Volume 53, Issue 30 MAY 31, 2019 advocate-online.net
Solutions for reproductive rights PAGE 2
Helping pets in times of need PAGE 4
Bill Nye the angry guy PAGE 7
FROM GUATEMALA TO GRADUATION PAGE 5
Science intructor retires after 29 years
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OPINION EDITORIAL | NEWS
A D V O C AT E - O N L I N E . N E T
BANNING ABORTION, IS THERE A BETTER SOLUTION? In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a landmark case – Roe v. Wade. It ruled that the 14th Amendment’s “due process clause” to the U.S. Constitution provides a right to privacy that protects a pregnant woman’s freedom to choose whether or not to have an abortion. It’s now 2019, and all three branches of the federal government (except the House of Representatives) are Republicancontrolled and/or conservative in terms of ideology. And the debate on abortion has stepped ever closer to reopening the Roe v. Wade case in the Supreme Court. Namely, state legislators in Georgia and Alabama are spearheading the debate. Alabama just recently passed the strictest abortion law in the country. Alabama’s near-total ban would punish doctors who perform the procedure with up to 99 years in prison, and includes no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. Georgia, meanwhile, has banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Seeing as how most women don’t find out about their pregnancy until the sixweek mark, it’s effectively a ban. The passing of these laws has ignited a nationwide conversation, and debate or argument over the
CORRECTION In Issue 28, published May 17, we published incorrect information in the story titled “The Benefits of TRIO.” We would like to clarify that Chris Barney did not help found TRIO at MHCC. We would also like to note that TRIO-SSS ambassadors Sienna Tunison and Barney are not ambassadors for the wider MHCC student population. We apologize for the errors.
topic of abortion: Is it a lawful right for a woman carrying the child to decide? Or is it a broader moral dilemma that the government should be involved with? Simply comparing the arguments for being “prolife” or “pro-choice” doesn’t do anything for debate and puts the whole topic in a box. The argument could be made that abortions are inhumane and painful to the babies that are being carried. However, the same argument could be refuted, with the exact opposite sentiment. For example, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated that a fetus is not capable of feeling pain until the third trimester. So, you can see how these arguments end up going in circles. Abortions often happen because of an unfortunate set of circumstances such as lack of birth control, improper sex education, or economic disadvantage. We at the Advocate believe a lack of accessibility to birth control is a root problem of the abortion issue. If women do not have equal access to birth control, they are at a higher risk of becoming pregnant. A 2012 study from Washington University School of Medicine
Graphic by: Svetlana Meshcheryakova / the Advocate
found that half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. Half of those are due to misuse of contraception (thanks largely to inadequate sex education), and the other half are due to a lack of contraception entirely. The study, called the Contraceptive CHOICE
Project, had 9,256 females ages 14-45 choose from a range of birth control options, at no cost. Many of the women chose a long-lasting IUD, but some chose short-term options, such as hormone pills. From 2008-2010, abortion rates among the Washington University study participants ranged from 4.4 to 7.5 per 1,000 women. The national rate in 2008, in contrast, was 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women. We believe this is a perfect example of how preventative care is a more logical option than banning abortions. Having a child can often be presented as an inconvenience for women and partners. This thought process is what many people are led to believe abortion is primarily used for. That is a false narrative: Assuming someone’s motives is a habit that can lead to blind hatred, rather than one side of a debate understanding the other. Even though abortion laws in some states have gotten less restrictive over the years, Abortion Surveillance Reports (available for viewing online) collected by the CDC – the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention – found that between 2006 and 2015,
abortion rates decreased by 26%. Also worth mentioning: 91% of abortions in 2015 took place during the first trimester. Too often, people paint abortions as the murder of almost fully developed babies – the numbers reveal that sentiment to be largely untrue. At the end of the day, nobody likes to be told what they cannot do with their own body. Imagine the uproar we would witness if cigarettes were outlawed because they are bad for public health. People would be angry, because if they want to put cigarette smoke into their body, they should have the right to do so. Their body belongs to them, right? There is a lot of misconception regarding abortion. However, we can all agree that the best way to prevent abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Americans have tried abstinenceonly sex education, and that’s a comprehensive debate in itself. It’s time for the U.S. to move on to brighter ideas like developing better sex education classes, making birth control accessible to more women – and not making laws that restrict what a person can do with their own body.
