Issue 9, Volume 108

The Spectator

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper FEATURE

SPORTS

“Tom Brady Isn’t the MVP” The MVP award every year is meant to go to the player that is the most valuable asset to his team’s success for the season. Sports writer Sunan Tajwar argues it should be taken away from Brady.

SEE PAGES 20

Volume 108 No. 9

NEWSBEAT

Unsung Heroes In a world plagued by conflict, it may be difficult to remember and acknowledge the people who help to keep the peace. To remedy this issue, freshmen Talia Kahan and Elizabeth Lee interview three Stuyvesant alumni who made the choice to fight for their country by joining the military.

SEE PAGE 4

February 2, 2018

stuyspec.com

Big Changes to the Big Sib Program

By MADDY ANDERSEN and ERIN LEE

The Stuyvesant Robotics FTC teams competed at the FTC QUALIFIER at Francis Lewis High School and were finalists. They also won the MOTIVATE AWARD.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INVI-

TATIONAL on Saturday, January 20. Senior KEVIN LI won

the tournament in the Lincoln Douglas division and senior PACY YAN came in second. Junior SHRAY TRIPATHI came in sixth in the Oratory division.

Juniors NISHMI ABEYWEERA and LEO FLEISSIG were quarter finalists in the Public Forum division.

Senior SARAH CHEN’s book, The Witch’s Cat, was chosen to represent Stuyvesant at this year’s EZRA JACK KEATS BOOKMAKING COMPETITION.

Elena Sapelyuk / The Spectator

The Stuyvesant Speech and Debate Team competed at the

Big Sib Chairs Leila Storkamp, Kevin Li, Charlotte Ruhl, Max Onderdonk, and Aren Tucker sat down with faculty to discuss the program’s new bylaws and their content on January 11, 2018. The chairs worked with Principal Eric Contreras, Rodda John (’17), and the newly established faculty oversight committee, consisting of Assistant Principal of Pupil Personnel Services Casey Pedrick and various other faculty members.

The changes now establish the process by which Big Sib Chairs, members, and homeroom leaders are chosen, along with the procedure for dismissing members, should the need arise.

The Big Sib program for Stuyvesant was created in 1997, and aims to help underclassmen adjust and familiarize themselves with Stuyvesant’s community by providing mentors for the 850 incoming freshmen.

The 150 members, or “Big Sibs,” offer support and advice regarding school work and the Stuyvesant lifestyle. “I often refer to our Big Sibs as being mini counselors to our freshmen,” Pedrick said. “It is very complementary to the work of our counseling department.” The Big Sib Program also organizes events such as homeroom picnics, Stuy Camp, and the Big Sib-Little Sib Dance to help underclassmen acquaint themselves with peers.

The biggest change to the bylaws is laying out formal procedures and therefore legitimizing the program. Previously, the Big Sib Program only had a Code of Conduct that new Big Sibs were required to sign, so this new change was a large step in development for the program.

The need for change was inspired last school year when the ARISTA executive board re-evaluated their own bylaws.

“When the ARISTA executive board from the 2016-17 school year was revisiting their bylaws, it was in discussions with members of their executive board that we started thinking: ‘Wow, [the Big Sib program doesn’t] have those either, and we are

From left to right: Leila Storkamp, Kevin Li, Charlotte Ruhl, Aren Tucker, and Max Onderdonk.

very similar in size and mission to ARISTA,’” Pedrick said.

In addition, sparked by the temporary removal of a Big Sib Chair last year due to inappropriate comments online, the Big Sib bylaws now include strict guidelines for what will occur during the removal of a chair.

“In a removal there will be hearings so that [the Big Sib Chair] can present their side. In the worst possible scenario, if there is a removal of a chair, the process is more efficient,” Storkamp continued. “Going forward we wanted to establish a better way of dealing with circumstances if they may come about.”

The new bylaws are also designed to help prevent such a situation from occurring in the first place. The regulations inform Big Sibs of their responsibilities and obligations in a way that eliminates misunderstandings.

“Let’s say someone does something that could cause them to possibly be dismissed. That person is probably going to definitely want to know, ‘What [do] the bylaws say?’ So it lets them know that there are expectations for grade point, that you may be removed for any violations of the code of conduct,” Pedrick said.

Additionally, these new regulations strengthen the Big Sib

Program’s relations with guidance, as both programs help incoming freshmen smoothly transition. “Communication between Big Sib Chairs and guidance is more direct, because at the end of the day guidance [plays] a very important role,” Storkamp said. During the application process for future Big Sib Chairs, two faculty members will now be present at every interview. “They can see this process directly rather than just hearing from us who we think is good,” Storkamp said. “Adults might offer some points that we may have missed from interviews.”

In terms of the appointment of the Big Sib chairs themselves, only one faculty member sat in on every Big Sib chair interview.

“We decided [...] that two faculty members would be in each of the Big Sib chair interviews so that we would be able to have a better, in-depth discussion about a candidate, rather than just having one person’s opinion,” Pedrick revealed. “Our hope there is that we can choose some really good leaders for the program, and put trust in them to choose fairly for the actual members at large.”

These changes are the most recent in a wave of reform for the program. There have been changes to the Big Sib Program in the

past, such as when they lowered the required average from an 88 to an 85, allowing more students to apply. According to Storkamp, “It’s helpful for students who may have had a rough freshman year, but are working hard to improve their grades. They can still be a role model to other freshmen; they just might have had some bumps along the way.”

With these new bylaws, future amendments to the program and its bylaws will be standardized—when coming to a decision, all members of the oversight faculty committee must approve of the change, along with a majority of the chairs. “You’re always learning and growing and rolling with the times and deciding what the organization needs in this day and age as opposed to before or after,” Pedrick said. “It’s always a good thing to keep things dynamic.”

The Big Sibs are optimistic for the implementation of these new guidelines and the role of the program as a whole at Stuyvesant. .“It’s really good to be able to have the Big Sib organization, which has been around for quite some time, now be as organized and established as say ARISTA or the [Student Union] itself,” Pedrick said.

Stuyvesant Holds Second International Film Festival

By CHLOE DOUMAR and CAROLINE MAGOC Stuyvesant held its second annual International Film Festival from January 8 to January 17. Hosted by the Language Department in the Murray Kahn Theater, this year’s festival showcased six foreign films, all recently screened, many of which targeted major social and political issues ranging from the Holocaust to transgender youth.

The movies —“Thermae Romae” (2012), “Carol’s Journey” (2002), “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” (2002), “Emil

and the Detectives” (2001), “Life is Beautiful” (1997), and “My Life in Pink” (1997)—were shown in their original language, but subtitles were provided to assist students not fluent in that particular language.

Japanese teacher Chie Helinski, Spanish teacher Anna Montserrat, Chinese teacher Julie Zhu, French and German teacher Rebecca Lindemulder, Italian and Spanish teacher Pasqua Rocchio, and French teacher Manuel Ramirez made up the committee that curated the screening.

The first film, “Thermae Romae,” is a Japanese comedy

about an Ancient Roman architect, Lucius, who time-travels to modern-day Japan before returning to Rome with innovative techniques for building public baths.

Originally a Japanese manga and eventually an anime and film, “Thermae Romae” was a lighthearted start to the film festival.

“Carol’s Journey” was shown on January 9 and illustrated the difference between the liberal views in America and the conservative views in Spain. Carol, an American from Spain, visited her hometown with her mother during the Spanish Civil War. The movie documented the tragedies

of the Spanish Civil War which are still remembered today by many in Spain.

The next day, “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” dramatized a socio-political struggle in a different light, depicting both the Cultural Revolution and a romance in the relationship between the illiterate Little Seamstress and the two boys Luo and Ma, bonding over banned Western novels.

“I was extremely intrigued by [the movie] because it was able to successfully fuse a romance with the plight of many who suffered during the Cultural Revolution,

and yet it was still comedic in some parts,” sophomore Frank Yang said. “I think that the directors and filmmakers wanted you to feel that amidst this crisis, there’s still a speck of happiness that shines through.”

“Emil and the Detectives” was the selection of Ms. Lindemulder, based on a 1929 children’s book following a young boy initially tasked with sending money to his grandmother. His money gets stolen, sending him and the local children in Berlin on a mission to retrieve it. continued on page 2

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

News Stuyvesant Holds Second International Film Festival continued from page 1

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT ANDREW G. MCCABE STEPPED DOWN AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), following harsh criticism

from both the Republican Party and President Trump. The move was widely anticipated and adds onto the chaotic upheaval of the FBI under the Trump Administration.

The GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN from January 20 to January 22, 2018, after the Senate failed to pass legislation to fund government operations and agencies, stemming from DISPUTES OVER DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The shutdown ended when Senate Democrats agreed to a compromise.

ISLAMIC STATE MILITANTS ATTACKED AFGHAN SOLDIERS at a mili-

tary academy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, last Monday. So far, 11 troops are reported to have been killed, and 16 injured. The attack came two days after a Taliban member drove an ambulance filled with explosives into a police checkpoint in Kabul, killing at least 103 people and wounding over 235.

REPUBLICANS ON THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE VOTED MONDAY TO RELEASE A SECRET MEMO accusing senior FBI officials, involved in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, of misconduct. The Department of Justice warned that making the memo public would be “extraordinarily reckless,” as it contains confidential information. President Trump has five days to review the memo and decide if he should veto its release.

KEURIG GREEN MOUNTAIN announced that it intends to PURCHASE THE BEVERAGE COMPANY DR PEPPER SNAPPLE, for $18.7 billion.

If the purchase is approved the resulting company, Keurig Dr Pepper, will have an estimated $11 billion in annual revenue. Dr Pepper Snapple stock has since soared over 20 percent in response to the proposed merger.

This movie was especially well received by students taking German at Stuyvesant. “As someone learning German, I thought it was pretty cool that I could pick up on a lot of the dialogue. Hearing from native speakers is really different from speaking exercises in class, so I’m glad I got this new experience with the language,” sophomore Ahmed Sultan said.

A week after, the film festival resumed on Tuesday with the Italian film “Life is Beautiful,” depicting a family ravaged by the Holocaust in Italy. Guido, the father, convinces his son that the concentration camps are a game, wherein players gain 1,000 points to escape the camp. Points would be gained by accomplishing tasks, and lost in crying, either for his mother or out of hunger.

Sophomore Alison Juray, who went to see the movie due to its many accolades, was touched by the film and found it worthwhile to watch. “My parents are Jewish, and I’m Jewish, so I knew the horrors of the war, but I still wanted him [Guido] to stay alive so they would have the perfect family,” Juray said. Taking note of the subtitles, Juray also added that the language barrier in watching the film meant that she more deeply understood the film and found it easier to connect with.

To wrap up the festival, the French film “Life in Pink” spoke to LGBT movements in the modern day by detailing the life of

Ludovic and his family. Ludovic, who is transgender, gets labelled as a “joker.” He repeatedly faces conflicts in his family when they force him to identify as a boy.

Mr. Ramirez chose this film because it conveyed an extremely important message, while remaining appropriate for a younger audience. “Right now, there is lots of debate, laws being passed for and against transgender people, like using certain bathrooms, being allowed in the army, things of that nature, so I thought this film would be very appropriate,” Ramirez said.

them, and had them think of [...] what advice would you give to a child who doesn’t like the color of their skin, or their birth gender, or how tall or short they are” Assistant Principal of World Languages Dr. Ernest Oliveri was pleased with the turnout at the festival and hopes to expand the reach of it in subsequent years.

“The objective [of the festival] is to bring more and more kids to the auditorium, exposing them to different cultures, and I think next year we will increase that number considerably, since we are going to be partnering with the Social

“I was extremely intrigued by [the movie] because it was able to successfully fuse a romance with the plight of many who suffered during the Cultural Revolution, and yet it was still comedic in some parts. I think that the directors and filmmakers wanted you to feel that amidst this crisis, there’s still a speck of happiness that shines through.”—Frank Yang, sophomore Ramirez also described how in his AP French class, this film’s showing coincided with a chapter taught in class discussing aesthetics and beauty. He noted, “I had my students think of other groups, any other group that can’t change parts about

Studies Department next year.

The committee [for picking films] will be bigger, but it will benefit from more input,” Dr. Oliveri said.

“We will still insist on these languages being the ones in which the films are seen, since that’s where our expertise comes in.”

Freshmen Caucus Organizes Risk Intelligence Lecture

By SASHA SPAJIC and PETER TAM Financial executive and Columbia University professor Leo Tilman spoke to students in Lecture Hall A on Friday, January 19.

The event, organized by Freshman Caucus leaders Katerina Corr and Jonathan Schneiderman, garnered about 30 students who listened to Tilman’s lecture on risk management and risk intelligence.

The lecture marks the beginning of the Freshman Caucus’s initiative to introduce a lecture series, with professionals in fields such as politics and policy, mathematics, activism, and physics.

With the approval of the administration, Corr personally

contacted Tilman, her uncle, to speak to students. “Because the Freshman Caucus lecture series is new, we didn’t have the opportunity to tell possible lecturers that we had been successful in the past,” Corr said.

Tilman is the Executive Chairman of Capitol Peak Asset Management, a global asset management firm. Before founding Capitol Peak, he was President and CEO of Tilman & Company, a global strategic advisory firm focusing on risk intelligence.

Tilman is credited with predicting the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 in his book “Financial Darwinism.”

He reinvented risk intelligence, which is a field in business where a person must calculate

the risks and benefits of a certain venture. Throughout the lecture, Tilman used an analogy of a fisherman to explain this concept to students. “[Performance means] catching as many fish as possible.

There is relative performance because the fisherman knows that his neighbor is also an angler and catches 50 fish. So if he catches 10, 10 is pretty good, but it looks very bad compared to his neighbor. There are also many risks: don’t tip the boat over or [...] drop your bait into the water. [There is also] favorable perception. He cares about nature; he doesn’t pollute [the] water. The same can be said of any entity. A company wants to outperform its competitors [by managing] a set of risks,” Tilman said in his explanation.

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Tilman then established a connection between risk management and gene editing, using the example of cows with horns.

“A colleague of mine noticed that cows hurt each other with horns if they are in an enclosed space,” he said. “We try to remove these horns, which is an incredibly painful and inhumane procedure. So [instead we] modify a cow’s genome to take away the horns.” Agricultural companies, pharmaceutical companies, and research hospitals require experts risk management in order to navigate the new world of accelerated evolution.

Students found Tilman’s message about the interconnected nature of business and science to be interesting. “What I thought

he did very well was relate [risk management] to other professions because often when you think about the economy, you think about the jobs that directly contribute to the economy. You don’t normally think about [fields like] gene editing,” Corr said.

After receiving such a positive response to the lecture and a substantial turnout, the Freshman Caucus plans on continuing their lecture series. “The lectures are a great opportunity for Stuyvesant students to hear about topics that may interest them in the future.

We’re reaching out, now with a full staff, to experts in an array of fields ranging from politics to physics,” Schneiderman said.

The Spectator ● Feburary 2, 2018

Page 3

Features Behind the Photos: A Look Inside the Studyblr Community

By PAULINA KLUBOK, CHLOE HUANG and JENNIFER LIU

Emma Akam

Gold, spiraling cursive and intricate doodles fill the pages of a leather bound journal lying on a smooth, marble desk.

Arranged carefully around it is a worn, highlighted paperback, steaming cup of coffee, and a gently burning candle. Intended to capture a serene and seemingly productive moment, study blogs are a new phenomenon that have gained immense popularity recently on social media. Known as ‘studyblrs’ on Tumblr and ‘studygrams’ on Instagram, these online communities unite different students of all ages and backgrounds

Emma Akam

working with a different color theme every month.

Chen felt that her studygram encapsulates her personality well. “I’m the girl who sits quietly in class. Outgoing

used printables, methods of taking careful notes, and outlines of crash course videos to help her better understand her curriculum. She appreciates

most noticeably Singapore and Malaysia. “Everyone is really friendly. You can slide into dms really easily,” she said. They bond over common interests of K-pop and promote each other on their feeds.

Freshman May Hathaway was inspired to start her studyblr because of her passion for reading, writing, and calligraphy. Her original aesthetic notes invoked motivation to study as well as pride and satisfaction.

“If I’m not making study guides and outlining the textbook when I’m supposed to be, I can see that clearly from my Tumblr because I haven’t uploaded pictures,” she said. Taking and posting pictures also does not occupy too much of her time.

She spends 15 minutes at most placing her notes under natural lighting and edits her photos in cases of insufficient lighting.

that the community encourages everyone to study and work hard. Her posts include both reblogs (e.g. notes, bullet journals, and inspirational messages) and original content, the latter which she posts roughly once a week. “I post some stuff

scribes her studyblr as “cute,” “aesthetically pleasing,” and “happy.”

Sophie Dansereau, a Canadian university student majoring in literature, contended that studyblrs are incredibly important because they bring learning to social media. “In the world of fake news, it’s more than necessary to center our communities around learning and education. It gives the opportunity for people to share their knowledge as well as their culture in a positive community that is built on openness and willingness to learn,” Dansereau said in an e-mail interview. When asked to describe her studyblr, unefilledepapier, she said, “feminist, literature-oriented agglomeration of posts.”

Despite the general friendliness of the studyblr community, elitism remains. “People feel that their posts and notes need to be of a certain standard or aesthetic to ‘fit in,’” German study blogger Sorcha Griffin of griffin-studies wrote in an email interview. This includes having stationary and supplies of certain brands, good lighting, calligraphy skills, and lightening filters. However, to Hathaway, this pressure is not a big deal. “I’m definitely able to have a fully functioning studyblr without nice stationery,” she elaborated. “I bought new highlighters after creating my studyblr, but I really like them and I think they’re actually really useful outside of the study aesthetic.”

Akam, on the other hand, feels that this has created competition among study bloggers, as more and more study bloggers feel compelled to buy expensive stationery to make their feed stand out. This mentality deviates from the original inspiration for posting: to inspire solid studying habits rather than to keep up with

Sorcha Griffin

Emma Akam

that’s not entirely study-related and more about self-care, and I have a lot of interaction with my followers,” she said. “For example, I recently did blogrates, [where one rates and promotes

people post pictures of where they hang out and where they eat because that’s how they express themselves. But with my studygram, I’m posting what I

Following other studygram accounts has exposed Hathaway to new ways of taking notes and increasing productivity. For instance, she has

Sorcha Griffin

scribed studyblr as a positive and loving community. “We’re all in there because we want to better ourselves. I love how everyone accepts everyone else, and I find it incredible that I have this platform to get to know other people,” she said in an e-mail interview.

