTORS PERFORMING DUENDE DE LORCA. COURTESY OF MILAGRO THEATRE. a single playwright who doesn’t make at least some kind of either social justice or political comDespite the fact that García ment in their work. What would be a play with no message?” Lorca was killed nearly a hunWith Duende de Lorca, Malán would like people to come away dred years ago, Malán is care- with an understanding of García Lorca’s uncompromising desire ful to stress that his story is still to be himself, and not just focus on what seems like a sad message more timely than ever. García of a poet assassinated. “I hope what audiences take away from it is that this is a man Lorca was gay, and this fact— combined with his liberal and who, in the end, followed his dream and spoke out,” Malán said. Siulagi added that despite the play’s tragic underpinnings, he pro-democracy politics—led to him being intensely targeted would like people to understand who García Lorca really was, as an individual. Malán points and to leave the theater knowing it was a tragedy, but wanting to out that the homophobic ori- go and look up his work. “I wanted to make sure the focus was on the love, the compasgins of his killing have only recently been addressed, and the sion,” Siulagi said. “He cared about politics, he cared for people. He Spanish government only pub- used his words, his poetry as a way to express himself to the world.” licly acknowledged that he was Duende de Lorca will be playing this month from Jan. 13–23 at targeted for his sexuality in 2016. the Milagro Theatre.
ARTS & CULTURE
9
MIA LEVY
SATIRE: ANGER OVER WASHINGTON COUNTY’S NEW BAN ON FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS
Granola Bar
Ra z
SMALL VAPE SHOPS ARE SHUTTING DOWN AND Cinnamon Funnel Cak SCHOOL e BATHROOMS NO LONGER SMELL LIKE STRAWBERRIES
WYATT DILLMAN In November, the Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of Ordinance 878 to prohibit retail sales of flavored tobacco products in Washington County, becoming effective Jan. 1. This decision astonishingly includes the ban of all flavored vapes. The decision was made based on research suggesting increased tobacco and nicotine usage by teens. According to the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, “nearly 90% of people who use tobacco start before they turn 18.” It seems that the harshness, inconvenience and work breaks that come with a cigarette aren’t enough for kids to abuse without also satisfying their addiction to sugar. Two groups of Oregonians in particular have been hit hard by this new law: local retailers and college-aged women. Many locally-owned stores have had to shut down, arguing that the ordinance is unfairly strict. The owner of one store made it apparent he only sells to 21-year-olds, who end up selling to 20-year-olds, who end up selling to 15-year-olds. This conflict has expanded to 7,000 people who have already signed a petition to revote the issue with the entire county, instead of having their fate chosen by five commis-
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OPINION
sioners—who have obviously never experienced a crisp dome. The petition was started by Jonathan Polonsky—CEO of Plaid Pantry—who makes a solid argument that counties next door will still be legally selling flavored products, and that minors can simply drive 10 minutes to another county to obtain them. Of course, minors have less of a connection to adults illegally selling outside of the county, and a new bill passed last year banned online sales of vaping products. The law still stands to be effective at increasing the difficulty for children in the county to obtain the flavored products. Commissioners feel proud to be the first county in Oregon to pass this ban, and they hope that it promotes others to do so as well. Let’s not forget that there is another targeted group of individuals who strongly disagree with this ordinance. Women in college in Washington County complain that they rely on vapes to focus and party. One student shared her experience last week in which there was no Peach Ice to buy at the store so she bought a real peach instead which ended up being really sticky to carry around—and no one likes that. Even though college students eating real fruit for the
first time in months sounds like a good thing, it appears that there may be enough people who oppose the prohibition to get a revote. Polonsky’s petition only needs about 3,000 more signatures to get on the May 17 ballot. Because of the negative consequences to local retailers and college-aged women, we have taken the initiative to come up with a few alternative solutions to keep harmful flavored products away from the youth. These alternative solutions include background checks on buyers to make sure they don’t have a younger brother; allowing retailers to only sell flavors like prune juice, V8 and Canada Dry; enforcing customers to write a thank-you card to the tobacco store in order to remain a customer; lobbying bullies to make fun of vaping; and, finally, providing free parenting services, drug rehabilitation services and financial support to every family so that children grow up in a safe, loving and stimulating environment that deprives them of their desire for any harmful subs.