DISTRICT BOARD ELECTION RESULTS Megan Phelps the advocate
The May 21 election results are in: Mt. Hood’s District Board will have three new members come July, each bringing new diversity with them. The closest race pitted former member Diane Noriega against Courtney Helstein for Position 6
(at-large). Noriega won, earning 51% of the vote. Since leaving the board in 2015, she has been involved with the MHCC Foundation. She also brings Spanish-speaking ability prior higher education administration experience. Position 7 (at-large) went to Laverne Lewis, with about 50% of the vote. She beat incumbent members Tamie Tlustos-Arnold
(32%) and Teena Klawa-Ainslie (17%). Lewis brings varied experience as a Multnomah County Sheriff ’s deputy, small business owner and director of the Rockwood Center. She plans to quit teaching at Mt. Hood, but hopes to continue elsewhere. A third incoming board member ran uncontested for the Zone 3 seat. Andrew Speer earned
an associate’s degree in economics at Mt. Hood in 2005, and should provide higher understanding of MHCC students. Incumbent Kenny Polson ran uncontested, so will hold his Zone 5 seat. New members will be sworn in July 10. For more on all the candidates, see our previous article: advocate-online.net/mthood-district-board-candidates/
ssue! First year i Each spring term, the Advocate encourages first year staff to try out new positions. This is their work. Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Salazar News Editor Chloe Collins
Graphic Design Team Leydi Perez Carrasco Svetlana Meshcheryakova Angeles Ramirez Eli Rankin
Sports Editor Julia Empleo
Photo Team Zarah Escutia Bethany Fallgren Maysee Thao Fletcher Wold
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Arts & Entertainment Editor Corwin Benedict
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OPINION
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SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH
Chris Barney the advocate
Social media are a kind of virtual hanging out. You can keep connected with people you know, chat, play games, and many other things. With this myriad of options, it is no wonder that social media can keep you occupied for hours on end. They seem like a happy place where you can interact with people you know in different ways. But are social media really that great from a mental health perspective? I personally am not a fan of social media. I have a Facebook account, but it is only used to wish people with whom I am friends a happy birthday and to scroll through people’s posts with the occasional “Like” or comment. I don’t make my own posts because I prefer to keep use to a minimum. One reason for this is because I feel that social media do more harm than good for mental health. While not a big user of social media, I have observed, through my Facebook account and articles I have read or seen, how they can be harmful to your mental health. Here is a sampling of some of those topics. To start off, let’s talk about politics. Politics are a very complex
thing and are quite the heated topic when it comes to news or debates between people from different parties. If someone sits in front of their device looking at political posts that go against their beliefs, they may become angry. Besides being in a foul mood, they could offend or anger other people if they start writing replies rife with vitriol. Thus they may have put a damper on other people’s days, as well. The next factor to consider is seeing the success of others. In general, success is good, depending on how it’s attained. Regardless, bad emotions can result from the viewing of posts about friends getting married or promoted at work. If the person viewing these posts recently lost a significant other, can’t seem to find a significant other, or just got fired, for example, they may become depressed when they see others’ posts, which is a bad state of mental health to be in. Finally, while social media can be a good way to get information out about an event and communicate with others, it can also go horribly wrong. People can become afraid if people start sending them weird messages or interact with them in odd ways. In the long term, this could also result in paranoia, which can be difficult to cope with. The big picture here is that, as with most things, there are both positive and negative aspects. However, social media will likely be around for years to come. Because of this, I simply wish to leave you with a message of caution. Use social media, if you will; just be mindful of how different content affects you.
2020 DEM RACE: A NEW HOPE
Anna Riggs
the advocate Many of us have been thinking about the 2020 presidential election since Inauguration Day in January 2017. Democratic Party politicians have been eager, too – there are over 20 candidates in the race, including both political front-runners and underdogs. While it’s clearly too early to tell who will ultimately win, it seems as though history is being repeated, given the demographics of our current Democratic frontrunners. Joe Biden is quickly leading the early polls after officially kicking off his campaign only recently. With a focus on rebuilding the middle class, his widespread popularity among Democrats can only be credited to his position as vice president under former President Obama. It would appear that Biden’s campaign should have been off to a rocky start, considering allegations from several women of past “inappropriate touching” that bordered on sexual misconduct. There notably also was Anita Hill – poorly treated during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (chaired by Biden) – who publicly denounced his run for the presidency, after his
On the cover: Portrait of graduating student Leslie Salazar.