Emmastudies began in October 2014. While procrastinating her way through studying for upcoming exams, a search for study tips on Tumblr led Akam to several small blogs dedicated to studying. She would come back to check these whenever she needed motivation, and after a week, she decided to create her own.

Akam is best known within the studyblr community for her masterlists, compilations of advice and study tips, and for her printables of note-taking and planner templates which became so popular that she began to sell them on a separate Etsy shop. With a combined 450, 000 followers on her studyblr and studygram, Emmastudies has been featured on websites such as MSN, The Verge, Teen Vogue, and Buzzfeed.

Akam cited her biggest accomplishment as inspiring others. She is motivated by messages from followers who attribute their academic suc-

do in my free time, so it’s more reflective of who I am,” she said. Her favorite part of having studygram is interacting with people from all over the world,

Sophia Dansereau

from across the world in their shared commitment to academic success.

Emma Akam, creator of the popular study blog emmastudies.com, currently majors in digital and social media at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. She de-

Sophia Dansereau

cess to her blog. “Knowing that I have helped people get into college, improve their grades, and ease their daily school life is incredible,” she wrote. For Akam, running a studyblr is also the “best accountability partner” she has. Her studyblr serves as a visual diary of the work she puts into studying, and looking over it makes her proud of how far she’s come.

Study blogs have taken hold in the Stuyvesant community as well. For sophomore Tina Chen of @2chenstudies, studygrams are a way to share the work she puts into note-taking and studying. In order to excel in difficult classes such as A.P European History, Chen spends an hour rewriting her notes for the class every weekend. This allows her to review and organize the information learned, which has improved her grades. Posting rewritten notes encourages Chen to consistently improve her study habits. “In the future, you can look at [the notes] and go, ‘Oh, I can do it better next time.’ It just keeps motivating you to organize your work better,” she said.

Chen started her studygram last summer in an effort to reconnect with her middle school friend. Now, with around 360 followers, Chen takes turns posting with her friend, with whom she always confers about potential posts through Skype. Along with rewritten notes, Chen’s studygram is full of colorful bullet journal pages.

They post three times a week,

fellow blogs].” Overall, she de-

trends and aestheticism. Akam suggests that if study bloggers reverse their mentality to studying, much of the competition would be reduced, and more originality and variation would be produced.

To outsiders, the studyblr community can give off the wrong message. “I think it can sometimes come across as if we’re all focused on our studies and only our studies. Or that we promote studying 24/7 with no breaks. Those kind of assumptions are definitely not true.

In this community, we are all about being realistic and having a healthy relationship with studying,” Akam said.

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The Spectator ● Feburary 2, 2018

Features Stuyvesant’s Unsung Heroes

By TALIA KAHAN and ELIZABETH LEE

ager that he wanted to go to the military, and this was a perfect chance for him.

After Pearlman graduated from Brooklyn College in June of 1961, he was sworn in as a reserve pilot. Pearlman remembered the first time he was called in for active duty: “I re-

Pearlman was in the inactive reserves for 19 years. In these years, Pearlman served in the intelligence field in all areas.

He explained that he served in analysis in both the human intelligence side and operational intelligence side. As an intelligence officer, he covered most

JOSEPH PEARLMAN Joseph Pearlman (‘57) served in the military in the same era as Barazzotto, but he had drastically different experiences. Pearlman grew up in a lower-class family who needed him to be working throughout high school. So, Pearlman went through Stuyvesant with a job, and from then on, he went to Brooklyn College. There, he majored in history and was in the air force reserves training course (ROTC) which he signed up for immediately. Pearlman had known since he was a teen-

ported into Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, and I was assigned as a ‘Combat Defense Force Officer’ which translates into an an Air Officer, but which means that I was security for nuclear armed aircrafts,” he said. “I became an operations officer, and in 10 and a half months, I was commanding that squadron in the Cuban missile crisis.” Pearlman helped combat the Cuban missile crisis when both the United States and the Soviet union pulled out all of their intermediate range missiles.

of the Middle-East.

In the 1970s, Pearlman analyzed the debriefings of the United States air force pilots that were released from Vietnam. He described a problem while the fighters were getting out of the aircrafts and his solution: “When they ejected from their aircrafts, they were getting injured, and the reason was because the ejection handles were on the pilot’s hand on the right armrest and left armrest. What they did was when pilots eject today in other aircrafts they ball into the fetal position so

Photo Courtesy of Ed McGovern

ZOT BARAZZOTTO Zot Barazzotto graduated from Stuyvesant in 1962 and went on to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology.

After graduating from RIT in 1966, Barazzotto went to Dayton, Ohio and started taking flying lessons. He explained, “I had already signed up for the navy, [but I] flunked the eye test because I had a little astigmatism [briefly define]. So they wouldn’t make me a pilot.”

But on the day that he took the physical exam to join the air force, he passed it with 20/20 vision. Looking back, Barazzotto said, “I’m getting ready to get out of the chair, and the guy said, ‘You are pilot qualified— just barely, but you are pilot qualified.’”

Barazzotto fought in the Vietnam War from March of 1970 until March of 1971. His task was to make sure that the troops in North Vietnam were not cutting through Laos, a neutral area, in order to supply South Vietnam troops with ammunition, food, and arms.

He described, “My job was to be a traffic cop on the Ho Chi Minh trail—stopping the trucks bringing stuff back from North Vietnam.” The soldiers would do anything, including shooting, to enable the crossing of the arms and ammunition across the Ho Chi Minh trail. “I was a bullet magnet,” he said.

After fighting in Vietnam, Barazzotto continued flying; he flew over the Soviet Union, North Korea, and China in order to “keep track of the bad guys’” order of battle, he said; if you ever had to go to war with them, you knew what radars were where, what communications were where, what units were there, you kept track of the enemy order of battle.”

Barazzotto’s next major military actions occurred during the Cold War. The United States and Europe suspected that the Soviet Union was going to invade Europe. Barazzotto created a solution called the Offensive Defense in order to prevent them from doing so.

When the United States were made to believe that the Soviet Union was crossing the borders, they would shoot drones into the streets. “The drones would go to an intersection in the village, and they would start blowing up stuff. Once you get it [traffic] stopped and you start blowing stuff up, you get chain reactions, and basically, a whole movement of this million-man army stops,” Barazzotto described. “You can stop the traffic on their side of the border without nuclear weapons, without chemical weapons, you can just jam it up with little drones.”

Although this idea would have succeeded in solving the problem, Barazzotto explained that the United States government did not want to use this idea because they did not feel comfortable with having unmanned vehicles. Barazzotto said, “They threw me out of the air force. If they don’t want to hear what you have to say, the answer is you’re gone. So, I was gone.” Afterwards, he stayed in the reserves for another 20 years.

Barazzotto explained that at Stuyvesant, even though he was not at the top of his class, it

Photo Courtesy of Joseph Pearlman

In a world plagued by conflict, it may be difficult to remember and acknowledge the people who help to keep the peace. To remedy this issue, we interviewed three Stuyvesant alumni who made the choice to fight for their country by joining the military. These are their stories.

set him up for getting to college and beyond because of the high academic standards. Additionally, when at Stuyvesant, Barazzotto was still unsure what he wanted his future to look like; he had always been interested in flying, but was not sure if he wanted to go into the Air Force.

Barazzotto said that his experience in the military shaped his view on life and his outlook on the world in general. One of his mentors taught Barazzotto two things he continues doing today. “Number one, it is always easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission,” he said. Barazzotto explained that this lesson is important because if one goes through life asking for permission, then they will get rejected most of the time. But if one goes through life doing what they think is right, then the few times that they make a mistake, they can ask for forgiveness.

He recalled, “[My mentor] also said, ‘for every rule that says you can’t, there is one that says you can.’ Find the one that says you can, and when somebody says, ‘you can’t do that,’ you point to the one that says you can, and say, ‘right here, it says I can.’” Borazzotto backed this up with the fact that if one is successful, then nobody can tell them that they made a mistake. Essentially, Borazzato concluded with, “My answer to life is ‘Just Do it’—like the Nike commercial.”

that nothing is sticking out— they can’t get hurt. That was a thing that I contributed to in the design of the new aircraft.”

Pearlman explained that because of his family’s Jewish heritage, his parents were very reluctant to allow him to go to the military. Pearlman’s father grew up in a small Polish town with a large military presence that was highly anti-semitic.

His childhood led Pearlman’s father to believe that everyone in the military was anti-semitic.

Pearlman recalled, “And my father was really upset [about me going to the military] because he didn’t understand that the American military is not [antisemitic].”

Not only did Pearlman not experience any anti-semitism in the military, but he was welcomed with open arms to the local temple near the base. Pearlman remembered, “In Gullsborrow, [where I was based], they had a Reform temple. I am well schooled in Judaism. I grew as an Orthodox Jew. I don’t practice that way today. I speak, read, and write Hebrew, and I can pray [the traditional Jewish prayers].”

Despite Pearlman’s long time in the military, Pearlman said that he felt that it did not have any effect on him or his outlook on life. Instead, Pearlman explained that the Exodus story from the Old Testament taught him the most important life lessons. He compared his father to the characters in Fiddler on the Roof: traditional Orthodox Jews. Pearlman compared himself to the generation of Jews that were not born in Egypt (“the desert generation,” in Hebrew), rather than the people that were freed from Egypt. He remembered, “I compare myself to the new generation of Joshua and Caleb [two members of the new generation] because I was born in America. My father had no idea [about the nature of the US military]. He never really was fully Americanized. He was still the Fiddler on the Roof guy.”

ED MCGOVERN Ed McGovern (‘85), a veteran from Sunnyside, Queens, attended Stuyvesant from 1981 to 1985, faithfully taking three trains each day to attend school. He remembered the disparities between his old Catholic school and Stuyvesant being immense, especially regarding style: “When I arrived

continued on page 6

The Spectator ● Feburary 2, 2018

Page 5

Features

Photo Courtesy of Ed McGovern

Stuyvesant’s Unsung Heroes

continued from page 5

as a freshman, there was clearly a hippie/Led Zeppelin/flower child vibe among a few of the students. People wore painted denim jackets with bands on the back, wallets on chains, sandals, concert t-shirts.”

McGovern was also a Pegleg—he played football on the school’s team for three years.

At the time, the team had one of the worst records in the city and only began to improve with the arrival of Eugene Blaufarb as head coach. He recalled walking in his football gear to a practice field separate from the school in freezing weather conditions. McGovern believes that the conditioning and tough practices he underwent during that time prepared him for the military; “I actually think football prepared me well for the tough physical training at the Naval Academy. It also taught

me how to deal with hardship and limited resources.”

It was a fellow football player, Pat Lacho, who first got McGovern interested in joining the military. His competitive attitude came into play when Lacho told him he was going to school for free. He asked about this school and asked what its rival school was. It took him 10 minutes to decide that he would go to the latter and graduate from there. This school was the Naval Academy.

As he was going through the

applications process for the Naval Academy, he decided to join the Navy no matter what.

He talked about the school with respect when discussing the difference between his expectations and reality. “I actually thought going to Navy would be a nice break and more of a well rounded challenge after Stuyvesant, which was a rigorous academic school. I was wrong,” McGovern recalled.

“You carry a heavy workload in addition to going through a very challening first year, and you are required to play sports.

You are also competing with some incredibly bright and well rounded people, and no one can leave during the week. And, when I was there, there was no radio, cell phone, iPad, TV,” he said. He recalled that due to these rigorous conditions, onethird of his class dropped out.

The military has given McGovern a valuable abundance of insight and opportunities; he spoke very highly of his experience. “No one cares who you are or what your pedigree was before you got there—just if you are capable and a good leader,” he said.

“You develop a lot of empathy and learn to relate to people from all over the country and from different economic backgrounds, something that seems to be lost more and more in the U.S. as people segregate themselves by school, career, political, and socio-economic

background.” All of his work interactions required people to respect and earn respect from their peers, and these, in turn, taught McGovern how to be a great leader.

When asked about his choice to serve and how his experience at Stuyvesant affected that choice, he shed light on the diversity of the school: “I met a really broad swath of people from the far reaches of Staten Island, to the Bronx, and out to the end of Queens. It gave me a great excuse to explore the city and see how others lived. That sense of adventure never left me and was one of the reasons going into the Navy appealed to me.”

Through their experiences at Stuyvesant and the military, these veterans have collectively experienced and endured so much. Barazzoto stood up for his own values while learning about the crucial principles of forgiveness and determination.

Pearlman served to make use of his time in the military with new innovations. McGovern came face to face with the task of learning about resilience and leadership in a diversified, demanding environment. The differing events within these veterans’ lives contributes to a better understanding of our lives and sheds light on the bright future they have helped to shape for us.

Bringing Back Catullus

By CHLOE HUANG Stationed in Room 429, surrounded by math classrooms, is a woman with a warm smile, casual disposition, and eyes gleaming with Latin knowledge and pride. I was in the room “where all things Latin happen” to learn more about the new poetry class at Stuyvesant. Instead, I learned about a teacher who, because of her dedication to her Latin students, went to great lengths to create a class against convention. She conducts her classes like an orchestra. She coaches her students like a team.

This was Latin teacher Dr. Susan Brockman in her element.

Dr. Brockman has brought back the curriculum of an old, favorite course with her new Advanced Poetry class for seniors.

The class is offered as an alternative to AP Latin.

Sixteen years ago, when Dr. Brockman was a new teacher at Stuyvesant, the College Board offered two major AP courses for Latin. One of them, named Virgil, was a course based solely on epic poetry by the poet, Virgil. The course was “very, very difficult,” Dr. Brockman emphasized.

The other course, named Latin Literature, had two different semesters, each focusing on one poet: Catullus during first semester, and three options of poets for students to choose from for the other half of the course. This made a total of four different AP Latin courses that Dr. Brockman would cycle through.

Catullus, who wrote about love, romance, and friendship, is a favorite among high school students. “He talks to you from 50 BC. It’s like you sat at a bar, maybe Starbucks in your case, and you met this person, and he was some really cool kid who had been burned in love who had really good friends and had ideas about politics and made fun of people that he thought were stupid. He’s so original and really alive, and I think if you’re going to study a language for four years, you might as well be exposed to one of the most

charming and really memorable voices from the Ancient World,” Dr. Brockman expressed warmly.

Most students preferred the poetry course with Catullus over the one with Virgil, Dr. Brockman recalled. So when the College Board decided to cancel the Latin Literature course with Catullus, presumably because of budget cuts, she was very disappointed. Both courses were hard, but Latin Literature with Catullus was less difficult and “in a way the more fun of the two courses,” Dr. Brockman stated.

“So for a while we just had one course, and we taught it. Everyone was just depressed, but we did it,” Dr. Brockman said.

Then the College Board decided to further increase the difficulty of the AP Latin course by including Julius Caesar’s commentary on the Gallic War, in addition to the dense Latin of very hard author, Virgil. “If you are interested in military people, and if you want to read about tribal people who used to live in modern France who got conquered by Romans, the course is really interesting,” Dr. Brockman commented, “but it is pretty dry for most students.”

The revised AP course wasn’t well received by students. “I had 35 excited Latin students, and 10 of them dropped the class because it was too hard. They were depressed, they felt beaten, they just hated it,” Dr. Brockman said.

On the difficulty of the course, Dr. Brockman stated, “I don’t really believe, quite frankly, that high school students should feel like they’re already in college. I don’t teach college.

I’ve taught college for 25 years, but I’m teaching at a high school now, and high school students are different from college students.”

After teaching the AP Latin course for years with mixed class performance, Dr. Brockman decided to try something different. “I finally decided that Latin teachers all over the countries were getting really fed up with this. And AP has kind of

taken over. I thought it was ridiculous to have no choice at all,” she said. She went back to the old AP syllabi. With all the old textbooks in place, she revived the old course with Catullus, naming it Advanced Poetry, and started teaching it last year as an alternative course for seniors who did not want to burden themselves with AP Latin. “I was able to sneak this in because [former Principal Jie] Zhang was leaving, and Principal Contreras was just coming,” Dr. Brockman confessed.

This current year, Dr. Brockman said there were only half a dozen students who wanted to take AP Latin. About 10 students were completely opposed to taking AP Latin, but they still wanted to continue with Latin.

“If I hadn’t been able to offer the students a choice this year, we probably would not have an advanced class because Principal Contreras can’t run a class with only six kids. That doesn’t work,” Dr. Brockman said. “Students have a lot of choices in their senior year. They don’t necessarily want to burden themselves. It’s a very, very difficult class—and as you know, if you really want to do the work in a difficult class, it’s fun. But if you’re forced to, it is horrible.”

Dr. Brockman is now actually teaching both the AP Latin and Advanced Poetry courses at the same time in the same room. This is the first time she has done this, but according to her, it has been working “pretty well.” On how she has been able to teach two courses in the same period, Dr. Brockman said she uses her phone to record herself teaching for every lesson and uploads them to Google Classroom. From Dr. Brockman’s recordings, students have a miniteacher talking, explaining, going through the poetry and the prose, and helping them understand and put in context the Latin when they do their homework every night. This is especially helpful for students who are absent for a day or want to prepare for an exam.

Students come in each day prepared and able to work inde-

pendently in small groups with Dr. Brockman alternating in working with each group. As for exam days, every student gets a different exam depending on his or her course. “So they’re getting independent work, they’re getting an audio lesson, and then they get to work with me, and that’s how we’re doing it this year,” Dr. Brockman explained.

“Everybody is really happy because everybody is doing what they want to do.” The AP students are sticking to a very rigorous schedule because they have to finish a lot of material in time for the May AP exam, which can be very restrictive. But “they’re doing it because they love it, and that’s why they made a choice,” Dr. Brockman said. “They’re like a little platoon in the army.

