The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Category: Opinion

  • NCAA Sports begin, but not clubs

    NCAA Sports begin, but not clubs

    Right now I am physically at my best shape as an athlete. But every Saturday instead of putting on my cleats to go out and try to prove myself good enough to play professionally, I am going on walks for 80 minutes to keep my mind off of the idea of even touching a ball.

    Most NCAA sports began for Humboldt State around the beginning of March this semester. Yes, it’s great that NCAA sports are beginning again. As a rugby player, however, that does not mean much. Rugby is not a part of the NCAA. This means that most rugby programs at universities, including Humboldt State Rugby, are regulated under club sports and not collegiate sports. Currently, club sports are not allowed to play until the chancellor approves. And even after that, who knows when collegiate rugby – a physical sport – will be able to return.

    Envision going from playing your sport 24/7 because you want to become one of the best at it to not even knowing when you will play again. I can go to the gyms that have just opened, but it is not the same as going and playing a sport with my teammates.

    Yes the argument could be made that rugby is too physical, but why then are basketball and high school football playing, but club baseball not? Will club sports be back within the next year? Why can we not play when other teams are playing? All these questions start to wear on an athlete and their mental state.

    For myself and my teammates, it becomes hard to go to class or even do classwork because there is nothing to look forward to. What is the point of even going to Zoom classes when, for some of us, the reason we came to this school was to play a sport even if it is just a club?

    Competitive club sports are expected to root for the teams that are playing while also being told by others that their time will come. As the sports news editor I am expected to write about how HSU Basketball played Fresno or how HSU Track and Field had a very good show out at a meet in Oregon.

    All of this is hard to write about when the rugby player side of me is told that collegiate rugby may not return for another year. It becomes hard to love sports when you cannot play the sport you love.

    I had always thought of depression as something that was too distant. Something that would never happen to me. But as I have learned that is not the case. It never came to me that I was depressed until around a month ago when sports started to open again. You see, in the beginning I could tell myself that all other athletes are going through the same things. But now as I write articles on other sports playing, I cannot keep telling myself that is the case.

    Rugby and other club sports should be able and need to be able to compete again. Even if it were just for in team scrimmages, student athletes need their breaks from the screen. Student athletes need the ability to go and play their sports competitively. I understand that we still need approval from the chancellor of the CSU system, but you’re telling me it has been almost 375 days since COVID-19 shut down and he still does not have a plan to allow competitive clubs to play again?

    To all the athletes who have to watch others compete and play in their sports, you’re not alone. We all had to retire in our teens and early 20’s, we are just waiting a little longer for our Jordan comeback.

  • Influencer geotagging is becoming detrimental

    Influencer geotagging is becoming detrimental

    Growing up in a resort town with high rates of attraction, I have witnessed over the last ten or so years how social media has affected our town. This summer especially, the volume of tourism was out of control. Given the pandemic, parks, campgrounds and recreational facilities were closed. Many saw this as an opportunity to camp wherever they desired. Often in areas specifically closed off for parking and overnight camping. None of this stopped the weekend-warrior, city crowds, however, from adventuring up north and all over. Nor did they respect the land either by packing out what they packed in. Leaving our town littered with other people’s trash and even feces — as public restrooms were closed.

    This is not just an issue within my hometown — this is happening around the globe. Destination locations are being exploited daily, so much so that many businesses have spoken out despite recognizing the revenue they bring.

    The trend of geotagging among influencer’s has become increasingly problematic for small communities who are unable to accommodate resulting floods in tourism.

    There are plenty of influencers, as well as celebrities, using their platforms to provide awareness, intentionality and education — to speak on behalf of racial injustice, systemic oppression, intersectional environmentalism, political propaganda amongst many other topics. At the same time, their carelessness in regard to geotagging is becoming a recurring problem. Towns bordering national parks in particular are being most affected, Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe in the Eastern Sierra, Bend and surrounding towns in the Cascade Mountains, areas in close proximity to the Rockies, McCall in Idaho, surrounding areas near Jackson Hole and the list goes on.

    I am not so naive to think that individuals will stop geotagging on social media. Nor do I think the majority of influencers understand the magnitude of their actions. It is irrefutable, irresponsible and disrespectful to advertise photos and Tik Tok videos to 1 million or more followers, telling them explicitly to visit such pristine locations with a local community of merely 390 people who can’t accommodate them. Local grocery stores are running out of food in an attempt to feed the influx of individuals flocking these towns. Trash and waste is not being discarded properly. Tourism tax has skyrocketed, making it difficult for local families to afford produce in their own community.