E-mail: advocatt@mhcc.edu Phone: 503-491-7250 Website: advocate-online.net Mt. Hood Community College Room 1369 26000 SE Stark Street Gresham OR 97030
the glass ceiling by 2020 remains slim. Of course, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren would have an edge in the race if it weren’t for her unfortunate, cringe-worthy mistake of playing up her Native American heritage only to release results of her DNA test, which show only the slightest chance of someone in her family, generations ago, having these genes. I find it disheartening that her blunder is taken more seriously than the inappropriate conduct charges against Biden. This column hardly scratches the surface of the mix of personalities running for president. But the power dynamics between Sanders and Biden, two vastly different politicians (despite the sparse amount of white hair both sport), are worth re-examining when determining who might represent our country in the next few years (generously assuming it won’t be Donald Trump). There are younger candidates such as Beto O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Eric Swalwell, running in hopes of capturing mainstream, traditional-minded Democratic voters, and more people of color in the early running than ever. There are AfricanAmerican U.S. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California - while Buttigieg, an Indiana mayor, is gaining attention as a gay married man. The fact that diversity is being shown so far does matter. And yet, it seems that it remains difficult to run a successful campaign in the company of donor-rich white men, willing to almost stroll into a position that shouldn’t so easily be theirs for the taking.
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weak attempt to apologize. Surprisingly, the accusations did not put a dent in his campaign – posing an interesting (and frankly questionable) position for supporters who in the same breath call for repercussions against Trump for his own sexual misconduct. By now, I would expect that especially in leftwing politics where we pride ourselves on seeking justice for our current president, that a man who admitted to many of these allegations, mind you, wouldn’t get off so easy. The candidate who has slumped the most after Biden’s announcement is his frontrunning counterpart, selfproclaimed “Democratic Socialist” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders has been a favorite among younger voters, especially since focusing his previous campaigns on free college tuition, universal healthcare, and protecting the middle class. Even in the down-to-earth way we call him by his first name, Bernie is an intriguing persona to counteract the damage done on our country by the current administration. He could have a serious chance to turn the politcal landscape of America into one where we can be again seen as world leaders. Of course, it would be nice to have faith that Sanders can pull ahead of Biden with a campaign based solely on grassroots fundraising, but I’m afraid he has built his campaign in an atmosphere not yet ready for his strategies and policies. Despite one of the most diverse candidate fields yet, with two white men holding the lead for the Democrats, chances of breaking
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Writer
Anna Riggs is a full-time dual credit student and is graduating from Springwater Trail High School next month. She is originally from Port Angeles, Washington, and has lived in Reno, Nevada and San Antonio, Texas before moving to Gresham last year. She plans to study International Relations at American University in Washington, D.C. this fall. In her free time she enjoys reading, hiking, travel, and going to concerts.
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NEWS
A D V O C AT E - O N L I N E . N E T
INSTRUCTOR REFLECTS ON TIME AT MHCC Corwin Benedict the advocate
Photo by Maysee Thao / the Advocate
Science instructor Jack Brook prepares to retire after 29 years at Mt. Hood.
Jack Brook, a science instructor who has been working at MHCC since September of 1990, will be retiring after the Summer Term. He talked to the Advocate about his life and career – which has revolved around food. Brook earned three different degrees in the sciences, himself. His first was earned at Washington State University in microbiology, his second at Oregon State University in food science, and his third at Central Washington University, in nutrition. He has been working in, or around, food his entire life. He grew up on a farm in Grandview, Washington (east of Yakima), and worked his way through college in a food processing plant for frozen corn and carrots. He then got a job working in a French-fry plant. After getting his degree in nutrition, he worked in a hospital as an intern in the dietetics department. Soon he took, and passed, the test to become a dietician. Brook said he never expected to become a teacher, but working as a dietician required a lot of teaching.
This led to him deciding to call Portland Community College to see if it ever needed nutrition teachers. Fifteen minutes later, he got a call in which PCC told him they had an opening for nutrition instructor. Once Brook started teaching,
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One of Brook’s favorite parts about teaching is, of course, the students, especially because of their motivation, he said. He especially enjoys laboratories, because he gets to know the students, and joke around with them and become close.
I WILL MISS THE STUDENTS AND FACULTY HERE AT MT. HOOD, AND I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEW ADVENTURES AHEAD.” -JACK BROOK
SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR
he realized that he really liked it. “It’s constant learning, especially in nutrition where they (food researchers) are changing weekly what they recommend… and I love school, that’s why I went back so many times,” he said. “When you work in food processing, it’s pretty much the same thing every day. You go and inspect the food. That can get kind of boring, but with teaching, you are always developing new things and trying to improve your teaching.”
Upon wrapping up his 29th year at MHCC, he hopes to travel with his wife, who is currently getting her doctorate degree in history at the University of Idaho. They may travel to England to look up in the British library system just what has happened to muslin, a textile (thin type of cotton) that has largely been phased out over the past couple hundred years. “I will miss the students and faculty here at Mt. Hood, and I’m looking forward to new adventures ahead.”