They’re coming in, and they’re very disciplined.” The students who are taking the alternative poetry course are also very disciplined but are reading around half as many lines of Latin as the AP students. They are still reading very carefully, but in a different atmosphere from the AP course.

On this unorthodox way of teaching, Dr. Brockman stated, “It’s great. I think it’s terrific, and I’m going to try to always do this. To be honest to you, not that many teachers can do this, but I’ve been teaching forever— like 32 years—and I’ve been teaching Latin for 20 years, and a lot of my colleagues that teach Latin across the country do have different levels of Latin all in the same room.”

However, not everyone is thrilled about an alternative Latin class. “The administration doesn’t like the idea of fourthyear language classes that don’t have the stamp of approval from the AP program,” Dr. Brockman said, since the school gets judged on how many AP classes it offers. Her personal belief on AP is that even though it is good for some subjects, the AP is an overrated program. There are a lot of teachers at Stuyvesant and at other high schools who are highly qualified (in Dr. Brockman’s case, she has a doctorate) and who she believes can write

courses for their students that are just as challenging but different from the AP. “It’s like cookie cutter education. I’m not bad mouthing AP classes or the teachers who teach them or the students who take them, but it’s a little bit restrictive. Having taught at the college and university level for so many years, it’s not really a college class when you’re teaching high school students,” Dr. Brockman commented. ”It’s great. It’s a different animal. Five days a week, 40 minutes, with your students. There are college professors that would give their eye teeth to see their students five days a week, but you only have 40 minutes, and the kids have too much homework. In college, you don’t usually take more than four, five courses. You guys are taking nine or ten. So it’s very very different to teach in high school.” Dr. Brockman is not anti-AP, but she believes there should be alternatives.

Many of her students have told her that they don’t really care whether they get college credit in high school for Latin. Many colleges are now requiring placement exams for classes even if you take an AP course, and some require you to take their beginner course even if you’ve taken the AP. As Dr. Brockman recalled, one of her students from last year who was placed into a 300 level Latin class in college said her feeling was that “there was no difference at all between taking the non AP and the AP except that she had more fun taking the non AP.” Perhaps this shows that the most important thing Latin students gain from their studies is a connection with the great poets of the Ancient World. The many poets, such as Catullus and Ovid, who were removed from the AP Latin course have been brought back in the Advanced Poetry Class. “Nobody who reads Catullus will ever forget Catullus,” Dr. Brockman said. “This is the Latin poetry that makes people smile 25 years later. So I think it is something worth doing, even if it isn’t for AP credit.”

Page 6

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Editorials STAFF EDITORIAL

Considering Consent at Stuyvesant If you’ve opened up Twitter or turned on your television in the last month, you are almost guaranteed to have seen the widespread response to the #MeToo movement. Founded by social activist Tarana Burke, the movement aims to expose the widespread sexual abuse and harassment prevalent in society by encouraging women to share their stories. After initial allegations against Harvey Weinstein, a famous film producer, the movement snowballed as thousands of women and men came out with accusations against many prominent celebrities, including Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and now the lovable self-proclaimed feminist Aziz Ansari. The #MeToo movement attempts to expose and condemn not only these individuals, but also the pervasive normalization of the sexual abuse of women in society.

The #MeToo movement gained media attention after celebrities joined in on the conversation, but it began with the stories of regular individuals. It highlights any story of sexual misconduct, not just the most severe cases. In high school, some may feel a sense of detachment from the issue, but it applies to every individual, because at the crux of the problem are the power structures inherent in society, whether physical or social. At Stuyvesant, power structures take the form of upper and underclassmen relations.

There is social prestige associated with senior students, and with that prestige comes the power to manipulate underclassmen (e.g. students with less experience and knowledge of the school). When senior and freshman or senior and sophomore relationships develop, it is easy for the younger person in the relationship to be pressured and swayed into false consent, not to mention the physical power wielded by the senior. This abuse of power is one that may not be easily recognized, but is an example of how applicable this movement for awareness concerning sexual misconduct is for Stuyvesant students.

Thus, it is important for Stuyvesant students to recognize the frameworks governing consent within which they act, regardless of whether they are seeking consent or granting it. In an ideal romantic or sexual situation, an enthusiastic affirmation of willingness to participate should not only be expected, but mandatory before matters progress. However, in reality this is not always practiced, and body language is more frequently relied upon as an imperfect measure of consent. When one has the power in a romantic or sexual situation, it is thus imperative to guarantee that the other party is comfortable before proceeding. A forced or clearly distressed utterance of the word “yes” clearly bears no meaning behind it at all and should not be taken as justification to continue. Furthermore, if either party is intoxicated or otherwise under the influence, he or she is in no state of mind to reliably consent.

While we must recognize that the reality of consent is more complex than what we usually describe as safe sex, better standards can and must be established. Although the only completely reliable model of consent is through vocal and enthusiastic expression, it is but an exceedingly small portion of the population that is comfortable enough with their sexuality to say “hell yes” during sex. However, we can move toward having more consensual sex without going too far out of our comfort zones. One can stop and say, “Is this okay?” like an adult.

The reality, of course, is that the majority of the Stuyvesant population isn’t having sex. However, it is still our responsibility to decide what consent looks like in hook-ups and other forms of affection; you still need to ask if things are okay and be sure to not touch people if you don’t know that they are comfortable with it. Hopefully, bringing consent into less extreme forms of sexual activity can normalize consent regardless of the activity.

It is also important to note that these loose guidelines apply to hook-ups occurring both in and out of relationships. If you are dating a person, he or she still has the autonomy to say no to sex or even to physical affection. An enthusiastic yes is still ideal, and a reliable yes is still necessary. You are dating; you have not fused consciousnesses. You cannot push your desire on your partner or read his or her mind.

As high school students, it’s also important to keep in mind New York State statutory laws. The following is from Article 130 - NY Penal Law, section 130.30: A person is guilty of rape in the second degree when: “1. being eighteen years old or more, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than fifteen years old; or 2. he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent by reason of being mentally disabled or mentally incapacitated.

It shall be an affirmative defense to the crime of rape in the second degree as defined in subdivision one of this section that the defendant was less than four years older than the victim at the time of the act.”

Both partners should be aware of these legal definitions in order to provide a more concrete framework for understanding consent and thus prevent abuse and avoid legal repercussions.

As the #MeToo movement exposes the near-endemic nature of sexual harassment, perhaps the simplest way to conceptualize consent is the California “yes means yes” law. “No means no” is commonly accepted, but (wrongfully) places responsibility on the party being harassed to signal that he or she is uncomfortable before the sexual activity must stop. “Yes means yes” shifts responsibility from the party being harrassed to both parties making “an affirmative, unambiguous and conscious decision” to have sex. As students, we do not yet have the power to pass a similar law, but we can make “yes means yes” closer to our social norm.

A Letter From the Editors: In Regards to the Disgraceful Cheating Scandal The New York Post recently published an article, titled “The Disgraceful Cheating Scandal At One of America’s Best High Schools,” by Sara Dorn and Susan Edelman. The piece sourced statistics from The Spectator’s recent spread, “Academic Dishonesty: An Inherent Issue?” by Chloe Hanson, Wen Shan Jiang, and Blythe Zadrozny.

Dorn and Edelman’s article was put on the front page on January 28 with the headline, “The Cheat Goes On.” Since then, the Spectator’s Editorial Board has received backlash questioning our decision to publish this piece. A number of our readers have suggested that we hadn’t taken into account the school or students’ “interests” and that our decision to publish was rash and unconsidered.

The Spectator aims to objectively investigate and report on issues that are relevant to the student body, whether or not they are in the students’ or administration’s “interests.” We call ourselves “The Pulse of the Student Body” because we are not an arm of the administration, nor do we seek to protect it. Perhaps it was not in the interest of college admissions to publish the survey, but it is not The Spectator’s job to advertise on behalf of Stuyvesant students. Our article was published in the genuine interest of the student body in order to seek reform in an education system that may encourage cheating before learning.

Student journalism is an observational form of activism; we report on the school’s faults and achievements to enlighten the population and hope our work inspires change.

The survey’s results, which illustrate the perhaps endemic nature of cheating at Stuyvesant, are pertinent. Though the sample size was one in 10, something the Post failed to mention, the results do illuminate what many consider to be a trend. And regardless of reaction, the public and, in particular, the student body, should be informed about the school’s environment—the survey was not an editorial, nor a form of yellow journalism seeking to inflame the public (as the New York Post has used it), but rather an objective investigation.

In a world where professional reporting is under siege and objective information is labeled “fake news,” it is now more important than ever that local sources of journalism, like The Spectator, be able to report independently of the special interests of larger institutions. We hope that our readers share that sentiment.

Anne George and Matteo Wong, outgoing Editors-in-Chief Jane Rhee and Sophie Watwood, incoming Editors-in-Chief The Spectator values your opinion. We accept Letters to the Editor at opinions@stuyspec.com . You can also contact us over Facebook (facebook.com/stuyspectator) and Instagram (@stuyspectator).

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Page 7

Opinions

Mayumi Gurung / The Spectator

Creating a Traffic Free City

By JULIAN GIORDANO New Yorkers are accustomed to the traffic that crowds our city streets and the rush hour congestion on all the buses and subways.

But in the past few years, large cities around the world have decided to change this through the implementation of congestion pricing: taxing cars to use congested city streets.

According to The New York Times, the traffic in NYC has only gotten worse over the past few years. In 2013, the average vehicle speed in Midtown was 6.5 mph, but now it’s down to 4.7 mph, which is only faster than a human can walk by less than a mile per hour. These numbers point to an increase of cars in the city and show how in a city dominated by the MTA, cars still play a large role in the commutes and lives of many New Yorkers.

Unfortunately, this traffic not only increases congestion, but contributes to the pollution of our city’s air. According to Columbia University’s Earth Institute, most neighborhoods in New York Cityespecially Midtown and Manhattan do not meet World Health Organization standards for annual PM 2.5, which measures the amount of small particles in the air caused by vehicle exhaust, fuel combustion, and more.

Even worse, according to Columbia, “The city recently esti-

mated that up to 2,700 premature deaths a year could be attributed to fine particulate matter and ozone in the air.” In context, that number is eight times higher than the murder rate in NYC. Perhaps what is most surprising about traffic in NYC, though, is how simply it can be fixed, and yet how politically complicated it is to fix.

Currently, there are no tolls for cars driving in the city, though many of our bridges and tunnels may be tolled. Anyone who wants to, whether it be an Uber driver, a taxi driver, or a regular commuter, can drive their car free of charge in New York City. In other places around the world, such as London, this basic freedom to ride for free doesn’t exist, and that is because of what is called “c o n g e s t i o n pricing.”

Congestion pricing is the concept that you must pay a fee to drive your vehicle in certain areas of the city. Its basic premise is to reduce congestion, traffic, and pollution while also raising money the government can use on other projects, such as public transportation. Congestion pricing is not uncommon, nor unfeasable, with modern technologies such as E-ZPass allowing for the seamless charging of tolls on cars entering certain city areas. There are also technologies that can photograph license plates and send bills in the mail, and there is always the possibility of drivers paying in advance for use of city streets. Cities such as London, Stockholm, Singapore, and Milan all have adaptations of these systems, though New York has yet to take part.

Currently Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo strongly oppose congestion pric-

ing, even though they understand its benefits and uses. When discussing plans to reduce congestion and pollution in the city, they choose to avoid congestion pricing in favor of other, more publicly supported plans.

In the short term, advocating for congestion pricing would be unpopular for Cuomo and de Blasio, and could hamper their careers. While congestion pricing has only brought benefits to cities around the world, in a country that values personal liberties, removing the freedom to drive for free can seem threatening. De Blasio is currently calling for increased taxes on the wealthy for subway improve-

Alex Lin / The Spectator

ments, though this won’t affect our city streets.

Cuomo is advocating for only ride-hailing companies such as Lyft and Uber to pay fees for access to the city. This follows the same logic as congestion pricing, but by only being applied to ridehailing companies, it will actually have an opposite effect. As Lyft and Uber are forced to pay to access the city, their prices will rise, which will only discourage their consumers from using the service. Regular commuters who depend on ride-hailing companies could easily decide to purchase their own cars, which would only add to the congestion and pollution trying to be prevented in the first place. Rather than decreasing traffic and pollution, Cuomo’s plan to charge ride-hailing com-

panies for access to city streets only promotes congestion.

The concept of congestion pricing is inextricably linked to the concept of supply and demand. The “supply” is our city streets, highways, and roads, and the “demand” is all of the people who wish to drive their cars on them.

Rather than changing the supply (improving, renovating, and enlarging streets), which is extremely costly and difficult, congestion pricing aims to affect the demand for our streets. When people must pay for the commodities they use, they become a lot more aware of how frequently they use them, and of the cost of such use.

Under congestion pricing, people out of their own selfinterestbecome aware of the invisible cost t h e i r driving has had on the city all along: pollution, e n v i ro n m e n t a l degradation, traffic, and delays. Congestion pricing effectively limits street use and all of its negative aspects, and there is absolutely no cost whatsoever to the government. In fact, the revenue earned can contribute to improving more sustainable transportation infrastructure, such as the MTA. Congestion pricing can thus end problems of congestion and pollution all while funding better alternatives.

In London, for example, congestion pricing was applied to the city center in 2003, with a daily $15 fee. According to The New York Times, vehicle speeds in London would be up to 30 percent slower without this fee, and this decrease in traffic can be correlated to a significant decline in crashes. According to C40, it has also reduced Carbon emissions by 16 percent.

In addition, the then current London mayor, Ken Livingstone, said that congestion pricing was the only policy he implemented in his political career that “turned out better than I expected.” By now, most businesses (especially those that deliver products in central London) are accustomed to the new fee, and are willing to pay the extra $15 if it means their products consistently arrive on time.

In New York, congestion pricing would most likely be implemented in the Manhattan area beneath 60th Street. One plan created by Move NY would charge less than $6.00 to enter Lower Manhattan but would still be able to generate $1.5 billion a year and significantly decrease traffic and pollution, according to The New York Times. As to how this would influence the businesses and commuters affected, it is crucial to remember that plans such as that established by Move NY only affect the areas of lower Manhattan, and only the entry into those areas from Upper Manhattan.

Most commuters already pay to enter lower Manhattan through bridge or tunnel tolls, taxi fees, and the metrocards, so instating a fee for those entering from upper Manhattan would only equalize it, especially considering a $6.00 toll would be only slightly over the cost for round trip bridge, tunnel, and MTA fees.

Cuomo and de Blasio are currently at a turning point where they can choose to acknowledge and face the congestion and pollution New York City has been creating, or naïvely focus on ineffective but publicly supported policies.

In choosing to implement congestion pricing, Cuomo and de Blasio could follow the lead of other major cities of the world, and take a step in decreasing pollution and congestion and promoting environmental sustainability. The net effects of improved city streets and city funding will only benefit every one of its citizens. It is time for our city to make this commonsense choice.

Shuhong Jiang / The Spectator

Exposing the CIA: Can We Really Trust the Government?

By ANNE RHEE In 2006, New York Times journalist James Risen published “State of War,” an exposé that claimed that, starting in 1997, the CIA had “employed” a Russian engineer to mislead Iranian scientists who were seeking to build a nuclear bomb. In actuality, this engineer was bribed by the CIA to pose as a scientist who was selling nuclear weapon designs because the CIA knew that Iran would be quick to jump at this opportunity.

The main goal of this plan was for the Iranians to build the weapon, which would fail because it was purposefully flawed.

But because the engineer felt guilty, he attached a note to the blueprints stating that they were flawed and that he could help the Iranians identify the flaws. No one knows how the Iranians reacted after learning this information,

but according to Risen, correcting these blueprints may have helped Iran create even more nuclear weapons. The operation was completely shut down in 2006 when Risen’s book was published despite opposition from the CIA. Unexpectedly, instead of supporting Risen and criticizing the government’s actions, critics and the press began attacking him.

They believed that it was illegal for Risen to expose such information without the government’s approval. He was tracked and repeatedly interrogated by government officials, who wanted the name of his source. Risen refused to disclose his source, citing his right to free speech.

However, he was unaware that the CIA was also reading personal emails he had sent, and in 2011, arrested the man who had informed him of this botched mission. The man, Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, was an ex-CIA officer with access to classified documents. After a legal battle, Sterling was convicted in 2015 under the Espionage Act in a court case called United States vs. Sterling.

The Espionage Act criminalizes any negative interference with the armed forces and operations of the United States. So while Risen was simply doing his job as a journalist by reporting on pertinent news, Sterling was a target for indictment under the Act. Sterling justified his move by saying that during his time as an officer, his superiors had made intentionally racist moves towards

him, often removing him from assignments or expecting more of him than his co-workers. He had also been the only black officer there and was often faced with the threat of unemployment.

But when he filed a complaint, he immediately lost his job. “I had dedicated myself to that agency, I couldn’t just walk away from something that was so vital to me and that I knew I was good at, proved I was good at. That was it for me,” he said.

Rather than continuing to turn a blind eye to his complaint, while considering the verdict of the case, the Supreme Court should have given special consideration to Sterling’s motives. He had been loyal to the U.S. government for years, but because of the lack of attention to his complaints, Sterling felt that he had no choice but to get back at the government through revealing their flawed operations. Legally, the government won the case, but only because they were able to use the Espionage Act to indict him.

The public condemnation of both Risen and Sterling show that Americans are blindly trusting and supportive of the federal government’s decisions regarding national security while remaining in an extremely removed position. A 2016 poll conducted by the APPC of the University of Pennsylvania found that only 26 percent of people could name the three government branches, and 31 percent could not name any of the three branches. 40 percent

of people also said that Congress provide an objective platform for could forbid the news media from discussion. The only reason Ster“reporting on any issue of nation- ling violated the Espionage Act al security without first getting was because the CIA and the govgovernment approval,” displaying ernment tolerated racism and disa disregard for the freedoms pro- crimination despite its assurances tected in the First Amendment. of equal treatment. Since the opThe CIA is regulated by a sys- eration would have failed either tem of checks and balway, Sterling was justified ances, but under the in revealing information, 1949 Central Intelliespecially as he helped gence Agency Act, it is stopped the operation allowed to keep inforbefore it was too late. mation on its organiBut his zational structure and case is a staff secret. And unique one. As although there a general rule, is no specific one should not risk clause that rethe safety of millions quires the CIA to reveal just to seek “revenge” the details of its intellifor their personal isgence operations, an sues. The Sterling independent jourcase, though, has nalist should shown that we not be the one should remain to break the cautious of news of its the governshortcomment’s acings. tions.