    Christine Bumatay, in a Huffpost article, found influencers’ impact on small communities, like the Philippines, to be debilitating. Boracay Island, for example, has in the past shut down for restoration due to experiencing years of over-tourism.

    Bumatay spoke with White Banana Beach Club, a local business on Siargao Island, to investigate the damaging effects of influencers targeting luxury resorts and local businesses as a marketing tactic to monetize their platform.

    “We are receiving many messages regarding collaborations with influencers. We kindly would like to announce that White Banana is not interested to ‘collaborate’ with self-proclaimed ‘influencers.’ And we would like to suggest to try another way to eat, drink, or sleep for free. Or try to actually work.”

    Public land is under threat as a result of mass amounts of tourism, a NY Times article suggests. According to the article, Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board have begun asking influencers to stop geotagging photographs on social media in an effort to protect the state’s beautiful vistas. Where a once nine-mile trek up to Delta Lake would attract one to two hikers a day, there are now as many as 145 people on a given day. Because of the increase in heavy foot traffic among the trail, it has begun showing signs of erosion.

    “We want people to have a real connection to nature,” Mr. Modena, a tourism-board member in Wyoming, said, “not just a page with a pin on it.”

    Of course we are free to do with our social media accounts as we wish and many will continue to do so — geotagging as desired.

    However, it is crucial we rethink our approach to tourism as a whole and the message we are sending to the public. It is paramount effort be made for solutions and outreach regarding mindful, sustainable tourism in heavily trafficked destinations with scarce resources and small communities at stake. Education among travelers and tourists to further advocate for minimizing our tourist footprint needs to be a priority. Instead consider using generic locations for geotagging like, “Tag Responsibly,” and hashtags like, #nogeotag.

    The solution starts with us.

  • Grave Thoughts

    Grave cleaning is a lost art. When the professor of Death, Dying and The Afterlife, a religious studies class that invites students to contemplate their own mortality, suggested it as an extra credit opportunity, I initially worried that the groundskeepers would get upset with me for doing their job. But, according to Professor Hart, they rarely clean the cemetery themselves.

    At first sight, the cemetery appears well-maintained. Artificial flowers adorn most graves, even older ones from the 1920’s. Headstones don’t look dirty, they just look like stone. But upon touching one, my hand comes away with streaks of dirt.

    I set out with an unused white sponge, a box of baking soda, and a bowl of water, with two water bottles to supplant it if necessary. You don’t want to bring in any cleaning chemicals that would damage the stone.

    My first grave belongs to Silva Henry Genzoli, a private in the US army during WW1. They lived from 1894 to 1976, dying at 82.

    It’s interesting, out of all aspects of life, Silva chose to commemorate their service in the army. Why did they define themself by the military? Googling their name comes up with nothing but family trees and the burial directory. So this is really all that is left of poor, dead, Silva.

    The sponge comes away grey, and turns the water dark. The stone itself is dark with water, the inscription a bit clearer.

    My next grave is a bit fancier, a cross standing up, rather than a standard plaque. It reads “ths” in between the arms of the cross. The bottom reads “Maria Soares, 1904-1929, Rest In Peace.” There is now a battered white circle where presumably a photo once was. She was 25. I’m 22. I’m going to die someday.

    Her name is still a common one today, with links coming up for various social media profiles, and the website of a producer who came to NYC from San Paolo with no English speaking ability. Nothing about our dead Maria of the 1920’s.

    Graves are futile. Sure, we have names, birth dates, death dates, a photo if you’re rich and lucky, maybe something about acts of service, relationships, or where they were born. (There’s a lot of “natives of Italy” inscriptions.) But what really remains of the person? Wouldn’t you prefer to have stories told about you, have people 100 years from now read your writings, or walk through a forest you dedicated yourself to preserving?

    The next grave belonged to a child. George Roberts Simmons was born Feb 7, 1921 and died April 29 of that year. He has a small standing headstone, with the inscription “There are no partings in Heaven.”