MHCC VETS AND FIDO: KEEPING YOUR PETS FED Jennifer Salazar the advocate
The Veterans Services office and the Veterans Club at Mt. Hood Community College have partnered with Friends Involved in Dog Outreach (FIDO) to bring food and resources to any pet owner in the Gresham area. FIDO is a nonprofit, allvolunteer pet food bank founded in 2004. In 2018, it provided over 400,000 meals and supplies to pet owners, and is always accepting donations and volunteers. Locations of donation barrels and new volunteering opportunities are listed at: fidoanimeals.org. Paola Gomez, president of the student Veterans Club, attended a veterans’ “Stand Down” event where homeless people are invited to benefit from various resources provided by many businesses and community members. She noticed
that many of the homeless veterans who attended were accompanied by their dogs, also in need of food and shelter. “I’m a dog mom. I treat my dogs like my kids, and I couldn’t imagine a dog going hungry,” Gomez said. After noticing the assistance those pets needed, she contacted FIDO to look at ways that FIDO and Mt. Hood’s Veterans Club could partner and provide help to Multnomah County’s homeless. FIDO offers aid to anyone in need on the third Saturday of every month at its Oregon City facility. But since the majority of homeless people can’t find a source of transportation to get all the way to Oregon City, help is now provided right here on Mt. Hood campus. Meantime, Gomez and the Veterans Club members carpool to FIDO in Oregon City the first Friday of every month to volunteer, helping to package dog and cat
food, load and unload packages, and assisting in any other way. After a couple of hours, they are given bags of dog and cat food to store in the MHCC Veterans Services office, ready for anyone with the need. “You’re not only helping the community, but you’re also
helping our veterans and their pets. It’s going to go well in more than just one direction,” Gomez said of the foodgathering effort. Anyone can ask for resources – just stop by the Veterans Services in
Graphic by Svetlana Meshcheryakova / the Advocate
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Room 1152, contact Paola Gomez at paola.a.gomez012@gmail.com, or call Veterans Services at 503491-7346. A small form must be filled out before one can receive a bag of food for record-keeping purposes, and to ask for specific foods if the pet has food allergies. Gomez would like to one day start her own facility through FIDO in the Gresham area, but she needs the help of the community. “I want people to volunteer so that maybe we can start something here in Gresham because many people don’t have the means to go all the way to Oregon City to receive the help needed,” she says. Volunteers are greatly appreciated and anyone interested in helping at Oregon City may contact Gomez for more information or visit fidoanimeals. org.
NEWS
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SELF-DISCOVERY THROUGH EDUCATION Leslie Salazar aims to be role model for Latino community Cassie Wilson the advocate
Step by step, Leslie Salazar has gained confidence in her ability to follow her dreams as they come to her. In the process, she has migrated to the United States, survived a deportation order and become a U.S. citizen, and has spent the past 27 years pursuing an education at MHCC that wraps up with graduation next month. Salazar, now 47, reluctantly came to the U.S. from Guatemala as a teen in 1989. She had to bring her 5-year-old niece to America, acting upon her older sister’s orders. She explained that in Guatemala, older siblings have more authority over younger siblings, so she felt she had no choice but to bring her niece to the states. “I told my sister, ‘Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll bring your girl, but then I’ll come back (to Guatemala) again. I don’t want to leave my country.’ And she said, ‘Yes, you can do that. You will absolutely do that.’ ” But when Salazar arrived with the 5-year-old, her sister instead ordered her to stay, and begin working to support their family. Not long after coming to the U.S., she was caught by immigration officials and faced a deportation order. “Around the same time I had the deportation notice, people were fighting for the immigrants not to be returned to their homes, but to keep them here,” said Salazar. “I was able to get into a program that would support me from not being deported.” Safe in the Beaverton area where her sister lived, Salazar grew more connected with some of the volunteers she met through the anti-deportation program. They led her to Beaverton Christian Church, where she was first able to start taking some very basic ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. Eventually, Salazar moved to a house in Troutdale with her husband. MHCC was nearby and offered ESL classes. Salazar’s husband tried taking some classes first, but when he decided it was too much for him, he suggested she try it out. After having worked in housekeeping for a few years, she hesitated at the thought of pursuing
an education. She told her husband, “I don’t think so, this is for American people only, for white people, for those who speak English only.” Her husband responded, “Why don’t you go try? Why don’t you go learn the language? You can have a better job.” So, she did. In 1992, Salazar started taking ESL classes at MHCC. Then, she got her GED in Spanish, and continued into IECC (Intensive English for College and Careers) classes. Her GED instructors sat her down after her GED graduation and told her she needed to move on and join the Transitions/Transiciones program at Mt. Hood to prepare her for a college education. “When they talked to me they were so serious. I found something in my heart – not even my parents did that to me. I never had the chance to get an education in my country, and my parents never taught me to get one. They only taught me to go and work for your food and your clothes. That was all I had in my mind,” said Salazar. Hesitant to leave the comforting environment of her ESL classes, Salazar joined Transitions and took her first class that was in English. She said that taking classes in English meant doubling the time it took for the average student to
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Photo by Maysee Thao / the Advocate
At MHCC, Leslie Salazar learned English, earned her GED, and is on track to receive her associate’s from MHCC’s mental health program at graduation in June.