As Sterling Americans, may have made we deserve a mistake in reto know what vealing classified our governTony Chen / The Spectator information, but the ment is up to, esgovernment and the media’s re- pecially as its actions are likely to sponse was morally wrong. The affect us in the future. As responmedia is supposed to be the big- sible citizens, we need to find a gest supporter of free speech, way to remain critical of what the but here they are only endors- government does. Otherwise, the ing the government’s limits on government will continue to viojournalism. By mostly reporting late our rights with no opposition and discussing the government’s from its constituents or the meopinions and point of view on is- dia. sues, the press fails in its duty to

Page 8

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Opinions Dry Houses, Safe Students

By ANGELA WONG Since 1839, one of America’s oldest college fraternities, Beta Theta Pi, has claimed to instill core values of responsible conduct, integrity, and trust in its members.

But these members are now the ones turning their backs on these ideals by serving alcohol to underage students. This crime, often dismissed as “frat culture,” resulted in the death of a college sophomore last February. Unfortunately, such alcohol-related deaths are becoming increasingly characteristic of fraternities across the country.

According to Professor Hank Nuwer at Franklin College, the number of alcohol-related deaths in fraternities has been increasing since the early 1900s. And in the last decade alone, there have been 40 fraternity pledge deaths with alcohol as the leading cause.

In response, Americans across the country are questioning the validity of fraternities and the moral values they supposedly represent.

College can be scary for incoming students who face new environments that are far away from their family and friends. But joining a fraternity can provide its members a sense of belonging in a tight-knit group, allowing them to thrive academically and socially.

In fact, many fraternity members credit their organizations for the lifelong friendships and connections they have made. And, as student-run social organizations, they provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop social and leadership skills that will be useful in and out of college.

Each year, around 750,000 American students undertake initiation rituals to join college fraternities. But in order for college students to thrive in supportive environments and for fraternities to safely offer these environments, Greek life must implement increased supervision and stricter alcohol reforms.

As of now, fraternities are not completely safe. Sophomore Timothy Piazza from The Pennsylvania State University died as he

pledged to be a member of Beta Theta Pi. Abiding by hazing tradition, he drank lethal amounts of alcohol before falling down a flight of stairs. The other fraternity members did not call for help until the next morning, when his injuries were nonrecoverable.

Upon hearing the news, Piazza’s parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, were enraged at the Beta Theta Pi’s members for treating their son “as road kill and a ragdoll” in a hazing ritual referred to as a “careless disregard for human life,” they said. Over two dozen members faced multiple charges, some of which included involuntary manslaughter and underage drinking.

Months later, Piazza’s parents are still furious. And, with their last memory of their youngest son being surveillance footage of his slow death, they have every right to be.

Jim and Evelyn are turning their anger into motivation as they advocate for fraternity reforms.

After hearing various accounts about severe hazing at Penn State, Jim offered guidance for parents of college students, advising them to speak up about anything they hear or are wary of. In a letter sent to the Board of Trustees (BOT) to put in place new reforms, Piazza’s parents wrote, “You, the BOT, have a significant obligation to do the right things...to make Greek life and all life safer at Penn State. Our son died on your watch because of ignorance and denial of Penn State.”

The school was aware of the correlation between student safety and underage drinking years before Piazza. Due to reports back in 2009, Beta Theta Pi began operating as a dry house, in which alcohol was banned. But Penn State refused to be held accountable when alcohol ban regulations were broken by the fraternity only a few years later. They had also broken their own ban by permitting Beta Theta Pi to serve alcohol at the party where Piazza died.

Penn State could have prevented his death if they had taken their alcohol ban more seriously.

In response, the BOT increased

monitoring by university staff, implemented stronger hazing penalties, and set a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol consumption. Additional charges were held against Beta Theta Pi, and Penn State banned its operation on campus soon after. These reforms were a step toward the right direction of keeping Beta Theta Pi alcohol-free and safe.

It is necessary for colleges to take more responsibility for fraternities and regulate them with a stronger hand so that all students are safe within their own campuses. Many colleges across the nation have been accused of turning a blind eye to such fraternity issues. Such ignorance on behalf of universities is quite frightening for high school and new college students who once held fraternities in a high regard.

Fraternities should have a greater purpose on college campuses than what their stereotypical and media-driven image suggests.

Their dangerous and irresponsible state tarnishes the value of the social and academic benefits they are supposed to provide.

The possibility of student death at initiation parties is terrifying and may persuade students to not join. When frat culture is used as an excuse for underage drinking and hazing abuse on campus, and the ineffective role of college supervision over it, the student body is in danger, and the fraternity does not serve its advertised purpose. Colleges do hold the power and authority to make fraternities safer environments for incoming members and should execute such power through refining fraternity behavior.

Fraternities, in their current alcohol-ridden and dangerous state, are unacceptable, but can be transformed into positive community-based service organizations. There is still time for colleges to change the current situation for fraternities. They can start by creating well-defined charters outlining exactly what constitutes acceptable pledge requirements.

Many fraternities, including Beta

Theta Pi, require their pledges, many of whom are underage, to consume a tremendous amount of alcohol. These leaders are breaking the law and are encouraging dangerous behavior on campus.

Colleges have a responsibility to know how each fraternity accepts their members and if their rituals follow the charter to ensure that every pledge is safe.

In order to ensure that such charters are being followed, college administrative boards can hire supervisors to prevent alcohol consumption and investigate allegations of it. Supervisors should check all fraternity parties and acceptance rituals, since alcohol is most likely to be present at those events. Although it is not necessary for supervisors to check on fraternities every day, they should have the freedom to do so regarding those they are wary of. Colleges, like Penn State, had student supervisors who watched over frat parties, which proved to be ineffective. For fraternities to oblige by these reforms seriously, colleges must hire responsible supervisors that are willing to shut down dangerous parties or rituals that break the charter.

While fraternities should be able to maintain their student-led nature, colleges must reserve the right to prevent their meetings on campus if they do not follow the guidelines for student safety.

Colleges, therefore, must be fully aware of every fraternity’s history record regarding alcohol. Along with a charter should be a strike system. One strike would result in increased supervision, but two strikes would result in a temporary shutdown of the fraternity, with college officials becoming further involved with their individual members. Colleges should not be hesitant, but encouraged, to involve themselves with these fraternities.

Fraternities have the potential to provide their members with a variety of benefits if they abide by alcohol-free reforms. They must also recognize that their purpose is to benefit their college com-

munities. Therefore, fraternities should focus on philanthropy and channel their time into doing community service. Not only will they help make their communities better, but they can live true to the morals they advertise. Stuyvesant High School has many service organizations, such as the Red Cross and Environmental Club, where members work together to inspire positive change, whether it be participating in or holding fundraising events or working hands-on to clean our environment. Such organizations enforce a sense of purpose and benevolence within their members. This should also be applicable to college fraternities, which should take on a greater role within their campuses as leaders and as fellow students.

It may be difficult, but surely not impossible, for colleges to take greater responsibility in overseeing fraternities on campus. Through stricter reforms targeted at hazing, alcohol, and student behavior, and increased supervision by college officials, fraternities, such as Beta Theta Pi, can instill their core values of principle more effectively. Since Piazza’s death, more colleges have become involved with fraternities. Recently, alcohol has been banned in all fraternity parties at the University of California, Los Angeles. Even more recently, the parents of a Northern Illinois University student proceeded with a lawsuit against a local fraternity chapter that forced pledges to drink. The fight to abolish alcohol once and for all is moving in the right direction. In the years to come, hopefully fraternities can lose the negative connotation they currently have and become more positive organizations. The social networking and camaraderie that Greek life offers do not need to be dependent on alcohol consumption. Instead, as service organizations, fraternities can provide academic and social skills while maintaining a safe and secure environment free of alcohol.

The Fall of America

By BRIAN MOSES In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote a famous essay titled “The End of History?”

In it, he argued that the unchecked spread of capitalism and democracy throughout the world meant that human socioeconomic evolution had reached its end—Western democracy would be the “final form of human government.”

Never have his words rung more hollow. An expansionist authoritarian regime in Russia and a similarly autocratic Chinese superpower pose an increasingly dangerous threat to America’s global hegemony. In addition to America’s internal issues, the rise of these totalitarian states signifies the end of American global dominance and a retreat of liberal democracy.

When Fukuyama wrote his essay, his prediction was certainly understandable. America was the world’s sole superpower, and free market democracy seemed to represent the objectively best form of government. Throughout the Second World War, and later the Cold War, America defeated both fascism and Communism and placed itself in a unique position as the strongest nation in the world.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, and other nations such as China were liberalizing.

By the early 2000s, however, cracks were beginning to show.

Foreign policy blunders and America’s failure to establish a function-

ing government in Afghanistan undermined global confidence in America’s ability as leader of the free world. Additionally, increasingly partisan politics and a burgeoning debt threatened to create budgeting problems. Even more concerning was China’s rapidly growing economy, which had surpassed both Germany and Japan by purchasing power parity (the size of an economy adjusted for the average cost of living) and was rapidly catching up to the US with double-digit economic growth rates.

Today, China is in prime position to replace America as the world’s superpower. With the election of President Donald Trump, worldwide favorability ratings of the US have decreased from around 65 percent to 50 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll of 37 nations across the globe. This change has been even more pronounced in long-standing American allies: in Germany, for example, confidence in the President’s ability to do “the right thing” crashed from 86 percent to 11 percent, mirroring figures in nations like Canada and Japan.

Increased welfare spending necessitated by an aging population as well as a national debt totaling over 100 percent of the GDP have crippled America’s ability to exercise influence abroad. From Turkey to Bangladesh, Russia to Venezuela, democratic governments are being replaced by authoritarian regimes.

Three years ago, China sur-

passed America as the world’s larg- eleven Asian nations, as well as est economy by purchasing power the one major achievement of the parity. Today, China continues to Pivot to Asia, was killed by Presitry to spread its influence in Asia dent Trump in the first month of and beyond as President Xi Jin- his tenure as President. The stark ping consolidates absolute power contrast between the swift and in his hands. The Communist decisive action that Xi Jinping can Party is investing in an ambitious take and the ponderous infighting “Belt and Road” initiative to link the federal government in WashChina to Europe through the ington preoccupies itself ancient Silk Road route. The with on a daily basis calls more subtle goal is to bring into question whether weaker Central Asian econoChina’s political system is mies into China’s sphere superior to America’s in of influence. Meanwhile, gaining international rapid island building ininfluence and power, if side of the “9-dash-line,” not in guaranteeing pera vague territorial claim sonal and economic over large parts of freedoms. the South China Sea There are also made by the Reconcerns that public of China in America’s military 1947, gives China is losing its edge. more control The nation’s over that strategihighest ranking cally vital region military official, of the world.

Joseph Dunford, The Obama said that without a Administration atsignificant increase tempted to rein military spending, spond to the grow“we will lose our qualitative ing threat posed by and our quantitative comChina with a “Pivot petitive advantage.” Russia to Asia,” a refocusing and China have invested heavily of diplomatic and in countering American assets and military resources military strategies, especialDaniel Tam / The Spectator from the Middle ly through electronic warEast to the Asian region. However, fare systems. Perhaps more worrydue to budget constraints and oth- ingly, America has not invested in er commitments, it failed to make new technologies to maintain its a practical difference in Asian geo- historical edge over rival nations politics. The Trans Pacific Partner- and is instead focusing on counship, a controversial economic ter-insurgency operations in Iraq partnership between the US and and Afghanistan.

At the present moment, it is almost inevitable that America will fall from the position of power and prestige it currently occupies. Future governments will have to contend with the new position that America will occupy in the world.

America’s reign has undoubtedly had some negative impacts, with numerous undemocratic interventions or invasions of other nations.

But for decades, a strong network of alliances, aid to developing nations and a commitment to organizations like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization have created an American led, rules-based global order that has allowed the global economy to thrive in relative peace. As China replaces the US as the global superpower, that could change.

However, America can still prosper in its new position. The West’s military power still far outpaces that of other regimes.

China’s Belt and Road scheme has encountered early problems, and its island-building has been met with international condemnation.

And in Russia and China and nations around the world, activists continue to push for basic human rights and democracy.

In 2014, the 25th anniversary of his original essay, Fukuyama wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal updating his position. He stated that he was “less idealistic” than he had been back in 1989.

However, he still maintained that there was no viable alternative to liberal democracy in the world.

Time will tell if he is correct.

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Page 9

Opinions Views On: Amazon’s Rapid Growth We Are Modern Amazon-ians, Alexa and Google Home: A Whole New Can Of Worms And It’s Not as Cool as It Sounds tains the structural racism that is inherent in our society. As Danah Boyd, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, puts it, Most of us feel safe in the supposed “[societal] inequity gets baked in[to the anonymity the internet provides. And internet].” while it may seem like a place where there A good example of this is the research is little consequence for the things we do done by Harvard University Professor Laor say, the reality is very much the op- tanya Sweeney, who noticed that a lot of posite. All of your data isn’t just floating the advertisements shown to her when around somewhere, it’s all taken note of she looked herself up on Google “were and connected back to you by corpora- for companies offering criminal record tions who profit from it. We are approach- background checks with titles like: ‘Laing a surveillance state, only our version tanya Sweeney, Arrested?’,” implying that is one that is controlled by corporations just because her name “sounded black” rather than an Orwellian government. she likely had a criminal record. However, As the Amazon Echo, commonly known when Sweeney searched up more “whiteas Alexa, and Google Home have become sounding names,” she noticed that the admore common across the country, people vertisements Google presented made no have experienced this surveillance in a far mention of a criminal record or anything more direct way. As convenient as these remotely related to one. Google made this devices can be, some of their features assumption based solely on a name; with can be a little off-putting. Because these the information Google Home collects, devices need to be constantly listening to Google has the potential to push far more everything that occurs in your home in targeted and discriminatory advertiseorder to function, they have raised seri- ments towards its users. Google and the ous privacy concerns. While consumers companies who buy advertisements from can mute their device, doing so prevents Google are not deliberately being racit from processing commands, rendering ist, but by pushing their advertisements it essentially useless. towards certain demographics, they are Google claims that any speech that perpetuating racial stereotypes. isn’t processed only stays on the device loAmazon, on the other hand, doesn’t cally for a short period of time before be- pose the same kind of danger as Google ing deleted, and both Amazon and Google because they maintain themselves by allow consumers to delete speech records selling products rather than ads. But rethrough their Amazon/Google accounts. gardless of whether or not these profiles However, the companies still record a have already been used maliciously, the huge amount of data issue is the fact that on what the device they exist at all. These hears in order to imare companies who prove the interface, compile all sorts of allowing the devices information on their to better help you. Evusers, and whether or erything that is sponot they use it, that is ken after the keywords still an invasion of pri“Okay Google/Hey Alvacy. At the moment, exa” is recorded and the public’s concerns eventually analyzed. revolve around Home Though this may not and Echo listening in seem any worse than when they shouldn’t websites collecting be. This concern is information about misdirected in that your actions on the while users’ privacy is internet, we would do certainly something to well to remember how be concerned about, problematic that can it isn’t the main probbe. Based on what uslem. The fact that usVanessa Man / The Spectator ers shop for, ask questions ers actively give away a huge about, who they interact with, and what amount of personal information through music they listen to, websites build pro- interactions with Home and Echo, all of files about their users. Even if users give which are used to build a profile on the falsified information about things such user, is a far more pressing issue. as age or location, interactions with the Every day we move towards a world website and with other people on the site where the surveillance of our every inoften reveal the truth. Previously, only so- teraction with technology is inevitable. cial media sites like Facebook or Twitter “Hiding” from Google and Amazon is had access to enough information about arduous and rather pointless, because it their users to build such accurate profiles diminishes the usefulness of their prodof who they are. However, with the rise of ucts. It is our responsibility as a society to Home and Echo, both Google and Ama- define what Google and Amazon can and zon now have the opportunity to compile cannot use our data for. After all, the goal these kinds of profiles on their users. of these companies is to make money, irA huge issue with this collection of respective of their impact on our society, information is that these profiles can and so we have to be the ones to force reguhave been used maliciously. Prior to the lation upon them. And while government 2016 election, Facebook had provided a regulation of extensive companies such as platform for fake news stories which of- these would be difficult, it is also necesten influenced undecided voters. These sary in order to protect our privacy. It isn’t new stories and the effect they had on the impossible, considering that the governaudience Facebook gave them is believed ment already regulates who can access to be one of the many reasons why Presi- your medical records; it certainly has the dent Donald Trump won the election. But power to regulate access to the rest of our many of us never realized this was even personal information. Corporations need happening until after the election, be- to be prevented from using user informacause Facebook targeted these stories at tion maliciously, which includes using voters who were undecided. profiles that allow advertisers to single out When companies pay websites to run and target certain demographics. Advertheir advertisements, they often ask them tising based on past actions such as buyto be presented to a certain demographic ing products and visiting certain websites which is more likely to take an interest in is not harmful. But gathering information their products. Because the website has and using it to make assumptions about built up profiles of each of its users, sin- things such as race, gender, political gling out specific groups isn’t difficult. It views, and age, and then using that to tarisn’t that sites like Facebook or Google are get a certain audience definitely has the selling your information to other parties; potential to be harmful, and should not rather, they are using that information to be allowed to continue. While we cannot control what is advertised to you as an in- avoid this huge amount of user informadividual. This can be extremely damaging, tion being collected, the government can not only in situations like the last presi- and must regulate it in order to preserve dential election, but also because it sus- our privacy.

retailers employ roughly 300,000 people, whereas Amazon only employs about 146,000, less than half that number. Amazon is always hiring as it expands, but there is still a devastating net job loss since the number of workers hired is just a fraction of the number of workers laid off as smaller businesses downsize or go out of business. Amazon’s cutthroat business tactics in 2015 produced a net loss of an estimated 149,000 jobs.