    His grave is fancier than most adult graves that only have a plaque. Were his parents super rich? Was he an only child and his parents felt the need to be the best parents they could be for the final time? Or did he perhaps have siblings, and his parents felt that having this dedication would help them process his death?

    I genuinely don’t understand the desire to do toxic things to your loved one’s body and cramming it into a small stone room. Cemeteries are cool, relaxing places to just take a walk in and contemplate mortality. But despite the serenity and open air, embalming fluid is leaking out beneath your feet, endangering the local groundwater.

    This is a topic that recently came up in death class, and while eco-friendly ways to process your body were brought up, some had the dissenting opinion that this is a chance to pour your love into the final memory of your loved one, with a carefully wrought description, photographs or artwork.

    The post-death process is expensive and leaves people vulnerable. The casket shop will offer you a menu of expensive options that often lead to debt. But for some, this is a symbol of devotion.

  • A redistribution of wealth is in order

    A redistribution of wealth is in order

    Since the dawn of mankind there have been the rich and the poor – in order for a few to thrive, many must suffer, or so it goes.

    March 16 has marked the anniversary of the first shelter in place orders being put into effect in the United States. Millions of breadwinners remain out of work as different regions of the country continue to loosen and tighten restrictions on businesses according to their COVID-19 threat level tier.

    This month’s stimulus distribution brings the total up to only $3200 of support the government has provided each qualifying non-dependant since COVID-19 first spread to the States, with an additional $2500 for each dependent of their own.

    With the median American household annually earning $68,000 and the 29% of Americans that make up the lower class earning $25,000 a year, it’s clear that the compensation offered by the American government is both inadequate and unsustainable. The solution to so much of the suffering that exists in the world today is excruciatingly simple, if only we made it a top priority: We need a universal basic income.

    Nearly one third of the wealth in America is currently concentrated among the top 1% of the population, with the majority of that existing in the top .01%. The bottom 50% of America’s population, meanwhile, lives almost exclusively paycheck to paycheck, owning only 2% of the country’s collective wealth.

    The income inequality gap in American is undeniably disgusting with billionaires collecting fortunes in interest they’ll never spend while millions of Americans walk around hungry and hundreds of thousands go to sleep without a roof over their head. The reality outside of our cushy first world existence, however, is even more disturbing. As of 2017, 1% of the human population officially owns over half the wealth in the entire world.

    The problem with economic systems is that it’s impossible to create a separation of money and power. Those who have one have the other and almost without exception, they have no intentions of letting them go. This creates a litany of problems, as it becomes impossible to make objective decisions when you have a personal investment in the outcome. In the same vein of thought, it’s much easier to ignore issues when they don’t pertain directly to your life. This results in our world’s leaders sweeping many of our most pressing issues under the rug while contributions from corrupt corporations to political campaigns all but ensure a system that operates to serve the rich and ignore the poor.

    Instituting an aggressive tax strategy on high income earners to establish a universal basic income would go beyond mitigating much of the suffering experienced by low-income individuals, potentially restoring some balance to the powers at be. By stripping the rich of some of their wealth and redistributing it to those in need, more people will have reasonable access to the opportunities this country claims to offer, creating a greater potential to achieve the “right” kind of progress. Unfortunately, in America especially, progress is sought out for the mere sake of progress, or more likely, motivated by monetary gains. Too often, people are blinded in the pursuit of power and lead away from their intended paths. By limiting returns on investments in the highest tax bracket, millionaires and billionaires would become encouraged to seek progress in other areas of their lives, potentially creating a more well-rounded and generally happier population.

    Humankind is doomed to exist in a perpetual state of inequality. There will always be a rich population among us, however, that doesn’t mean millions must continue to suffer as a result. The time has come to abandon the every man for himself attitude that plagues our world. Every human being deserves an opportunity to pursue the life that makes them happy and no one man hoarding a fortune should stand in their path.

  • Corporations and Vaccinations

    Corporations and Vaccinations

    I spent most of last Monday refreshing the CVS website. The site showed seven days of potential vaccination appointments and four of them were already greyed out. So naturally, I clicked one of the remaining three and then clicked again to schedule a time, except it wouldn’t show any available times. It did this for all three days. One of my coworkers had apparently got in after repeatedly reloading it, so I did the same. After three hours of trying, the site showed only one day left. In my frustration I cursed CVS and their website, but it got me thinking. Why was I making this appointment on CVS’ website to begin with?