Salazar. “I keep calling her my angel because she always (would) hold my hands and said, ‘Honey you will make it. I will help you. If you need anything, if you don’t understand a concept, if you don’t understand the homework, please tell me, I will help you.’ ”
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE. IT’S HARD, IT’S NOT EASY, BUT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOU CAN MAKE IT, NO MATTER WHAT.” -LESLIE SALAZAR MHCC STUDENT
learn the material because it was in a language that was all still so new to her. “I felt very uncomfortable, and a mix of emotions. Being around white people, it was intimidating. I was intimidated by my classmates, by my instructors, taking English classes. It was so hard. I almost dropped,” said Salazar. Then, one of her classmates gave her hope. Every day, her classmate Donna Rae Gregg would sit with her to make sure she understood what they were learning. “She was on my side,” said
With perseverance and support, Salazar completed the Transitions program and is now a mentor in the program, along with Gregg. Completing Transitions gave Salazar the push she needed to continue furthering her education, she said. “After I graduated I felt something like, ‘I can do more than this,’” said Salazar. “I finished my GED, my ESL, and now Transitions, and everything I learned: how to go to college, how to go to academic advisers, learn the vocabulary that I never learned before. I was like
‘Okay, I think I can make it, I think I can do it.’ ” Her husband continued rooting for her and supporting her in any way he could. She found more and more people on campus who were willing and open to help her whenever she needed it. Still, whenever asked what she wanted to do and be, she hesitated at the thought of working towards an associate’s degree – a reluctance similar to the one she had before coming to the U.S., before taking ESL classes, and before joining Transitions. But this time she began to recognize she really could do more, particularly with her interest in social work. “I started praying to God and I said, ‘God, please help me. What am I going to do? I don’t want to keep cleaning houses anymore,’ ” said Salazar. “By that time I felt something strong in me that I can do more than that. I can learn skills that I didn’t know.” Then, she had a dream, a vision. “In my dream, I saw the Mental Health, Social Service program and I saw what I was going to do, and I believed in that. I said, ‘Okay, God, if this has come up for you, if this is really for me, please provide me with the money,’ ” explained Salazar.
Having learned about FAFSA and scholarships in Transitions, Salazar obtained a scholarship and financial aid that would fully cover her school expenses. She applied for the mental health program, went through the interview process, and then waited. When she wasn’t hearing anything back, she prayed again, and had another dream. She saw her name on the acceptance list to the program. Two days later she received her congratulatory letter in the mail. Next month, Salazar graduates with her associate’s degree as she sheds her hesitancy to build a better life for herself. She will transfer to Warner Pacific University in the fall to study social work. She no longer cleans houses, but instead helps families sign up for Oregon Health Plan coverage, makes home visits, and helps families find the resources and support they need – support her family never had when she was growing up poor in Guatemala. “I want to help immigrants because I came up with a very hard situation and poor family, got caught by immigration, faced a deportation order that I fought because a group of people came together and they fight, they fight, they fight, they kept me here,” said Salazar. “It took me about 15 years to become an American citizen and work hard and pay so much money.” Now, she wants to be a role model for other Latina mothers. “The numbers of Latinos in universities is very, very small, but if the parents go to college, then they will understand the kids. They’ll be able to understand and know the process, know the language, especially the college vocabulary,” she said. Salazar’s 18-year-old daughter graduates high school this year, and her son is studying journalism and photography at the University of Oregon. “Parents have to demonstrate, parents have to show the family, parents have to show the kids, ‘I made it, and you can make it too,’ ” Salazar said. “It’s never too late. It’s hard, it’s not easy, but you have to believe in yourself and you can make it, no matter what.” PA G E 5
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
A D V O C AT E - O N L I N E . N E T
‘DETECTIVE PIKACHU’ BRINGS POKÉMON TO LIFE 3.5 out of 5 stars
Austin Asciutto the advocate “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” is good – quite good, actually! Shoutout to writer/ director Robert Letterman, the screenwriters, and Marvel Studios alumnus Nicole Perlman. These ambitious few have crafted a movie which not only works fairly well as a standalone movie, but also as a potential introduction to a whole new franchise. This film sets up two quality characters: our titular Detective Pikachu, played convincingly by Ryan Reynolds, and our actual lead character, Tim, played by newcomer Justice Smith. It begins with the introduction of Tim, who is lonely, sheepish, and in his early 20s. In the colorful and action-packed world of Pokémon, he seems aimless in life and in denial of the fact that selling insurance probably sucks. His luck worsens when he is informed that his father, a police detective he has not seen in many years, has died. This news takes Tim to “Ryme City,” the center of Pokémon/