The few that are hired by Amazon are left to suffer from unfair wages, which, according to the ILSR, are often up to 15 percent less than similar jobs in the same region.. This increase in low-wage jobs is not only bad for the workers, but also harms our economy as more money goes to large corporations rather than

Shuhong Jiang / The Spectator

By MAIA BRYDON

By ANNA LU It’s an understatement to say that Amazon has been dominating online retail these past few years. In fact, the company has made huge leaps in the retail market as a whole with its market value rocketing to $355.9 billion by the end of 2016. According to Business Insider, Amazon’s market value at the time was greater than that of eight major brick-and-mortar retailers including Walmart, Target, and Macy’s combined. With the launch of services such as Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Echo, Amazon has become a one-stop shop for the solutions to all of our modern-day dilemmas. Whether your shampoo ran out, your dog broke its toy, or you have a burning desire for organic tater tots, Amazon can deliver whatever you need on the same day you order. However, the luxury of accessing everything you could possibly want in just a few clicks doesn’t come without a price.

In recent years, Amazon has been small businesses. the scourge of brick-and-mortar retailAmazon’s overwhelming success ers, putting tens of thousands of shops in the retail market should be kept in out of business and wrecking the job check.Without interference, Amazon market in the process. Amazon amassed will continue to expand its platform and an immense customer base of at least accumulate wealth, leaving hundreds of 80 million Amazon Prime members in thousands unemployed in its wake and the U.S. alone in 2017, according to the promoting an influx of low-wage jobs.

Consumer Intelligence Research Part- This would have devastating impacts ners. Data from the Institute of Local on the economy, job market, and small Self-Reliance (ILSR) reveals that 64 per- businesses as a whole. cent of American households possess Consumers can begin to remedy an Amazon Prime this by supporting membership, small businesses. which costs $99 a While there are year. These cusobviously some tomers, attracted disadvantages to

by Amazon’s conshopping at small glomeration of serbusinesses rather vices and efficient than online retailshipping, rarely ers such as Amago back to shopzon, the long term ping at traditional economic benstores. efits outweigh any A serious issue inconveniences arises when Ama“shopping small” zon cuts prices to might cause. Supthe point where porting small brick-and-mortar businesses doesn’t retailers can’t comnecessarily mean pete, forcing their only shopping at doors to shut and obscure, hole-intheir employees the-wall places. to find work elseEven shopping at where. The problarger chain stores lem is that these with physical locaunemployed retail tions such as Tarworkers then have get and Barnes & Alyson Lin / The Spectator little chance of Noble is a start. If finding employment in the retail busi- we want to protect small business and ness. While brick-and-mortar stores the fairness of our economy and prevent require a physical presence in the sales the loss of further retail jobs, it is imporprocess, online stores have a lower de- tant that this change in the way we shop mand for workers, therefore hiring fewer begins soon. people than traditional stores. The ILSR estimates that small brick-and-mortar

While brick-and-mortar stores require a physical presence in the sales process, online stores have a lower demand for workers, therefore hiring fewer people than traditional stores.

Page 10

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Arts & Entertainment

Page 11

Arts & Entertainment

How to Look Stuylish This Season

FASHION

By JIAHE WANG Stuyvesant students are stylish year round. Just because the temperature has dropped doesn’t mean that we’ve given up on fashion. It forces us to become more creative to find the perfect way to look sharp while also staying warm. I interviewed several experts for their tips on doing exactly that.

On an particularly frigid January day, freshman Julia Panas stood out in the crowd by wearing a vintage off-theshoulder lace blouse with puffy sleeves, complemented by a black romper over it with a slit near the waist. The look was completed with black tights and chunky ankle boots with laces. Her hair was in double buns while a strand of bangs was left out, and her outfit was accessorized with large hoop earrings and yellow craft flowers that adorned her hair. Her makeup was quirky and glamorous; she put silver glitter on her eyelashes and rocked her Kat Von D matte green lipstick, which hardened the mostly feminine look with

a rebellious attitude.

Panas isn’t wearing much when everyone else is bundled up in thick jackets and coats. She explained that this is because she is not particularly bothered by the cold. When I asked her if looking good was more important than staying warm, she replied that she values good looks over warmth, and added, “But looking good by your own standards— not because someone tells you that they like what they see.”

When I asked Panas to describe her style, she told me she wouldn’t try to define it, since she didn’t believe in labels.

She drew inspiration from many eclectic sources, “Everything from movie characters to punk rock to the Victorian era to gum ball machines.”

Most of Panas’s closet is vintage, from boutiques in Bushwick, Poland or lower Manhattan. In these stores, she picks out her clothes methodically. “I usually just look for the eye catching fabrics, or interesting textures, and then work from there. Statements are always a go-to,” she said. This is reflected in her usual outfits, which are centered around statement pieces such as checker print pants, large wooden earrings, chunky heels, or floral print skirts. Panas often mix-and-matches different materials. For example, her silky lace shirt created a stark contrast with her clean-cut romper, which made the entire look more interesting.

When the temperature drops to 20 degrees and it is too cold to go without a jacket, Panas is particularly fond of bulky outerwear. While in the past, mainstream conceptions of beauty have often preferred a slim silhouette, Panas told me, “Bulkier clothes are becoming trendier than ever—bulky sweaters, big puffy jackets … Personally, I like the look, especially when the jacket is a bright color; it turns into a statement piece.”

YUVAN DAS Freshman Yuvan Das was wearing an effortlessly stylish outfit: loose-fitting distressed blue jeans, a soft, plain gray t-shirt, and a navy flannel over it. His shoes wee blue converse sneakers. This look perfectly reflects Das’s personality— minimalist, relaxed, and utilitarian.

Das describes his style as “casual, comfortable, fun, and informal.” He doesn’t over-accessorize and prefers to keep his outfits simple, because he likes timeless designs that are appropriate for any occasion. He doesn’t usually go for flattering fits and prefers simple designs.

He values warmth and comfort above all else and doesn’t try to impress others.

Das especially loves button-down flannel shirts and wears them yearround. The classic plaid print is extremely versatile and has a lot of potential. “It is a timeless piece and brightens up a plain outfit,” he explained. He styles them in many different ways, leaving them unbuttoned over plain T-shirts, oversized, tied around his waist, or worn under jackets. It is easy to layer with and keeps him warm both indoors and outside.

During the winter season, Das stays warm by layering up thick sweaters and sometimes jackets. Most of the time, he simply wears a plain black down jacket over his clothes when he has to go out-

Courtesy of Yuvan Das

Courtesy of Julia Panas

JULIA PANAS

side. His winter color palette is mainly dark colors such as navy blue, paired with occasional bursts of bright hues.

He also cuts a lean figure by not wearing overly baggy pants or cropped hems that show his ankles.

DENI DINEVA

Senior Sarah Chen looks extremely well put together with an outfit that is clean, simple, and minimalist.

Chen was wearing a knee-length Uniqlo beige trench coat over a baggy gray hoodie that was bought in Quebec. According to her, this prevents her from freezing during her trip home from school. Her blue boyfriend jeans were ripped at the knees and rolled up. This was paired with worn Adidas Superstars.

Her hair, styled in a pixie cut, is dyed brown on the top while the sides are left black. She accessorized by wearing large

black-rimmed glasses and tiny earrings shaped like white roses.

Chen doesn’t have a specific influence when it comes to fashion inspiration: “I guess you could say I took in a little of everybody’s style and made my own,” she remarked. She strays away from gendered and feminine styles and drifts toward gender neutral clothing, “[Androgynous fashion] is really interesting because it can work on anybody, on any day, any occasion.”

Chen’s winter outfits usually consist of a t-shirt and some sort of jacket, sweater, or cardigan. “My style is just super casual. I don’t really stick to a certain way of dressing myself, I just sort of go with the flow and whatever I feel like wearing when I wake up.”

On school days, Chen’s priority is comfort and warmth. We’ve all encountered the dilemma of “should I leave my coat unbuttoned to look better?” Chen has a firm standpoint on this issue: “I wear a thick winter coat and button it up even if it looks a little less fashionable, because it’s really not worth it if you catch a cold to look cool! Also, I wear a scarf to protect my neck from the cold as well, and I always have gloves in my jacket pocket in case things get too cold.”

Chen believes that layering can be very stylish as well. She wears baggy clothes a lot because they are both comfortable and suits her well. “I bet people might even look at me sometimes and wish, instead of their crop tops and jeans with holes all over, they could be as warm and cozy,” Chen remarked. Chen thinks that everyone should get rid of notions of societal conformity and do whatever makes you happy when it comes to fashion.

Courtesy of Deni Dineva

Courtesy of Sarah Chen

SARAH CHEN

Though she was born in 2003, freshman Deni Dineva gravitates towards iconic pieces from decades past, showing off her distinctive winter style in an oversized red vintage windbreaker, cropped blue jeans, and a pair of classic Old Skool Vans.

Her whole look gives off a retro vibe, accentuated by her red clout goggles, which she wears half ironically after their memeification. She accentuates her modern pieces with trends from the past, such as her high waisted mom jeans, which made their comeback recently.

Her fashion style is shaped by the website Pinterest and her style icons Zendaya, Jay Versace, and “anyone in That 70s Show.” She described her style as vintage, skater, and a little bit preppy. Her Vans and Thrasher hoodies reflect her identity as a skater. Dineva says that she has been skating for such a long time that it has shaped her. “I just love the laid back look of it and how chill you seem,” she said.

Some of her favorite items of clothing are oversized jackets and other tomboy pieces juxtaposed with feminine touches such as tube tops and hoop earrings.

Another highlight of her style is her love of primary colors and nostalgic ‘80s hair accessories. On cold days, she wears

eye-catching outerwear such as camo corduroy jackets and lightweight hardshell parkas. She mostly shops at thrift stores, with L Train Vintage being one of her favorites. Some other stores she loves are Urban Outfitters and Forever 21, because their styles are affordable.

To Dineva, dressing fashionably in the winter means layering up. “[Staying warm and looking good] are equally as important because you can have the best of both worlds,” she said. She tries to find a balance between the two. She usually wears a down jacket over her regular clothes when she goes outside, and occasionally wears gloves and earmuffs. Dineva thinks that colder weather doesn’t allow her to express herself as much because warmer weather allows for cuter pieces that she likes to put together.

According to her, the key to looking sharp during the cold months is doing makeup and wearing accessories since your choice of clothing is limited. “I love [makeup] because I feel the most myself when I’m wearing it,” she adds jokingly. “I feel like I can take on the world when I’m glowing and my wing is sharp enough to kill a man.”

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Arts & Entertainment FILM

By JEVINA WONG The 75th Golden Globes certainly made award show history and headlines (and this time not for the wrong nominee being called on stage) on Sunday, January 7. With many attendees clad in black, the #TimesUp movement made its mark along with the variety of women activists present. Many of the stars at the show did not shy away from addressing the pressing issues currently faced by the entertainment history, in light of the Harvey Weinstein allegations and much more. On a night where women took matters into their own hands, the Golden Globes was equal parts award show and firm message to Hollywood and beyond. Aside from those who took home the gold, here are the real winners of the evening:

SO WHY WAS (ALMOST) EVERYONE WEARING BLACK? Following the numerous sexual harassment allegations that have surfaced recently following the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the #Time’sUp initiative was launched to fight these incidents of sexual misconduct. Directed at women in and outside of the entertainment industry and signed by Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman, Kerry Washington, Rashida Jones, and Ashley Judd, the campaign’s open-letter was published in The New York Times and expressed support of all women that have shared these struggles. Their efforts have contributed a $13 million legal defense fund for women with blue-collar jobs and farm work as well as drafting a bill that targets corporations that condone sexual misconduct and subsequent non-disclosure agreements. The campaign made itself known at

THINKPIECE

By ANDREW NG

The Women Takeover of the Golden Globes the Golden Globes, as men and women alike donned black outfits and Time’s Up pins to display their solidarity. Celebrities have also auctioned off their tuxedos and dresses and are donating the proceeds to the campaign. The Time’s Up movement already appears to be promising and empowering for all women.

However, while it strengthens the movement for people to join in on the message, we must refrain from brandishing these hashtags just for the sake of it and instead aim to truly understand and implement these ideas of speaking up into our own lives.

ACTIVISTS TAKE RED CARPET

work. These inspiring collaborations voiced that ending sexual harassment and women’s silence would bring gender parity to Hollywood and a better world for the young girls of today to enter.

THE

The red carpet saw many power duos that evening, as actresses brought very special “dates” to accompany them. Michelle Williams led the idea of utilizing their influence to bring activists to the award show, as she attended with Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. To name a few, Amy Poehler’s guest was Saru Jayaraman, the founder of @rocunited, which advocates for higher wages and better regulations for restaurant workers.

Emma Watson brought Marai Larasi, executive director of Imkaan, a U.K.-based foundation that combats violence against black women. Accompanying Meryl Streep was Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. The Golden Globes served as a celebration of these women and their accomplishments and also a platform to spread awareness of their

Israt Islam/ The Spectator

SETH MEYERS AND OTHER ONE-LINERS Host of the evening Seth Meyers jumped right into his opening monologue that addressed sexism and sexual harassment in a tricky but effective execution. Right off the bat, he spoke about the retributions men of the industry have faced for their actions: “For the male nominees in the room tonight, this is the first time in three months it won’t be terrifying to hear your name read out loud.” In the setting of today’s

Hollywood, Meyers’s jokes were generally fresh, different, and necessary. Aside from taking digs at alleged sex offenders Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, his next segment was titled “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell.” Audience members tackled racially charged punchlines, dabbling into the industry’s diversity issues. His quip that “insecure creator Issa Rae currently has three projects in development with HBO,” was followed by, “Yeah, that’s right, and three projects is also where they think I’m from.” While it is relieving to see a host being self-aware, it also prompts us to question why it took so long (following Chris Rock’s tired joke at the 2016 Oscars with adorable Asian kids). Even though he isn’t currently a wildly popular comedian, Meyers proved to be the right choice for the job, as he understood what jokes to make and what points to raise. Perhaps one of the most effective lines of all was Natalie Portman’s. When presenting for the Best Director category, she lamented, “And here are the all-male nominees,” sharply, stone-faced, and to the point.

OPRAH BEING OPRAH Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman to be commemorated with the Cecil B. DeMille award that night to celebrate the mark she has made in the world of entertainment. Her speech was nothing short of powerful and hard-hitting. She recounted the

impact of watching Sidney Poitier, a black man, winning an Oscar (citing an inspiration from her own youth while simultaneously becoming one for young girls everywhere) and addressed how she is grateful to all women like her own mother that “have endured years of abuse and assault because they… had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.”

Winfrey also brought up Recy Taylor, a woman who sought justice against six white men that had raped and beat her in 1944, only to never reach it. She said, “I just hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years, and even now tormented, goes marching on.” Winfrey finished with how our mission is for the next generation of girls, as we are “fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again!”

In the currently polluted and dirty Hollywood landscape, the 75th Golden Globes was a muchneeded breath of fresh air. The most important takeaway from the night is that we must take real action, now more than ever. There is only so much awareness our favorite celebrities can raise and so much preaching they can do, but we will not see any real change in our society until we take their words and put them to use. Aside from tweeting in all caps with fire and clapping emojis, we cannot be vocal online but silent when these instances of injustice occur in real life. The Golden Globes were a beacon of hope and inspiration, and it is up to us to fight for the longevity of its messages in all ways, shapes, and forms.

The Problem with Theater and Race and poor socioeconomic classes seemingly place a weaker emphasis on the arts, exposing their children to fewer enriching cultural experiences (such as going to Broadway shows) that kids from higher socioeconomic classes (a demographic which is predominantly white) would be able to have.

This means that kids from minority backgrounds not only lack exposure to theater, but are also discouraged from pursuing careers in the entertainment industry. It is evident that there is a racial stereotype of who can and who can’t pursue a career in the theater or acting. White people have always dominated the acting industry with over 80 percent of Oscar winners being white in 2000. Meanwhile, there have been less than 20 nominations for Asian-Americans in the four main categories in the entire history of the Oscars. And only four have gone on to win in their respective categories, with the most recent being in the 80s. The art industry as a whole is also reflective of this.

78 percent of all people employed in the art industry are white, while only 6 percent are African-American, 3 percent Asian-American, and 7 percent Latino(a). As a proud Asian-American, it’s disheartening to me to see that I would have to work twice as hard as someone else to pursue a career in the theater.

As confirmation, I created a survey to ask kids at Stuy about their opinion on whether or not they’ve gone to a Broadway show and why. Overwhelmingly, the responses seemed to reinforce my claim: Sophomore Debi Saha, who identifies as Asian-American, said that “a lot of Asian households just don’t put emphasis on theater and thus, their kids just don’t get into it.”

Lynne Wang/ The Spectator

I remember dreaming when I was a young kid of the shining bright lights of the theater stage, enraptured in a trance by the performers’ emotional, spirited portrayals. But all that is just a dream.

I’ve never gone to see a Broadway show, and although I’ve brought it up to my parents multiple times, there’s always an excuse, whether it be that tickets are too expensive, or we just don’t have the time to spare. Studying for the next big test always came first.

Later on, in middle school, I remember distinctly when I overheard a conversation between two kids. One was Asian, the other, white. The Asian kid was saying how she wanted to be a famous actress in the future, and the other responded, “But you’re Asian.”

I gasped in shock at the time. The harsh realities of who could and couldn’t pursue theater hadn’t really sunk into my mind up to then, and I couldn’t quite put into words the reason why being Asian meant you couldn’t be an actress.

My parents have always told me that I have no future in the arts. Instead, I should focus on the four core subjects: English, math, science, and history. Some of my friends’ parents, however, are even more strict, limiting their child’s future to two subjects: math or science. The emphasis on these subjects is not without reason. It’s very true people from minority backgrounds are economically disadvantaged, and math and science is very in demand in today’s job market. Thus, our parents want us to be better than them, and to escape the endless cycle of poverty by doing something math or science related.