    Back in October 2020, the Trump administration announced that they had brokered a deal with CVS and Walgreens to distribute the vaccine to seniors in long term care facilities. This deal later expanded to include in-store vaccinations.

    Around the same time, the federal government released its guidance on who was going to be first to get the vaccine and in what order the people would follow. This was passed on to county health departments with the understanding that each county would modify it based on their population and who was most at risk. With that being the majority of the guidance counties received, the message from on high seems to be, “Do whatever you think is best, except you must work with CVS or Walgreens.” But what if you don’t think working with a private company is the best way to accomplish a public goal?

    Companies exist to make a profit. While they may accomplish other things along the way, the end goal is still to make the most money possible. The vaccine may be free at a CVS or Walgreens, but when you go for your vaccination, you’re still a body through their doors. You could go and only get your vaccine with no additional purchases and that would still be a win for them. In fact, that’s exactly what they’re counting on. From that day forward, that’s no longer just another chain pharmacy location, that’s the CVS where you got your COVID-19 vaccination!

    In Walgreen’s case, you have to create a Walgreens account to even schedule an appointment. If you don’t already know sorry to ruin it for you, but store rewards programs exist to track your purchasing habits. That data is then sold to advertisers.

    It would then stand to reason that it’s in these companies best interest to get as many doses of the vaccine as possible. With the limited numbers being produced, they’re in direct competition with the county health departments. Private companies don’t pick locations for how they will best serve populations, they pick them for how they will best reach people willing to pay. They don’t structure their stores around getting people in and out, they structure their stores to sell products. At every step of the way profit is the number one motive. If you think that will change because of a global pandemic, you’re sorely mistaken.

    This purpose built less efficient profit machine is being pitted against our actual health services and the profit machines are much better at competing. Even if you think your county health department sucks, the way to fix it is not by giving it competition. Maybe in the next global pandemic I can struggle to schedule a vaccination with a government website, knowing that at least the government won’t give me a 4 foot string of coupons with my vaccine.

  • The Case For A Self-Determined Education

    The more time I spend here, the more frustrated I become with the university that I sort of chose to go to.

    In response to the administration’s mismanagement of funds, they have chosen to merge small departments of similar goals within the College or Arts and Humanities & Social Sciences in order to consolidate funds. These mergers are happening while HSU undergoes assessment to become a polytechnic university, which would further emphasize STEM above the humanities. This hurts all students.

    STEM majors may easily get the idea that they don’t need to develop communication skills, hurting their chances of conveying what their research means. Humanities majors will have a harder time receiving a decent education as their programs shrink to accommodate STEM, potentially encouraging them to leave or not enroll in the first place. Undeclared majors may feel pressured to choose one based on the resources available to them, rather than what excites them.

    As an alternative I propose we abolish the major system entirely. Hear me out.

    How many interesting classes have you enjoyed that didn’t count towards your requirements? And how many classes did you consider taking, only to realize that you can’t fit them in and graduate on time? Now what if any and all classes counted towards your degree?

    Here’s what I propose. We stop using set lists of classes, and allow students to explore several fields. Any class where a student learns something new should count towards their graduation requirements. Taking preselected major classes limits student adaptability.

    The Bureau Of Labor Statistics shows that Americans will have an average of 12 jobs in their lifetime, and only 27% of college graduates work in a field related to their degree. So why major?

    In theory, a single discipline allows you to develop skills that will enable you to be successful in your chosen career. But your career will likely shift away from your degree the longer you are in the workforce. Exploring several fields in college will give you more versatility as you change careers later in life.

    While we do need writers who can write, and programmers who can code, we also need to recognize that all types of careers are interconnected. A writer one year may be a filmmaker the next, and may enter a completely different profession the following year.

    In modern times, everyone needs a comprehensive understanding of writing, anti-racism, science, especially as it relates to the ecosystem. A handful of GE classes won’t cut it. Forcing students to take classes they know will not help them in the future is unethical. Let us choose from any and all disciplines. Allow us to explore and develop a range of skills and knowledge.

    More broadly, consider the real harm created by a specialized education that doesn’t acknowledge the need to question racial or other stereotypical biases. A 2016 study showed that 76% of white med students hold at least one false racist belief, including thicker skin, stronger immune systems and a higher pain tolerance than white patients. Two-thirds of women lawyers report sexual harassment by thier male peers, and that number is higher for women of color. Stated plainly, a high-level degree does not translate well-educated.