human interaction, where Pokémon and humans live sideby-side. Pokémon roam the streets like regular people, most of them even having jobs as traffic guards and bartenders and such. This is, for me, the highlight of the movie. Seeing these funny interactions between Pokémon and people just going about their day makes the universe feel very real and “lived in,” in a corny but also self-aware way. Tim soon meets our beloved little lightning rat, Detective Pikachu, who was his father’s “Pokémon Partner,” and is a detective himself. Tim discovers that he can understand and speak to Pikachu, something never seen before. The two start an interesting and surprisingly heartfelt journey, where they look for Tim’s dad, suspecting his reported death is part of some conspiracy. We soon meet characters Roger and Howard Clifford, played by Chris Geere and Bill Nighy, and Tim’s semi-love interest, Lucy Stevens, played by Kathryn Newton, an aspiring news reporter and partner to a
“Psyduck.” The three humans turn in mediocre performances (the Psyduck is great; Oscar-worthy, perhaps) especially Nighy who, to be fair, is given some LUDICROUS things to say and do during the film’s climax. The first act is followed by more serviceably good comedy, with less of the heart of the first half-hour or so. This stretch ends with one of my least favorite film tropes: the misunderstanding when a miscommunication or some
Graphic by Angeles Ramirez / the Advocate
wrong information leads two main characters to drift apart. The movie never really convinces us that the separation will last, which only insults our intelligence as viewers. Only then comes the real introduction of “Mewtwo,” a character teased throughout the first act. Mewtwo is the most powerful Pokémon, capable of telepathic communication with humans and seemingly just about anything else, and he is shown to be massively powerful. But he just serves as a plot device, for the most part. This reflects another, larger problem: Early on, this movie sets a goofy, funny, but slightly adult tone and tries to say, “Hey look at us, this movie can be enjoyed by kids AND adults, aren’t we funny?!” Several jokes are made about coffee that will be lost on kids, and Pikachu even says something about people, “sticking their fingers in me,” (eww), and yet we, as an audience, cannot be trusted to put
two and two together. But later on that tone is tossed, and this quaint detective story, set within the Pokémon universe, turns into a superhero movie with flying and explosions and evil plots to change the world. I was shocked by the change of direction, but, due to me not having been a fan of Pokémon since I was, like, 8 – I really liked it. If you are a Pokémon purist expecting battles and lore and Pokémon-insider Easter eggs, you won’t find it here. If you just want a fun and rather dumb (I mean this in the best way possible) movie with a little bit of heart, a little bit of genuinely good humor, and a sincerely surprising third act with some actually appalling but wellearned revelations in the last 15 or so minutes, I think you may very well enjoy this film. For all that, and some truly impressive world building, I give Pokémon: Detective Pikachu 3 out of 5 stars. This movie is great for kids, casual Pokémons fans, Diplo fans, Ryan Reynolds fans, and anyone just looking for a pretty good time at the movies. To view the full review, visit our website: advocate-online.net
GAME OF THRONES? MORE LIKE GAME OF GROANS 3 out of 5 stars
Kurt Larson the advocate It’s 2019 and barely five months in, pop culture history is already being made. Two of the biggest cinematic icons of the last decade have met their finales in theaters and on TV. With “Avengers: Endgame” making way for the start of a multi-year sabbatical for Disney’s box office juggernaut, and “Game of Thrones” reaching its series finale this month, these cultural cornerstones mark the end of an era for this chapter in media history. It’s just a shame David Benioff and D.B. Weiss couldn’t exit gracefully alongside everyone’s PA G E 6
favorite Disney property. If you’ve been on the internet in any capacity in the last four weeks, it’s no secret that everyone seems to be upset over this final season of HBO’s hit GOT series, but are things really as bad as Twitter seems to think they are? The answer isn’t quite as clearcut as you may believe, but in short, Game of Thrones, Season 8, has been a series of blunders and half-baked ideas from the start. With the final books in the original literary series still being written, Benioff and Weiss had very little to base their final seasons on, and unfortunately, the true quality of their writing shines through with a guide no longer in place. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, as Benioff was the writer for the notorious flop “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” The pacing of this final season is truly its downfall, however.