Eventually, it becomes part of an overarching theme; many parents from minority backgrounds

Arts & Entertainment

According to the survey, many Stuyvesant students have also observed a jarring racial disparity in the audience of the Broadway shows they’ve gone to, regardless of their race. One student’s answer puts it very concisely: “The predominant demographic is higherclass white people.” Not only is that disparity a result of the blatant stereotypes put in place, but it also encourages a whole new generation, creating somewhat of a never-ending cycle. Some respondents went on to say that they were discouraged by not seeing many people of their race in the audience. One anonymous responder said that they “feel out of place” when in a Broadway show because of their background. This shows that the demographic of the audience at a show certainly

does have an impact on who goes to watch these theater shows in the future.

Thankfully, there have been many strides toward progress. The hit show “Hamilton” has definitely taken strides forward in trying to create a diverse cast. The directors established a bold precedent by casting people of color in historically white roles. Initiative has also been taken by many in the theater industry to diversify the audience of those who can attend a Broadway show.

Many shows have turned to a new concept of “ticket lotteries.” If you manage to win these lotteries, you receive one or two relatively cheap tickets. But this initiative really hasn’t made the dire change necessary, because the chances are just too slim. On a small blog,

Data Scientist Dana Mastropole concluded that there was a just under 2.5 percent chance of winning each “Hamilton” lottery around its release. To put that in perspective, that’s a 1:40 chance, which really is too small to be significant.

It’s true that we’ve come far in the past few decades in terms of diversifying the theater experience, whether it be casting POC in historically white roles, or creating ticket lotteries, but ultimately, there’s still a lot of progress to be made, and we can do this by addressing the problem at its roots.

It’s time to make theater not only accessible, but also an encouraged field to POC so we can diminish the stereotype of who can be in theater and who can’t.

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Arts & Entertainment

One of the most anticipated films of the year, “Call Me By Your Name,” sweeps moviegoers into the picturesque world of Northern Italy. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Andre Aciman, the movie uses nostalgic music, languid wide shots, and a bright color scheme to immerse the viewer in a detached and dreamlike fantasy.

The film depicts a fleeting love affair between two men, Elio (Timotheé Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) during a summer in the ‘80s. The two are complete opposites of each other: Elio is a precocious Italian teenager from an intellectual family and is musically talented. He is at once shy, insecure, and confident. Oliver, an older American scholar, is working as an intern for Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg) and staying at the villa for the summer. He seems to be the perfect all-American man: well-built, masculine, and self-assured.

At first Elio is perplexed, or even annoyed, by Oliver’s careless attitude. Toward the beginning of the movie, Oliver tries to show affection by giving Elio a gentle shoulder massage, but Elio shrugs him off, con-

Arts & Entertainment

Call Me By Your Name—A Love letter to Youth and Guadagnino’s Hometown

FILM

By JIAHE WANG

Page 13

fused and repulsed by his touch.

However, he gradually finds himself torturously attracted to this beautiful stranger.

Both are hesitant to reach out to each other at first, for fear of getting hurt. The risks of their relationship inject the tranquil setting with tension, driving the plot forward. Oliver works for Elio’s father, there is an age gap, and same-sex relationships were taboo at the time. Both of them are afraid that the other will be sickened by their interest, fueled by internalized homophobia.

Moreover, misunderstandings lead Oliver to believe that Elio isn’t interested. As Elio laments the wasted days and asks why Oliver didn’t make his attraction clearer from the start, Oliver responds between kisses, “I did, remember when we were playing volleyball, and I touched you? Just to show you that I liked you? The way you reacted made me feel like I molested you.”

But at last, the t w o

Minseo Kim/ The Spectator

overcome their fears, confess their desires, and have a brief but passionate affair over the course of six weeks. As the summer draws to an end, the young lovers inevitably separate.

Instead of directly describing the characters’ internal conflicts, the tension is implicit in the film.

The social stigma against samesex relationships, though not as explicit as outright homophobia, is expressed through subtle word choices and actions. This makes a much more powerful film and maintains the deliberate flow of the serene surroundings.

The beauty of the small Italian town and the intimacy between the main characters are wonderfully expressed by the cinematography. The story unfolds in an otherworldly setting, where the crisp blue skies are lazy and the sun forever shines brightly, as if in slow-motion. The grainy 35mm film captures everything in extreme detail and subtlety. The bright pastel hues that dominate the color palette of the movie create a whimsical time capsule of that summer.

The movie’s wide shots patiently capture a vivid portrait of director Guadagnino’s hometown Lombardy—scattered reflections of sunlight through leaves, the tender greens of an apricot orchard, and the pinkish grey color of the ancient stone-paved roads. This ethereal beauty makes the events appear faraway and surreal.

In the opening scene of the movie, Oliver steps out of a car in a light blue shirt, half unbut-

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toned. His well-built body glistens under the sun, masculine and deified. Elio watches from his window, nonchalant and beautiful. The glorification of the body is a theme prevalent in “Call Me

By Your Name,” from the beautiful montage of nude ancient Greco-Roman sculptures that accompanies the opening credits to intimate shots of Oliver and Elio’s intertwined limbs. The classical sculptures combined with the setting of the film force the audience to draw parallels to Hellenistic culture, which idealized the bodies of athletes but also valued intellectual knowledge. This underscores both the physical and intellectual nature of Oliver and Elio’s relationship.

The cinematography also emphasizes this motif in its portrayal of the body. In a closeup, Elio slowly moves his foot toward Oliver’s and playfully steps on it.

Oliver responds by doing the same to Elio. In another scene, Oliver shows affection toward Elio for the first time. The two tease each other and laugh over a discussion about classical music while Elio plays the piano. Instantly, we can see the change of his attitude toward the seemingly condescending Oliver.

The awkwardness and coyness of first love, as well as a hunger for physical contact are conveyed through small intimacies and body language rather than being explicitly stated.

The allure of their relationship stems from chemistry between Hammer and Chalamet. According to Chalamet, he immediately got along with Hammer on set and they were close both on and off screen. “It was, like, the random luck of the universe where we had just a genuine bond,” Chalamet said.

As a fairly new actor, Chalamet surprised everyone with his stellar performance, earning him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for best actor. The ambiguity of Oliver and Elio’s relationship is heightened by his acting, every nuanced

glance burns with his passion for Oliver. While Oliver is dancing with a girl, Elio watches quietly from his seat and tries to suppress his jealousy, but his half-smile and drooping brows give him away. Later, in a moment of deeply touching realism, he gets up and starts to dance, as if trying to reclaim his position besides Oliver.

Another highlight of Chalamet’s acting is the powerful ending.

Elio kneels down by the fireplace, trying to convince himself that he isn’t affected by the news of Oliver’s engagement to a woman. He is silent at first, but gradually unable to control himself. His eyes start to well up as the credits start to roll.

Their short but passionate affair flashes through his mind while he smiles a bittersweet smile to himself.

Along with Timotheé Chalamet, Stuhlbarg also became an obsession during awards season.

His powerful final monologue establishes him as an understanding father figure that has been aware of Elio and Oliver’s love affair all along. As a heartbroken Elio nurses his loss after Oliver has left, they have an emotional conversation about pain, unconditional love, and acceptance. He consoles Elio, advising him, “Right now, there’s sorrow, pain. Don’t kill it with the joy you’ve felt.” The empathy and acceptance expressed through the words leave the movie on a hopeful note, suggesting a brighter future for Elio.

This element of idealization distinguishes “Call Me By Your Name” from other movies about gay love. It is not about the difficulties one may face as a queer teenager, but it is purely a love story that celebrates young love and the bliss of two souls coming together.

The audience is left both heartbroken and hopeful at the end of the movie. We can’t help but wonder about the characters’ futures, with that sun-drenched summer still tingling in our minds like a dream.

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

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The Spectator ● Feburary 2, 2018

Page 15

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

Well, That Escalated Quickly As the semester concludes and sleep deprivation takes its toll, you feel as if you’ve reached your own end. Shakily, you step forward onto a moving escalator, and because your sense of vertigo worsens, you wearily sit on a cold metal step. Feeling your pulse roaring in your ears and seeing your peripheral vision swirling, you immediately close your eyes and unintentionally doze off from your accumulated fatigue into the song of your subconscious.

A tugging force causes you to awaken. There’s a sudden, sharp, teething sensation eating away at your shirt and biting into your back. You look behind your shoulder and see that the escalator is eating away at your clothing! You’re too far from the emergency brake to slam it. No one is around so you begin to panic. Horrified, you flail your arms outwards and open your mouth to shriek.

Suddenly, the teething sensation is replaced by a gentle embrace. Someone else’s hands cover your eyes. Giggles erupt from these escalator Sirens before they aggressively pull you downwards. This moment is short lived, as you open your eyes and find yourself in the middle of a hallway.

You groan in annoyance.

Stuyvesant was your Life, but was it necessary for it to be your Death, too? However, a quick look-around makes it evident that this Stuyvesant Purgatory has abnormalities that distinguish it from the real deal: the hall’s expanse is desolate of people, but scrunched up paper

Katherine Lwin / The Spectator

By LAURA ILIOAEI

wads litter the tiles like tumbleweeds. The grand portrait of Peter Stuyvesant that faces the half floor is replaced with a collage of textbooks vandalized beyond recognition. The senior bar is covered in neon chewed gum in every shade imaginable.

A torn banner hangs above the fiasco, and the only legible gold letters imprinted on it say “DYSTUYPIA.” You scream.

“Can you sHuT uP?!” says an underclassman emerging from behind the senior bar counter.

Her arms cradle a bucket of cell phones. Peculiarly enough, the identification cards on each phone are that of teachers and not students. With a vigor that you haven’t seen since junior

high, she pelts you with the devices, knocking you into another dimension.

Well… another room, that is. The second floor has disappeared around you, and now you’re standing awkwardly in the center of the cafeteria. Hearing the sirens’ familiar laughter, you turn and find several pairs of eyes staring at you in twinkling amusement. A clique. The leader sits at the center, and he beckons for you to come closer.

It is then that you notice that everyone except yourself is semi-translucent, shrouded in a peaceful aura. Apparitions!

“Surprised?” he asks, noting your surprised expression.

“Ah, Stuyvesant! You guys know

how to open your books, but no one is ever really an open-book about how they feel or know about anything.”

Another member rolls her eyes and says, “Spare them the credit. They procrastinate in looking through their material.” She shakes her head.

“Can’t blame ‘em. They forget everything they shove into their heads, and neglect what they love most. It makes them feel so purposeless.” Her tone is sardonic.

“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that I would have had a presentation next period,” you say. You extract several chickenscrawled index cards from your pocket. “All this ‘last minute re-

hearsing’ was probably useless though. I can’t believe I died via an escalator.”

The clique leader rolls his eyes and says, “Nah, you’re not dead. You’re just lost.” He pauses. “I mean that in more ways than the obvious, you know.”

“We dragged you here because we know that there’s still some hope left for you,” the Sirens confess. “It’s kinda drastic, but knowing Stuy’s opposite could really give you a more holistic idea to life apart from routine and academia.”

“Ugh, what world are those words from? Ancient Greece?” you ask.

The clique leader is disgusted, saying, “Being wise isn’t going to make the kid any smarter.

Bring it back to Stuy.”

Reluctantly, you allow the Sirens to take you home. They snap their fingers, and the three of you are transported to a floor you don’t recognize. The scent of chlorine is overpowering. The entire area resembles a condensed ocean and its aura is eerily spiritual. The eleventh floor pool.

“Ah, our River Styx. Unlike those who live in it, the Styx is devoid of all shallowness and superficiality. It’s perfect for practicing necromancy, just like we did on you,” the Sirens joke before pushing you outward.

Time slows before you hit the water, and you have time to ask your most important question:“If this is the River Styx, then is it Stuyvesant or Dystuypia that is the Underworld?”

“Maybe it’s both, maybe it’s neither, and it’s ultimately up to you to decide,” they respond.

Bill de Blasio’s Snow Day List Checklist

By ABDULLA ELKHADRAWY and OMAR ALI

DO THE SUBWAYS WORK?

(Massive delays are acceptable. As long as trains are in the station, even if they are not moving at all, the subways are technically working.)

WILL I GET FIRED IF I DON’T

CLOSE SCHOOLS AND THEN KEEP MY KIDS AT HOME INSTEAD OF RISKING THEIR SAFETY?

(Who cares about approval ratings from students,? It’s not like they vote.)

WILL TEACHERS GO ON STRIKE IF I DON’T CLOSE?

(If teachers go on strike, students would have even more

days off. That’s literally the opposite of my goals as a mayor.

Also, I don’t want to lose a entire workforce because it will cost a lot of money to replace them.)

WILL PARENTS RAID MY TWITTER AND ROAST ME FOR NOT CLOSING SCHOOLS?

(Yes, but just dab on the haters)

MORE THAN THREE FEET OF SNOW.

Even a millimeter less (you can figure out those conversions yourself), and I hope swim gym has prepared you for more solid forms of water. As long as you are physically able to move your body out of your house,

you should be braving the elements in a desperate attempt to get to school. I don’t care if you’re snowed in; you can just wake up early and start shoveling, boi. It’s not rocket science; my gardener does it all the time.)

ARE THERE 100 MPH WINDS AND TEMPERATURES BELOW 0 °F?

Back in the day, we had to ride the winds to school. Kids these days simply don’t understand the real struggle.

WILL I HAVE THE CHANCE TO HEAR THE CRIES OF DESPAIR OF MILLIONS OF CHILDREN ON THEIR WAY TO SCHOOL?

This is my favorite one personally. It’s more of a raver than

“Hips Don’t Lie,” and I get to watch short-legged middle schoolers topple over precarious snow banks as my makeup artist gets me photoshoot ready. #modelstatus. For one blissful moment, I can forget about that time that I shut down schools and sent one million snow trucks out only for there to be approximately 0.0078 inches of snow the next day, making me look like an UTTER FOOL. Never again, New York City. Never again.

WAS A PETITION, MADE IN FAVOR OF A SNOW DAY, SIGNED BY OVER 100,000 PEOPLE?

Who would win? 100,000 disgruntled New Yorkers, or one soulless, pandering politician?

CAN I STILL HIT UP MCDONALD’S FOR THAT 20-PIECE CHICKEN NUGGETS?

This will make or break the decision altogether. I make up my mind after consulting my appetite.

DOES THE SNOW DAY CALCULATOR PREDICT A SNOW DAY?

From almost all of human history, science and religion have been at war, but the Snow Day Calculator is God and technology combined into one unquestionable, infallible, and sacred machine. Once the website hits that 97+ percent not even I can do anything about it.

Senior Accepted Early to College Can’t Have Fun for Fear of Being Rescinded

By DANIEL KNOPF

My name is Eugene Thomas, and I hate being a second term senior! While everyone else is done with the college process, I have to make sure I don’t get rescinded from Yale.

All my friends can say, “Forget homework!” and then panic about the homework that they didn’t do and stay up until 4:00 a.m. doing it because deep down they’re all good students, but I have to pretend to actually do my homework while really spending all my time complaining to people about how much homework I have before I can panic at 4:00 a.m.

All the other seniors are out

having fun making poor choices in dating, eating with beloved family at Wok Wok, and calling themselves bad-asses when they cut volleyball.

I miss first term, when everyone was cripplingly depressed and anxious, so my friends and I could all wallow in misery together; now, the only one who will wallow with me is Wei Li, which makes me want to wallow even more.

I can’t remember the last time I had a real conversation with someone; every time I try to speak, I’m greeted with a cacophony of “Wow, Eugene, did you get into Yale?” I’ve resorted to talking to my Amazon Alexa and pretending it’s Alexa

Xin Zheng / The Spectator

Valentino. We had a great chat yesterday about how high I wanted the volume on my rollerblading tutorial video. I spend every waking moment in fear of the power that Patricia Wei™, Yale admissions officer and the Christian Grey to my Anastasia Steele, holds over me. My terror has started to spread to other things that remind me of her. Once, Mr. Polazzo was doing a southern accent and said “Y’all” and I screamed. Patricia Tan has started bullying me and asking for my lunch money. She is three feet shorter than me, but I give it to her every time.

I am afraid.

My paranoia has gotten

so great that I bought an Apple Watch recently so that I would get a notification every time I got an email, and then bought Apple Pods so that I would get a notification every time my Apple Watch got a notification that I had received an email. I also bought a Blackberry just in case.

Nobody else understands my fright. I can’t even wallow with my fellow Yalie, Alexander Whittington, because it seems he has gone insane from stress. Whenever I go up to him to talk he just bursts into an opera of his own creation and ballet-hops away. I miss junior year.

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

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The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Page 17

Sports Sports Editorial

NBA Midseason Awards

By SEAN STANTON As we pass the official halfway point of the NBA regular season, there have been many shocks and disappointments.

The Boston Celtics are number one in the Eastern Conference, a surprise to many after Gordon Hayward, one of their two stars, went down with a broken ankle in the first game of the season.

Teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who were predicted to dominate this year, are struggling to work together as teams and consistently win. However, there are certain players who have stood out throughout the season so far, proving that they are worthy of winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, Most Improved Player (MIP) Award, Rookie of the Year (ROTY), and others. To be clear, these are the players I think would win the awards if the season ended today, not who I think will win at the end of the year.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: JAMES HARDEN

After being the runner up for MVP last year, with many people thinking that he should have won, Harden has come back this year playing better than ever. He is first in scoring and third in assists, averaging 31.4 points per game (PPG) and 8.9 assists per game (APG), re-

spectively. He is also averaging 4.8 rebounds per game (RPG) and 1.8 steals per game (SPG).

Not only that, but he has lead the Houston Rockets to a 33-12 record, worthy of second place in the Western Conference.

Without Chris Paul, their newly acquired star, Harden has led the team for most of the season and kept them in the race to be the best team in the West.

While many people thought his injury would hurt his chances of winning the MVP award, he was only out for seven games, containing the damage to his MVP chances. Will he be the MVP at the end of the year? If him and his team keep playing the way they are, others like Lebron James, Stephen Curry, and Giannis Antetokounmpo will have a hard time catching up to Harden.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER: VICTOR OLADIPO

Last year, Victor Oladipo was just another average player on Russell Westbrook’s team.