Appl
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
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ARE WE ADDICTED TO OUR OWN DISTRACTION? JUSTIN CORY Reading words on a screen—or page when Vanguard gets the full-print treatment again—like this can be a real test of concentration. There is an everconstant competition for our attention from the notifications on our screens—from the haptic vibrations buzzing in our pockets, on our wrists and in our hands to the myriad of marketing and advertising—bombarding our eyes and ears in the tactile non-digital realm. Some argue that we are living in an unprecedented era of distraction and suffering as a result of our phones and the interconnected nature of the internet and social media; in contrast, others think that every generation has endured these same dire predictions of human decline at the advent of new technologies disrupting traditional life. So which is it? Are the self-learning artificial intelligence machines about to achieve the singularity—a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization—while we distractedly succumb? Or is this an overblown hysteria meant to make us feel incomplete, inadequate and possibly to shame us into thinking we need to be more focused and productive automatons for the capitalist system? Perhaps the truth is a nuanced mix of both. Compelling points are made on both sides. Many of us feel that something is not quite right, as evidenced by the massively popular and evergrowing movement for mindfulness, including the overwhelming popularity of mediation apps such as Calm, Headspace and Insight Timer, and now school-based mindfulness programs and their attendant backlash. Their explosion in success is not hard to understand when confronted with statistics from surveys exclaiming “Americans check their phones 262 times per day—or once every 5.5 minutes!” There is also no doubt that the dizzying 24hour news cycle is overwhelming us in a deluge of information that has become yet another input source that we tend to feel compelled to constantly refresh in spite of what passes for news these days. Infused with our evolved propensity for a negativity bias—a feature that was beneficial for our collective survival in simpler times—the news and social media industry expertly exploit this psychological reactivity. As a practitioner of meditation and mindfulness techniques passed down from Buddhist
HOW WE EVOLVED TO CONTAIN MULTITUDES AND ACTUALLY BENEFIT FROM IT
WHITNEY GRIFFITH
teachings, the issue hits close to home. While the science around the benefits of mindfulness is becoming clearer, life is seldom so cut and dry. Nuance and contradiction, while hard for so many of us to accept, are part and parcel of this existence. Enter the other side of this equation. According to Alice Coleman, “distraction doesn’t have to be negative, it can help to foster new ideas.” In the article, “Focused work is a myth - Why humans are designed to be distracted,” she makes several arguments in defense of our current level of distraction and also questions the assumption that we are really that much more distracted than previous generations were. She cleverly cites the examples of ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato arguing that the invention and proliferation of writing would distract and cause information overload having disastrous consequences on the human mind. Their concerns seem outlandish now, but imagine living in a richly oral culture wherein stories, cultural artifacts and knowledge would be imparted through memorization and recitation. How much information of significance do most of us memorize anymore? The article further explores the social panic around the industrial revolution making books more widely available—leading to an explosion of literacy—and the European church and state fretting that this would lead to a decline in productivity and accelerated memory loss. This is especially funny considering that
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
reading comprehension is now lauded as a measure of cognitive function and mental flexibility. Ultimately, the question becomes “why do we fear distraction?” Is this perhaps the result of subjective value judgements prioritizing our attention? This is not to discount that many tasks, and the very basis of any meaningful relationship, require our considerate attention. Yet, we should be skeptical of all claims, especially those that seem to argue for some sort of “golden age of humanity” no matter what angle they are taking (the United States was never that great for the majority of its inhabitants, for instance). With all of the threats that can arise, our constantly scanning attention can be a beneficial quality. Additionally, there are studies demonstrating that distraction in some individuals enhances their creativity and arguing that cognitive fixation—or laser-like focus— is actually an impediment to creativity. In the design industry, there are all sorts of iterative processes that attempt to boost creativity by stimulating these novel feelings, and you might call that an intentional practice of distraction with a purpose. These considerations taken with mindfulness actually work together. We all need a