In Season 7, the pace of the plot began to speed up dramatically compared to previous years, but for the most part, people were happy to see more story development and character payoffs. But Season 8 left so little time for cohesive storytelling that every major event of the final six episodes of this series felt unearned and unnecessarily rushed. Character turns and plot twists meant to be tragic and impactful came across as unjustified and poorly executed. Even the production crew suffered as a result of this rapid conclusion to the show. Not one, but two contemporary items (a coffee cup, then a water bottle) somehow made it onto our TVs in the background during some of the biggest episodes of the season, including the finale. What’s most unfortunate however is that not even the big faceless corporation can be blamed
this time, because Benioff and Weiss are nearly the sole cause of this botched ending. When HBO offered them the series, 10 seasons were initially pitched, but whether arrogance or the desire for a more varied career took precedence in their decision making, David and Dan claimed they could do the job in six. Seeing the density of the material they had to somehow bring to a conclusion, they eventually renegotiated to produce eight seasons (the last two being much shorter), but in the end that choice has proven to be the biggest hindrance. Not everything was awful, however. The production quality continued to be better than anything else on television, with stunning camera work and epic, sweeping battles worthy of the big screen, and there were several fun and satisfying character moments
smattered throughout the last few episodes. Ultimately, the finale ended on somewhat of a bittersweet whimper. Most characters saw a fairly satisfying end, but there were plenty of nitpickable moments that littered the final episode. No matter the case, Game of Thrones will still go down as one of the greatest shows of all time. The first four to seven seasons, depending on who you ask, are still excellent television that outclasses 95% of what else is broadcast. But with HBO’s biggest property finally concluded, it’s uncertain what will take its place, as the corporation’s new president has set sights on delivering more content and moving away from big blockbuster productions –like George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire,” the novel series on which GOT was based.
OPINION
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BILL NYE GETS POLITICAL FOR THE PLANET
Omar Saradi the advocate
When Bill Nye “The Science Guy” goes viral on the internet, it could be for several reasons. But for the last several years, Nye has come into the public eye to express his anger over the lack of policy attention our current climate situation has gotten. In his latest skit, Nye, a beloved childhood hero for millennials and Gen Z’ers,
goes on an explicit rant where he finally musters up the courage to call us a bunch of #&$! idiots. He makes it clear that he’s not here to explain elementary school science anymore. It’s really funny, but it’s a message everyone needs to hear – politicians, adults, teens, kids – everyone. Sure, Nye is synonymous with children’s science shows we watched throughout our public education years, but he’s passionate about the stuff he does – even if he’s pissed off. He has the right to be mad. I’m surprised he hasn’t been pulled this off during one of his Fox News interviews. His description of the “world exploding” exactly reflects most people who know the reality of our climate situation and their anger towards climate change deniers. There’s no time for these kinds
of talking points and giving time for these talking points is something almost exclusive to America. The rest of the industrial world understands that there’s a climate issue more serious than we are prepared for. Unfortunately, America isn’t about to let that knowledge regulate the energy industry. Nye is a celebrity, but nobody, not even a celebrity, should put their greed or fame ahead of their own (and our) existence; I think that is the most frustrating part of the whole climate change debate. This message that Nye is trying to send is like an R-rated version of the plea a class of California elementary kids gave to Dianne Feinstein (U.S. senator from California) not long ago. Feinstein’s response was the run-of-mill political platitude with a dash of ignorance, the “I know what I’m doing; don’t tell me how to my job,”
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response. That lack of transparency doesn’t work in the age of Donald Trump and “fake news.” The problem about having a lot of aging politicians and business executives discuss and debate climate change is that they know that, more than likely, they won’t be alive to care about or see the consequences. This isn’t the first time Nye has gone viral over debate about climate politics, and if things don’t
shift regarding our actions to climate change, this won’t be the last, either. A lot of politicians are shifting their plans to primarily combat climate change, but it shouldn’t stop there. Nye has inspired generations to pursue science – we would be letting him down if we didn’t face the biggest scientific challenge in our history with what we’ve learned from him.
ARE ONLINE CLASSES REALLY THE FUTURE?