He couldn’t be trusted to make shots in the clutch and was eventually traded to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Paul George. As the Pacers have now found out, this was an amazing decision. After being a role player for his entire career, Oladipo is now a budding star who will likely be one of the best players in the league for years to come. This season, he has av-

eraged 24.2 PPG, 3.9 APG, and 5.2 RPG, a big jump compared to his stats from last year, 15.9 PPG, 2.6 APG, and 4.3 RPG. Oladipo has been able to lead the Pacers to become a playoff contender with a record of 25-22, although many people thought they would be one of the worst teams in the league. A 2018 allstar, Oladipo will easily win the award if he is able to maintain this level of play the rest of the season.

PPG, 7.2 APG, and 7.9 RPG, as well as 1.9 SPG. While Simmons is not known for his shooting ability, he is able to make his teammates better with his incredible handles and passing skills, especially for a guy who is 6’10”. Simmons has had an extraordinary rookie year while Donovan Mitchell has been on a tear recently. If Mitchell keeps playing how he has been, averaging 22.9 PPG since December, the decision will be hard.

SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR: LOU WILLIAMS

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: AL HORFORD

Lou Williams is having one of the best seasons of any player off the bench in NBA history.

As a sixth man, he is averaging 23.3 PPG, which is 16th in the league. In January alone, he has averaged 29.2 PPG, including a 50-point game against the Golden State Warriors. In his most recent surge, Williams has been able to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to go 12-5 in the past 17 games, along with a six-game winning streak during that span. Williams is by far the favorite to win his second Sixth Man of the Year Award, and as a bench player, he is playing better than many of the league’s best.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: BEN SIMMONS

Ben Simmons has had one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history. He is averaging 16.3

Girls’ Table Tennis

Even though he isn’t averaging top 25 in either blocks or steals, I have to give the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) Award to Al Horford. This was the hardest award to judge, but historically, the winner of the DPOY award has gone to the anchor of a top three defense in the league. Marc Gasol wasn’t the best defensive player in the league in 2013. Nevertheless, him being the anchor of the Memphis Grizzlies defense, which was top three in the league that season, was the deciding factor in giving him the award. Kawhi Leonard didn’t put up the “typical” DPOY stats in 2016, but he was the anchor of an amazing San Antonio Spurs defense and that won him the award. The Boston Celtics have the number one defense in the league, and their defensive anchor is none other than Al Hor-

Once Gordon Hayward went down in the first game of the season, the sports world thought the Boston Celtics were done being championship contenders. Nonetheless, Brad Stevens was able to bring a team of young guns and role players, led by Kyrie Irving, to the best defense in the league and a 3414 record, good for first in the Eastern Conference. Stevens has also been able to develop young talent such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown into budding stars who are shaping up to be the faces of the NBA. With Stevens coaching them, it seems now that the Celtics have a chance to take down Lebron James and the Cavaliers in the playoffs to get to the championships, something that most people didn’t even think they could do with Hayward. If the Boston Celtics stay on top of the east for the rest of the season, Brad Stevens will be the clear frontrunner for this award. *Statistics and standings are as of January 24, 2018

Spartans Show Passion in Hard-Fought Match

By ARYAN SHARMA and BERNARD WANG

Tiffany Yu/ The Spectator

The final whistle blew, signaling the end of a hard-fought battle between Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School. After 11 intense one-on-one matches, the final score was revealed: Brooklyn Tech 84, Stuyvesant 0. Besides this loss, the Stuyvesant boys’ wrestling team, the Spartans, is

One more overpass, one more netball, or one more mistake, and it would all be over.

Time came to a standstill as the last table tennis match of the evening played out against the background of the Hudson.

Stuyvesant’s girls’ varsity table tennis team, the Peglegs, lost against Flushing Campus in their first playoff game on January 16th, marking the end of the season for the team.

After the Peglegs’ triumph against Susan Wagner High School and Staten Island Tech

COACH OF THE YEAR: BRAD STEVENS

Wrestling

A Bittersweet Ending Marks a New Beginning for the Peglegs

By SUSAN LIN

ford. In the small ball NBA of today, Al Horford is a perfect big man, as he can switch from the power forward to center position. As long as the Boston Celtics maintain a top three defense in the league, it is Al Horford’s award to lose.

in the Division I League in the regular season, they ranked second place in the division, right behind Millennium High School, their longtime rival. The team’s future seemed favorable, with decisive recent 5-0, 5-0, and 3-1 victories under the belt as they proceeded to playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

However, they went into playoffs against seventh seed Flushing Campus as the lower seed.

Flushing Campus was able to secure two more victories because they had an extra team in their league. It appeared the two teams were evenly matched,

with outcomes that could’ve easily shifted in favor of either team.

In doubles, the Peglegs lost 3-2, showcasing the narrow margin that separated a win and a loss.

Despite the fact that the team was still recovering from the enormous blow of the previous year’s seniors leaving, the Peglegs’ early defeat came as a shock to the team because in previous years, they’d easily dominated their playoff opponents with consistent win records of 5-0 or 4-1. continued on page 18

the Staten Island division in the 2016-2017 season along with schools such as Baruch, Staten Island Tech, and Susan Wagner. As there is no Manhattan Division, all of the Manhattan schools are mixed into the other boroughs’ divisions. This season, Stuyvesant was placed in the Brooklyn division, offering a fresh opportunity to make a stab at the playoffs. However, three schools in the new

“We knew we were going to lose badly. Most of the guys that wrestled were pretty inexperienced. Honestly, they just need more time on the mat, working through motions and internalizing them.”

—Allard Peng, senior and co-captain. off to a solid start this season.

The team has a PSAL record of 4-2, a marked improvement from last year’s PSAL record of 2-5. The Spartans currently are fourth in the Brooklyn division, which has a total of eight teams.

The Spartans are not yet top dogs in their division because two of their four wins this year have come from forfeits from the opposing team, leaving the Spartans with a record of 2-2 in matches that have been played out.

Stuyvesant was placed in

division finished with at least six wins out of eight last year, providing a challenge that the Spartans have yet to overcome.

As shown by the 84-0 loss to Brooklyn Tech on January 11, there are still many areas that need improvement. The Spartans weren’t looking to win this dual meet, since Brooklyn Tech has been undefeated for the past four seasons. continued on page 18

Page 18

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Sports Wrestling

Girls’ Table Tennis

Spartans Show Passion in Hard-Fought A Bittersweet Ending Match Marks a New Beginning for the Peglegs continued from page 17

continued from page 17 “It feels pretty bad. The team is relatively new and still, every year, we made at least semifinals,” said junior and captain Katherine Lee, referring to the fact that table tennis at Stuyvesant was instituted less than a decade ago.

With the exception of a select few who’d been on the team for more than just one year, the majority of the team are spring chicken. “Much of the team was very nervous about their first playoff games, especially since five of the seven starters haven’t played in a starting position before,” said junior and co-captain Allison Eng. Though in league games, a lack of experience shrouded by success might be no harm, the playoffs are inherently different and demand more maturity and mental game than the starting underclassmen had to give.

Still, the team has mustered up morale and looks forward to a brighter next season. “This season was honestly a rebuilding season, and we didn’t do badly considering rebuilding teams never get back into playoffs. Everyone was just learning and adjusting to their place on the team,” said Eng. With changes on the horizon like the retirement of Coach Eric Wisotsky, the team will undergo a metamorphosis and hopefully, reemerge as a more confident one. Both captains believe these developments will be for the better. “There was poor communication between the coach and the team,” said Lee. “A new coach will rejuvenate vibes and create a stronger bond between everyone. We expect to have more practices and definitely improve by next season,” said Eng. With ambition in hand, the team aims to reach playoff finals next year, and let the current captains depart on a high note.

“We knew we were going to lose badly. Most of the guys that wrestled were pretty inexperienced. Honestly, they just need

They have proved that to be true in the first weekend brawl of the season: for the first time in Stuyvesant’s history, they won first place honors out of 15 teams. They have placed second in the two tournaments since then, which is very respectable for a team made up

tling.” He later added that this sets up success for the future very well.

This will also be due to intensive practices. “I stress conditioning, I stress a lot of drilling [and] repetitions of different moves. Wrestling is six minutes, we wrestle nineminute matches,” he said.

“We have mostly first year wrestlers who work out six days a week, who are very, very dedicated.”

—Michael Cigala, coach more time on the mat, working through motions and internalizing them,” senior and co-captain Allard Peng said. Though it wasn’t a win in the scorebooks, it was another learning experience for the newer members, which will continue to help their growth.

These school versus school meets are especially useful for the newcomers to prepare for weekend tournaments, which the team has had much better success in.

“We are a tournament team,” head coach Michael Cigala said.

mostly of underclassmen.

The Spartans lost key individuals from the 2017 season, such as Cade Caddoman, who finished second at the City Championships last year in the 170-pound weight class. However, they are confident that the newcomers will quickly pull their weight on the team. “We have mostly first year wrestlers who work out six days a week, who are very, very dedicated,” coach Cigala said. “We have more freshmen [and] sophomores ever in the history of Stuyvesant Wres-

The Spartans have their work cut out for them and are already on an upward path. “I’m going to Mayor’s Cup again this year, [as the] sixth seed. [The team’s] goal is to win the Borough of Manhattan Championships,” Peng said.

As for the rest of the team, each individual will continue to work hard, and the younger wrestlers will gain more experience.

“Are we Brooklyn Tech yet? No,” Cigala said. “We’re not there yet.

But everything is looking up.”

Sports Editorial

League of Champions

By AHMED HUSSEIN In the group stage of the Champions League, Londonbased Chelsea welcomed Roma in a heavily Chelsea-favored match. The match began as expected, with David Luiz scoring a long shot that stunned the Roma goalkeeper. 25 minutes later, Eden Hazard scored after Alvaro Morata’s deflected shot fell to Hazard, who placed it past the keeper, doubling Chelsea’s lead. Despite their early lead, Chelsea did not look confident and Roma remained aggressive.

Roma defender Aleksandar Kolarov had a rare moment of attacking brilliance as he touched the ball past two defenders before beating the keeper with a powerful shot. Later in the match, Roma striker Edin Dzeko volleyed the ball in to level the score at two apiece, before scoring a header to complete Roma’s comeback. But Hazard would have the last laugh as he calmly headed in Pedro’s cross to earn Chelsea the point, saving their blushes and ending the match in a draw.

The Champions League is a tournament featuring all the best European soccer teams.

Each of the eight groups has four teams, with each team playing the other three twice, resulting in a six-match group stage. In any group stage game, there are three points up for grabs. A win earns the winning team three points, while a draw earns both teams one point. The two teams with the most points at the end move on to the next stage. The Champions League has long been a source of excitement for soccer fans around the world, and this year’s installation proves to be no different.

This year’s group stage has been one of the most eventful, boasting many close games, such as the ChelseaRoma match, and countless

unexpected results. This year’s Champions League is also full of goals, unlike the tactical defensive style of previous years’ competitors. The 32 competitors combined to score a shocking 306 goals, the most goals in group stage history.

GROUP A—MANCHESTER UNITED, BASEL, CSKA MOSCOW, BENFICA

Manchester United were expected to finish the group stage in first place, but were not taking the competition lightly. “I think it’s a dangerous group, and if you go to the recent history of United, United lost against Basel, United couldn’t beat Benfica in two matches,” said Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho in an interview with Alex Smith of “The Mirror.” Despite Mourinho’s words, United easily beat most of the opposition. However, when you delve deeper, it is clear that Manchester United lacked the creativity that they usually display. They had a total of 90 shot attempts, which is a respectable stat. However, their problem was that only 41% of those attempts were on target. They only averaged about six attempts on target per game, which is nowhere near their usual high standards. Basel’s performance against Manchester United was also surprising, as they made it difficult for Manchester United and advanced to the next round with a second place finish. Basel were able to score 11 goals and only conceded five in the process, getting them the necessary results to advance.

GROUP B—PARIS SAINT GERMAIN, BAYERN MUNICH, CELTIC, ANDERLECHT

Though Bayern Munich was expected to top their group given their strong performance last year, Paris was soaring with confidence after acquiring Ney-

mar from Barcelona for a worldrecord fee of $263 million. They breezed past the opposition and finished first in their group.

Their 25 group stage goals set a new Champion League record that will be difficult to beat.

GROUP C—CHELSEA, ROMA, ATLETICO MADRID, QARABAG

Qarabag were expected to struggle against the three juggernauts in their group. The predictions were true to form, as they were only able to get two points after six games, unable to rise to the occasion like Basel had in Group A. Roma, on the other hand, were able to defy expectations, drawing with Atletico Madrid before beating Qarabag and Chelsea, a team I believed would finish in first.

Stephan El Shaarawy came alive in the Chelsea game for Roma, scoring two goals and propelling Roma to a first place finish and relegating Chelsea to second.

GROUP D—BARCELONA, JUVENTUS, SPORTING CP, OLYMPIAKOS

Though Barcelona lost Neymar last summer, they remained in good position to finish in first place and did so, pulling ahead of Juventus with 14 points. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to perform well in the following stages despite their slight struggles against Olympiakos. Another issue is that all of Barcelona’s chances lie on Lionel Messi’s shoulders.

The Argentine magician singlehandedly led his team to victory against Juventus. He stepped up when his team needed him the most and led them to success.

However, if he were to falter, the team would definitely struggle.

GROUP E—LIVERPOOL, SEVILLA, SPARTAK MOSCOW, NK MARIBOR Liverpool

manager,

Jur-

gen Klopp, thought his team was one to be feared following an unexpected 6-3 win over Hoffenheim to qualify for the group stage, but his confidence did not translate onto the pitch. Liverpool were held to only three draws and three wins. The teams in this group all had attacking mentalities, which led to exciting and highscoring games, but that mentality did not translate into wins.

Despite their defensive woes, Liverpool were able to outscore the opposition and top their group. However, they are going to have to start defending better if they wish to advance further this year, especially with the uptick in quality of opposition.

Their main struggles have been conceding late goals and some signings on defense can change that.

GROUP F—MANCHESTER CITY, NAPOLI, SHAKHTAR DONETSK, FEYENOORD

Manchester City were expected to translate their incredible domestic success to the Champions League and they did just that, winning their first five games. Their only loss was to Shakhtar Donetsk, giving Shakhtar Donetsk the opening they needed to claim the second spot. Manchester City’s intricate team goals and high pressure style have led to some immaculate plays that included great passing and finishing. City boast the greatest passing accuracy in the Group Stage, as well as the second highest ball possession (60 percent).

GROUP G—BESIKTAS, FC PORTO, RB LEIPZIG, AS MONACO

As Monaco, who reached the semi-finals of last year’s Champions League, sold a large part of their team and were unable to return to their previous form and finished at the bottom

of the standings with just two points. The newcomers Besiktas clinched the top spot with Porto finishing as runner-ups after Besiktas beat Leipzig in the final match. This group embodied the strength of newcomers in this year’s Champions League, with two new teams advancing.

Porto’s electric attacking play has led to a rejuvenation on offense, as they have scored the fifth most goals this campaign with 15.

GROUP H—TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR, REAL MADRID, BORUSSIA DORTMUND, APOEL NICOSIA

Lastly, in this year’s most difficult group, Real Madrid were expected to top their group after winning the tournament last year. Madrid had the highest number of attempts on target in the group stage. However, they couldn’t take enough of their chances and they lost and drew to Tottenham. There may still be hope for Madrid to have a successful campaign as the team secured a second place finish and winger Cristiano Ronaldo has managed to score nine goals so far, earning him the top spot in the scoring charts. Again the newcomers, Tottenham pulled off an impressive performance and finished in first place despite their lack of experience in this competition. It will be interesting to see if their lack of experience hurts them as the pressure increases.

Now that the group stage has concluded, teams take a break until March, when the top two from each group will randomly play each other. The hype for this year’s knockout stages is high. With teams given the ability to make new signings to bolster their squads, the excitement will rise as the pressure increases.

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

Page 19

Sports Boys’ Gymnastics

Young Lemurs Leaping Ahead

By LEE-ANN RUSHLOW and LUMI WESTERLUND Stuyvesant’s boys’ varsity gymnastics team, the Lemurs, faced John F. Kennedy High School (JFK) for their first meet on Friday, January 12, finishing with an overall team score of 97.60 against JFK’s 107.20. This year, the Lemurs will be struggling to earn back the points of four valuable former-senior gymnasts, including Matthew Aleksky (‘17) and Martuni Nazaryan (‘17). The Lemurs have been left with only one current senior, John Lin. Two months ago, in an attempt at completing a front layout half twist, junior and cocaptain Andy Zhang sprained his ankle—a partial tear in the ligament in his right ankle. His presence has been sorely missed by the team. For the past eight weeks of rest and rehabilitation, Zhang has been recovering and will soon be returning to the active roster. “I’m supposed to be fully recovered right now. However, I still feel a lack of mobility and some pain in my ankle, so I can only train upper body…

I choose not to [compete] because I sat out for so long,” Zhang said. The injury has undoubtedly been an obstacle for Zhang’s competitive gymnastics season, but he remains optimistic. “I’m hoping to compete in all

apparatuses at least once before the end of the season,” he said.

Though the team was worried that the loss of its top three starters would be a devastating blow to the team’s average score, the Lemurs have learned to rely on juniors and underclassmen to carry the team, hopefully building a strong foundation for the coming years. “This is one of the largest [numbers] of people we’ve… had on the team,” junior and co-captain Muhib Khan said. Yet, with 20 players on the roster and half of them being newcomers, heading this team in the right direction has proven to be a bit of a challenge.

“A lot of them lack confidence,” coach Autry said. “But they are very talented; they just don’t have the technique yet. They have the strength. They need more technique: flexibility and probably concentration.”

Among the new members is former Chelsea Piers competitive gymnast, sophomore Jordan Kaisman, whose scores this season will serve as a significant contribution to the team’s overall performance. In the first meet alone, he competed as one of two all-around competitors, scoring a total of 29.4, and topped Stuyvesant’s scores in floor exercise and vault with scores of 6.4 and 7.9, respectively, out of 10—a solid score for a rookie. Kaisman and the

Girls’ Track

As the 3000-meter run came to a close, freshman Julianne Yotov had a huge lead and finished comfortably in first, with the runner in second coming in more than 30 seconds later. After turning their heads nervously to look at the times, Stuyvesant’s indoor girls’ varsity track and field team, the Greyducks, celebrated as Yotov qualified for the Borough Championships with her run.