b r e a k from time to time. It is also wildly dehumanizing to measure our worth through our productivity or our attentive bandwidth. We are all ebbing and flowing messy processes of contradiction. Mindfulness can help us to pause and deepen the meaning of our lives and relationships. It can help us to break out of the stories that have a hold over us so that we may act more intentionally and less reactively. Conversely, sometimes we just need to zone out and it can actually be quite pleasant and rewarding in and of itself. Walt Whitman said it better than most of us ever will: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”
OPINION SECTION
11
ELIZABETH HOLMES: from freethinker to felon
ELIZABETH HOLMES AT FORTUNE GLOBAL FORUM 2015. COURTESY OF STUART ISETT
RYAN MCCONNELL In a historic moment for Silicon Valley, Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud against specific investors, out of 11 total charges. Each count could lead up to 20 years in prison and five years for the conspiracy count alone. Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, has been an interesting figure in the Silicon Valley startup landscape. To be a pioneer and successful entrepreneur as a woman in a male-dominated field is no easy task. In the early stages of Theranos, many cheered her on with vigorous enthusiasm, hoping she would be an inspiration to young women wishing to make life-changing impacts on society—and the tech industry. She was competitive at a young age, and looked to Steve Jobs as her tech industry hero; from his visionary mindset to his attire, Jobs was a very important role model for her. Holmes went on to drop out of Stanford her sophomore year to found a company called Real-Time Cures, after studying abroad at the Genome Institute in Singapore. Later, she would change the business name to Theranos. Her story up to this point is no different than the many other tech moguls that wished to make it big in the era of the unicorn tech startup. So how exactly did Holmes go from pioneer to fraudster? It’s a tale that encompasses ignorance, ambition and the harsh truth that, even for tech billionaires,
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some things are simply not physically possible. The struggle—and perhaps lesson—is in understanding limitations and transparency. Holmes was eager since her dropout to revolutionize the healthcare industry and biotech by providing tests which could detect conditions such as cancer and diabetes with only a few drops of blood. This, of course, was known to be an impossible task by most practitioners of medicine, but in the era where the general public still held trust and belief in tech startups, many were willing to see her prove them wrong. It wasn’t until 2015 when a Wall Street Journal investigation reported that the blood testing technology it touted would not work. The Edison—the machine Theranos was building—claimed to conduct more than 240 tests inside its compact size. In the documentary about Holmes’ company, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, many medical professionals argued that the the blood tests Theranos was claiming to be able to conduct were impossible with such a small amount of blood. Even omitting those tests, the Edison, as claimed, was too small for the physics that involve blood sampling to work. That however did not stop Holmes from reassuring investors and the public alike that all was well within the development process. Behind the scenes, Theranos’s lab was poorly run, and in some cases, outsourced most of their tests instead of conducting them in-house via the Edison. It became clear that the Edison was a machine destined for failure.
Was Holmes intentionally defrauding customers? Or was she in too deep, setting out to change the world only to realize her vision as she saw it wasn’t possible? These were the questions that the trial sought to answer. White-collar fraud cases are difficult to prosecute, and Holmes’ conviction on four out of 11 charges is less than common. Instead of admitting defeat to a business failure, Holmes continued to be dishonest with investors and downplayed the struggles, even though many lab directors have testified that the technology was insufficient. Holmes testified in her own trial that it was never her intention to defraud customers or investors over her technology. However, Theranos’s projections in 2014 and 2015 were entirely unrealistic and impossible to make without medical contracts. Theranos then projected $140 million in revenue—losing just $3 million—and raking in $40 million from pharmaceutical companies without any formal contracts. That, the jurors claimed, was what sealed the deal for intentional fraud. The conviction of Holmes may serve as a warning to Silicon Valley idealism; sometimes, a vision just isn’t enough to turn it into reality. When reality hits and what was imagined cannot—or should not—be created, there must be a moment to step back and accept this. Otherwise, the costs to deceive the very people who believed in you will be paid in full, no matter how hard you try to escape its grasp.
THE EXENTREPRENEUR HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY ON FOUR COUNTS
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 11, 2022 • psuvanguard.com