Hannah Meisenhelder the advocate
Totally-online classes just might be the future of higher education. I mean, think about it: With an online class, you don’t have to waste time and gas money to travel to a physical campus. You don’t have to worry about scrambling together group projects with people you’ll never see again. And you don’t have to try not to fall asleep while your stuffy professor talks about their kids each class. In a world where people are getting busier and busier, it seems like more people will opt to save their time and energy by taking only online classes. Lots of in-person classes already include a bunch of online material, so it seems natural that we can all easily make the jump to having every class be online... right? Well, as much my socially awkward self would love to never
have to interact with other people while learning things, I don’t think that all classes would benefit from being totally online – and that some would even be less helpful without the in-person relationship of classic brick-and-mortar education. First of all, online classes are already almost entirely dependent on a person’s time management skills, definitely not everyone’s strong suit. Your success in them is almost totally up to your ability to remind yourself to do things on time and check every day to see whether you have things due. Even for people with pretty good time management skills, the different setup of online classes makes it rather easy to overlook or miss an assignment because you weren’t looking in the right place. Personally, I’ve missed several assignments in online classes before because there were so many other things due each week that items were hard to keep track of, even with the help of the syllabus. Of course, if this were the only thing I believe is challenging about today’s online classes, then I really wouldn’t be that skeptical. What I think is really missing from the online class experience is the face-to-face opportunity. Now, obviously, this is a no-brainer. Clearly if a class is online, then you’re not meeting face-to-face – that’s the whole point of the class!
What I’m trying to get at is that I feel many types of classes really shouldn’t be online – at least, not completely. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) classes, for example, have key concepts that students often need a long time to grasp. Some students might be geniuses who can just learn complicated formulas immediately, but for most others, the rapid pace of learning and the difficulty of the classes leads them to spending multiple hours a week in the tutoring center or visiting during a teacher’s office hours – which kind of defeats the point of taking an online class if you’re doing it to save time by not having to be on campus. If that class you’re taking is a lab science class, then you’d still have to come to campus anyway to do your lab, which I know I’d find inconvenient.
Some professors are going to virtual office hours, through websites such as Zoom, but this is still pretty far from being practical as being able to meet your professor and talk to them in person to discuss exactly what it is that you don’t get. Also, don’t think STEM classes are the only ones that can’t be done online. Communications and public speaking classes, by their nature, have to be done in-person to be effective. And what about the trades or medical fields? Would you want someone working on you car or filling your cavities who has never actually had any physical practice? That said, I’ve taken several classes online that I found to be far more practical and convenient than their in-person counterparts. HPE 295 (that one health and PE class
that everyone at MHCC has to take for an associate’s degree) was much more favorable online, I thought, because you aren’t required to use the ACT room to do your workouts, making it much more flexible. I also took an online creative writing class, of which I was skeptical at first but shortly warmed up to, after realizing that by having all our responses and criticism of each other’s writing done online, we avoided the awkward anxiety that comes with sitting there uncomfortably waiting for someone to read a physical copy of our story. In the end, I still think that totally-online (or at least, mostlyonline) classes are probably the next step in higher education. After all, pretty much every other aspect of our lives is online, so why not school? And while I think that many classes, mostly electives, can benefit by the online formula, in order to make other STEM classes and some others really work, we’ll need to rethink how these courses function in-person, and how to translate that to online without losing valuable in-person experience.
Graphic by Eli Rankin / the Advocate
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Sadie Klein
Photo by Maysee Thao / the Advocate
the advocate As Spring Term comes to an end, graduation season is right behind – which for Middle College students at Mt. Hood means double the responsibility of successfully wrapping up final projects, final exams and the graduation process itself. Alanah Pluchos is a Middle College student at MHCC, a program that allows early college entry for eligible high school juniors and seniors, who take all their classes at Mt. Hood. She did the Metro East Early College Academy (MEECA) program, which paid for all of her schooling up, to $1,500 per term. This is one of the main reasons she decided to sacrifice a normal high school experience to get an associate’s degree basically for free, along with her high school diploma. Pluchos said that being around students of typical college age, she “didn’t feel like an early college student,” but felt like a normal high school alumnus. Her MHCC classmates often did not know that she was younger. Her plan after graduation next month is to get a bachelor’s degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. Her goal is to become a pilot, majoring in Aeronautical Science. The flight program will take about two years to complete, since she is transferring with a significant amount of credits. As for any students who are planning to do Middle College at Mt. Hood, Pluchos recommends that they take as many college credit classes as possible at the beginning of high school in order to be able to complete the program within two years. However, this route is not for everyone, she warns. It is a hard decision to make. One of the sacrifices that was difficult for Pluchos to make was to give up the social aspect of high school, especially senior year. The last year of high school is unique because it is the home stretch so to speak, and exclusive “senior only” events take place, she explained. Still, Mt. Hood is a good option for many high school students who want to accelerate their education in an affordable manner. For more information on the Middle College program: mhcc.edu/MiddleCollege/