The Greyducks traveled to the Armory Track on Monday, January 15 to compete in the annual Martin Luther King Games. Coming off of an inconsistent performance at the PSAL Holiday Classic, the Greyducks were determined to have a good showing on MLK day. The team performed well all around despite injuries, a promising sign for the upcoming Manhattan Borough Championships.

They performed well in the track portion of the meet, with junior Clara Mohri coming in second (4:59:53) in the 1500meter run, in which there were 71 other participants. Yotov (11:17:59) grabbed first place in the 3000-meter, with sophomore Elizabeth Reizis in fifth (12:17:62) and freshman Agatha Edwards right behind in sixth (12:20:60). The 3000-meter run had a total of 16 participants.

The long jump was also a strong event for the team. Competing against 58 other athletes, senior Daria Shifrina landed in 10th place with a distance of 14 ft, one inch and sophomore Angelique Charles-Davis came in 13th with a distance of 13 ft, 9.5 in.

However, the team would

a comeback next year. Though they went undefeated in their league last year, “this season is going to be a season for us to train hard and get better and not necessarily win a ton. It will be a bridge for us to become exceptionally good for next year,” Khan said. Despite their losses, the team is making progress.

Zhang echoed his co-captain Khan. “What needs to improve is the variety of events that our kids compete [in]…80 percent of our kids spend most of their practice every day on floor exercise. We have way too many kids for that event and not enough for the [other] apparatuses,” Zhang said. Along with competing in the varying events, “difficulty in routines, in order to achieve higher [starting] scores” is also a factor, Khan said. Increasing the exposure of this young team is the key; new skills and trying new events will allow this team to reach its full potential.

The Lemurs will have to place forth in their division in order to make team finals, ideally ahead of both Laguardia High School and Bronx Science High School, two of their long time rivals. “As we push our limits and achieve harder skills, we’ll be able to score higher and do better,” Khan said. Even with their losses, the team and its newcomers are improving and hope to see positive results in

the years to come.

GYMNASTICS SCORING

For non-elite competitions, gymnastics is scored out of 10.

A gymnast must meet a certain number of skills at a certain level to prevent from large deductions. Each routine will have a starting score based on the difficulty of the skills contained in the routine (larger deductions will be taken from the starting score if the routines do not follow the level’s requirements).

From there, deductions will be taken accordingly (bad form includes bent legs, bent arms, flexed feet, etc.). One can maximize points earned by limiting deductions and showing control over skills. For the highest starting score, one must include higher difficulty, and thereby higher value, skills. The highest starting scores are generally reserved for skills a step down from elite.

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics has six events: Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal High Bar. The top three scores on each event are counted toward the team score.

Women’s Artistics Gymnastics has for events: Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise. The top four scores on each event are counted toward the team score.

Boys’ Basketball

Greyducks Gear Up for Borough Championships

By YUKAI LIU

rest of the underclassmen reveal a promising future for the Lemurs.

During the competition against JFK, the team competed with five rookies for the first time this season. Lin scored highest on the team on parallel bars with a 4.6 and on rings with a 5.7. Khan was a high scorer on all events and led the team on pommel horse with a 6.7, high bar with a 4.5, and all-around with a total of 33.7. Although they lost, their score of 97.6 was not a bad start to their season, especially for such a young team.

In their most recent meet against Long Island City (LIC) on January 18, the team scored 104.5, only .2 points behind LIC’s total, 104.7. The team enlisted three more rookies to compete for the first time. Lin led the team on rings with a 5.4.

Kaisman played as the team’s top scorer on vault, 8.2, and floor exercise, 6.0. Khan scored a high of 8.0 on pommel horse and was the team’s dominant force on high bar with a 4.8, on parallel bars with a 5.2, and as an all-around competitor with a 36.3.

While the loss of so many allaround gymnasts has lowered their divisional standing from first to sixth, the team is using this season as a buffer and a training season in order to make

like to improve in events like the 600-meter run, the pole vault, and the team relays. In particular, the team plans to focus on improving its times in the 4x400 relay. At the MLK Games, they finished 27th out of 46 teams (5:0:50). The qualifying time is 4:15:29, which means they need to improve their time drastically if they are going to participate in the “Borough’s.”

Coach Carl DiSarno puts part of the blame on lingering injuries for their lackluster relay runs.

“We have a number of juniors who are injured, mostly due to normal wear and tear, or in one case, an injury sustained during competition. These injuries have really limited our relay possibilities. All three girls are versatile runners that could improve a number of our relays,” he said.

In addition to the injuries, youth is a factor that can be attributed to the inconsistency the team has experienced all season. 36 of the 46 members on the team are underclassmen, meaning for some of them, it may very well be their first time running track on a team.

Ultimately, the goal for the Greyducks is to have as many athletes qualify for the city competition on February 4.

“Currently, we have six athletes [who] have qualified for the City Championships, and I’d like to see a few more qualify,” DiSarno said.

“The team needs to keep on persevering through hard workouts and staying committed to our rigorous training,” said sophomore Ester Suleymanov when asked about how the team can improve before the Borough Championships.

Runnin’ Rebels’ Rough Season Continues

By NOAH GRENERT

Junior Abraham Lee drove to the basket, swerving around his defender and rising up to shoot, but absorbed a hard foul by a player from East Harlem Pride High School. Lee had two opportunities at the foul line to cut into EHP’s lead, but missed both. This was typical of the Runnin’ Rebels, Stuyvesant’s boys’ basketball team, in their game against EHP, in which they found opportunities on offense but failed to keep up with the talented EHP team, losing 72-44.

To prepare for the game, coach Paul Goldsman developed a game plan based upon the teams’ previous meeting on December 7. “Going into the game, we knew that EHP was athletic and had three players that could consistently shoot the three. This time around, we switched to a 1-3-1 zone, where our wings would drop on the weak side and our ‘Warrior’ (the guy on the bottom) would rotate to contest the corner shot,” Goldsman said.

This strategy proved to be effective in some aspects. Senior Nicholas Kim said, “[The 1-3-1 defense] successfully kept EHP from easily scoring.”

However, EHP continued to make difficult three-point shots and stormed out to a 19-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The Runnin’ Rebels shifted to a man-to-man defense, which worked much better, though Stuyvesant trailed by double digits throughout the rest of the game.

On the offensive end of

the floor, Stuyvesant’s scoring struggles continued, as they failed to score more than 50 points for the ninth straight game. “We need to be a better shooting team as opponents will continue to pack in their defense if they realize our shooting is off,” Goldsman said.

Still, he saw smaller improvements to the Runnin’ Rebels’ offense. He praised sophomore Christopher Kim for helping out senior Michael Gillow on the glass. “I think collectively we have done a lot better on the boards,” Goldsman said.

“I have also seen improvements in our man-man offense,” Goldsman said, “[Seniors] Nicola Manfredi, Nicholas Kim, and Michael Gillow effectively moved the ball around the perimeter and set off the ball screens which led to open lanes.” This improved offense led the Runnin’ Rebels to score 44 points, their highest total since their December 19 matchup with Norman Thomas High School. Still, Coach Goldsman sees room for improvement. “If we could decrease the amount of turnovers as well as hit our free throws, we can be a very formidable team,” he said.

Both Nicholas Kim and Goldsman praised the Runnin’ Rebels for their strong effort.

“Although we were down multiple digits throughout the game, our players didn’t quit and played diligently to the end,” Goldsman said.

“Coming out after the half, we played very aggressively and lowered their lead measurably,” Kim said. The Runnin’ Rebels were outscored by 24 points

in the first half, but were outscored by only four in the second half.

In the fourth quarter, Coach Goldsman put in some of the “rookies” on the team who do not usually play. “I was able to see a lot of potential in our younger players...I think now is a great time to learn and get a better feel for the game so that they can be the best they can for next year,” Kim said.

The Runnin’ Rebels fell to a 1-9 record following the game against EHP. They lost another game to the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex on January 18th, 69-32, putting them at 1-10. They are currently second to last in the Manhattan-A1 league, leading only Norman Thomas High School, which has a 1-11 record. Last season, the Stuyvesant boys basketball team went 8-8 and finished sixth out of nine teams in the A1 league. However, that team had a total of seven seniors who graduated last year, including forward Tobias Lange, guard Michael Feinberg, and guard Jacky Peng. The loss of that graduating class has contributed to the Runnin’ Rebels losing record this season.

Even though the Stuyvesant team will miss out on the playoffs this season, the team still has a reason to play. “The goal for the remainder of the season is for the team to continue to improve, which will inevitably result in wins. As we can to practice hard and learn from our mistakes, I can see this becoming a reality,” Goldsman said.

The Spectator ● February 2, 2018

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THE SPECTATOR SPORTS Sports Editorial

Tom Brady Isn’t the MVP

By SUNAN TAJWAR The time has come to hand out the NFL Annual Regular Season Awards. It’s been a peculiar season to say the least, as we have seen below 500 teams turn into playoff contenders and viceversa. But more importantly, we have seen veterans and young guns alike rise to the top of the league on their respective sides of the ball. Football is a team game that runs off of wins that bring the locker room closer together and closer to the Lombardi trophy.

These players really display the great caliber of skill it takes to put that “i” in “win.”

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER (MVP)

The MVP award every year is meant to go to the player that is the most valuable asset to his team’s success for the season, even though the modern voters and media have really just turned it into the best player award. Every year, guys like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady lead the MVP race, but newcomers like LA Rams running back Todd Gurley, second-year Philly quarterback Carson Wentz, and Case Keenum, a career backup who broke out as Minnesota’s quarterback, have thrown their hats in the mix.

Let’s start with the so called greatest of all-time, Tom Brady.

As great as he is, his position as this year’s MVP reflects an unfortunate truth—he’s overrated.

He plays under the most stable and intelligent ownership in the league with Robert Kraft, the greatest football coach of all time in Bill Belichick, has had a top 10 defense for the greater part of his career, and has had the luxury of having receivers like Randy Moss

and Rob Gronkowski, who NFL analysts have said are essentially two of the most unguardable receivers in recent history purely on their size and athleticism alone.

Brady receives too much support to be the sole MVP, and with that, you can question this team would probably be just as good with Jimmy Garoppolo, who was tearing it up with the San Francisco 49ers in the back half of the season.

With that said, the real MVP for the 2017-2018 NFL season is Case Keenum. Hold the laughter, but with all that said about Tom Brady, Keenum deserves it more than any of the other front runners.

Todd Gurley’s shots at the MVP were boosted by that incredible performance rushing and catching the ball out of the backfield against the Seahawks week 16.

Other than that, he has failed to perform at that MVP level against quality opponents like the Saints and Vikings. In addition, he rushed for less than a 100 yards for half of his regular season games, including one against the Colts when he averaged 2.1 yards a carry.

As for Carson Wentz, he was sure to be the MVP when he was leading the league in touchdowns, but that season ending injury essentially put an end to his chances at MVP. The fact that his Eagles moved on to a NFC Championship birth without him didn’t help his cause.

On the other hand, Keenum started the season as the third string quarterback for the Vikings and ended the season with 3,500 passing yards and 22 touchdowns, with a 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio. He also had the second highest completion percentage in the league, second only to Drew Brees.

Keenum also lost his starting

rookie running back, Dalvin Cook, out of Florida State early in the season, whereas Brady had a half back core that went three deep trained by Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is a hot commodity in the coaching carousel this upcoming offseason.

If you want to talk about a clutch gene, there are not many backups in this league that can lead the league in game winning drives, but Case Keenum did exactly that with four game winning drives to Tom Brady’s three. And as the Saints learned, you don’t leave this guy with 25 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter.

But Keenum’s argument for MVP really boils down to the fact that he filled the most important role on the football field seamlessly as a third-string quarterback and carried an injuryplagued team to the second seed in the NFC. He came into the season as the third option, and when Sam Bradford got hurt, the load and pressure of an entire season was placed on his shoulders. Any other backup quarterback would have folded over, just ask Brett Hundley or Brock Osweiler. But Keenum held his troops together and carried them beyond their expectations.

Without Keenum playing the way he did, the Vikings are a below 500 team even with that defense. Keenum has been the most important asset to a talented Vikings team that was ready to fall apart. Case Keenum does not have the receivers, coach, ownership, or two free wins from the Jets that Tom Brady has every year, but he gave his team confidence and found a way to win when everybody thought the Viking’s season was over, ultimately making him the most valuable asset to his

team this season.

OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Alvin Kamara has been the best offensive player to come out of last year’s draft class as proven by his immediate impact on the New Orleans Saints. Because of his presence, he has almost shifted the entire offensive philosophy of the Saints. With Mark Ingram as Kamara’s running mate, the Saints have been the most balanced offensively in years with the addition of Alvin Kamara. This year, Drew Brees had a down year compared to his previous years where he was throwing for 4000 yards for fun. But even though Brees isn’t throwing the ball like he usually does, the Saints won their first division title since 2011. With his explosive speed and athleticism, Kamara has balanced out this offense and taken the load off Drew Brees. Not many rookies can come in and say he took half the reigns from Drew Brees.

DEFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

The New Orleans Saints were one of the most exciting teams in the league last year, and that’s because of rookies like Alvin Kamara and my pick for Defensive Rookie of the year, cornerback Marshon Lattimore of the Ohio State University. Not many defensive players can come out of college and be a legitimate top five corner in the league their rookie season, but Marshon Lattimore can. He matches up against other teams’ best receivers every game, but it is not only his playmaking ability that makes him so great— his football I.Q. is pretty high for a rookie. His understanding of coverage and scheme helped him get those five picks. This defense

was one of the worst in the league last year, and this revamped secondary took the Saint’s defense to one of the better defenses in the league.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Though he may not be the true MVP, Tom Brady takes this award hands down. Tom Brady leads the league in passing yards, is third in passing touchdowns, second in passer rating, and first in yards per game. He has been the best offensive player in the league, the most important position in the game.

This is simple: even though he may not be the most critical to his team’s success because of the subsequent parts around him, he has been the best offensive performer by the numbers in the league this season.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

A team doesn’t get the nickname “Sacksonville” for nothing.

From the eye test and numbers perspective, Jacksonville has been the best defense in the league this season on all three levels, defensive line, linebackers, and secondary, and that defense was built around the man among boys who is Calais Campbell. Calais Campbell has been the focal point of this defense that has struck fear into the hearts of opposing quarterbacks all around the league. 14 and a half sacks will help a team win a championship. Because of Campbell and the rest of the Jacksonville defense, Jacksonville has gone from one of the worst teams in the league to legitimate contenders. He told us the Jaguars could win the Super Bowl this season before the season started—I guess we should have listened to him.

Sports Editorial

Super Bowl LII: Tale of the Tape

By MAX ONDERDONK For a little while, I thought this would be a fun article to write. Jacksonville was up by 10 in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game, and rookie linebacker Myles Jack forced an amazing turnover, forcing and recovering a fumble by running back Dion Lewis.

The Jaguars would drive down and the Patriots would finally go down. Fun underdog Jacksonville would go to their first Super Bowl, and the New England dynasty would fall! Insert some Blake Bortles being the best to ever live jokes, laugh at the sad Patriots fans outside Boston sports bars in the East Village, and enjoy the two weeks of Super Bowl talk.

That dream is dead. PatriotsEagles, round two. Boston versus Philly. Giants fans may want to catch up on Netflix.

With all that said, it’s time to put on my objective hat and give a little preview. Both teams came into the playoffs 13-3 and got home field advantage through the playoffs.

Both teams had one blowout and one scare on the road to the Super Bowl, but while they were number one seeds, their paths weren’t too easy.

The Eagles lost star secondyear quarterback Carson Wentz in the middle of an MVP-caliber

season in week 14 and hobbled into the playoffs. He was replaced by Nick Foles, who in his five starts (including playoffs) has gone 4-1, but shown off his inconsistency, delivering good, terrible, even more terrible, decent, and amazing performances in those games, respectively. New England will pose less of a challenge than

Minnesota did on paper for the NFC Championship Game, but giving Bill Belichick two weeks to prepare and sending out a quarterback with backup-level talent certainly don’t scream out much hope for Philly.

Things haven’t been too easy for New England either, which lost wide receiver Julian Edelman before the season began, and had to come back against J a c k sonville without star tight end Rob Gro n k ow s k i .

Tom Brady is also 40, and

Suzy B. Ae / The Spectator

he, Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft aren’t all getting along right now, so that doesn’t help.

Yet, they did it again, here for the eighth time and looking to capture their sixth title together.

The Patriots opened in Vegas as 5.5-point favorites, and with the far superior quarterback and coach, this number seems fitting, possibly even a bit low. However, New England finished 29th in the league in yards allowed on defense while Philadelphia finished fourth.

The Eagles also possessed the third best rushing offense in the league and the best rush defense in the league, so through dominance of the trenches, they can carve out a path to victory, or at least a path to covering the spread.

At the end of the day though, what works for New England is their system, and that’s what allows Tom Brady to play at the top of his game at the age of 40 and what has kept the New England dynasty running for 17 years.

U l t i mately, this will defeat Philadelphia. The Eagles have Doug Pederson as a very good coach on their sidelines, but coupled with the sub-par talent of Nick Foles, they won’t be able to answer what the Pa-

triots send after them late in the game. New England’s relatively weak defense might allow Philly to drive the ball down the field, especially early in the game, but their elite red-zone defense (top-three in the league) will hold them to field goals in big situations.

When the Patriots have the ball, things might not be easy, but they’ll find a way to move the ball. Brady is a smart quarterback who knows how to protect the football, as he did last round against Jacksonville’s number one ranked pass defense. The Eagles will likely give the task of guarding Gronk to Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins and probably get another player to help, opening up the slot for receivers Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan and allowing the speedy Brandin Cooks to spread out the field. Philly’s stout run defense should force Brady to beat them through the air, but that wasn’t a problem last year against Atlanta down 25, and it shouldn’t be come Super Bowl Sunday.

At the beginning of the season, I wrote about how impossible it was for a defending champion to win the Super Bowl. But I also said the Giants would get the number one seed.

New England wins, 28-23.