    Everyone needs a holistic education that allows them to question all aspects of life and build transferable skills. We need scientists who can convey research in an understandable way, teachers who are both experts in their fields and can connect and communicate with students. (Math teachers, I’m looking at you.)

    There are standards to be upheld. The graduation proficiency exam could incorporate ways to test people on the qualifications of the field they’re about to enter, ensuring that their courses were chosen with a goal in mind. But we should also acknowledge that most specialized careers require grad school or on-site training.

    We don’t need to major. We need to learn, explore, and better ourselves.

  • Quarantine Quandary

    Quarantine Quandary

    This is no one’s ideal situation. Whether you’re already infected or think you might be, the 14-day quarantine is an anxiety-inducing time. You can take steps to stay safe by following CDC guidelines. Stay away from people, even others living inside your own home. Monitor your own health, making sure to call the hospitals if you have trouble breathing or a fever above 100.4° F. Be sure to get plenty of fluids and rest.

    The most important thing to do in this situation is take care of your health. While avoiding contact and checking for symptoms should be at the top of your to-do list, you have to make sure not to neglect your mental health. Spend time with your friends! There’s plenty of ways to enjoy their company from afar. Texting, calling, Zoom and FaceTime aren’t the only options. Multiplayer video games are always a good choice, as is putting on a video to share on sites such as Watch2gether, Teleparty, or Squad. And of course, there’s always the classic bonding activity of getting on a Discord call and discussing your childhood traumas. Yes, you’re isolated, but you don’t have to be lonely. Your support system is more important now than ever.

    You can also use this time to get started on your list of television shows you meant to get into but didn’t. While all your comfort sitcoms are available on streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu, there’s some seriously underrated originals out there if you’re willing to explore. Netflix’s Everything Sucks! is a coming of age dramedy that deserves a place alongside Freaks and Geeks and Firefly in the ranks of great shows gone too soon. HBO Max’s Infinity Train is a surrealist cartoon that feels kind of like going to therapy, assuming your therapist’s building is full of monsters, robots, and talking dogs. Sure, there’s a lot of trash among streaming services, but when there’s a hidden gem it’s worth it.

    I know we’re all sick of that one friend who picked up piano or wrote a novel or something over quarantine, but the truth is it’s a great time to work on your hobby or pick up a new one. Odds are you have at least one thing you meant to learn but didn’t. This is your chance to put all those unused paints or unjuggled juggling pins you have collecting dust to work. The bright side of being alone is that no one can see your failed efforts and embarrassing moments. Whatever mispronunciations you made in your Spanish lessons are between you and the Duolingo owl.

    Total isolation sucks. It’s stressful, it’s understimulating, you’re alone with your own thoughts – yikes. If you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to a friend or student resources such as CAPS. You may be literally by yourself, but figuratively speaking you aren’t alone.

  • Four years of handling headlines

    Unless you spent the past five years in a coma, blissfully unaware of the world around you, you know the news has been deeply weird and distressing.

    I genuinely believe that the past four years have left a profound impact on my mental health, and that of many people across the nation. I have friends who have stopped reading the news entirely so they can go about their day without feeling hopeless. I’ve read articles about the Biden administration by journalists that seem positively shocked at how boring the policy details are. These past four years have left this country traumatized, a trauma we only now can begin to reckon with.

    I was still in high school when Trump was elected. I vividly recall my blind confidence the weeks before the 2016 election, when my young, dumb, optimistic self bet my best friend ten dollars Trump would never be president. Fast forward to that infamous night. I was crying as I stared at the television screen, watching the electoral votes tick upwards as I envisioned the worst. That night I contemplated walking into traffic to spare myself the agony that awaited a mixed-race queer in the new America.

    Time passed. I handed over the money. I went to the Women’s March. I learned that democracy was a sham. For the next four years, I checked the news, I opened social media, I watched television and every single day it was something new.

    The president said white supremacists were good people. The president threatened nuclear war with North Korea. The president suggested that people inject bleach. It was never enough to simply enforce policy banning transgender people from the military or pulling out of the Paris Agreement. He always had to say things, truly hateful and outrageous things, that became the news because of his position.

    I genuinely feel that some level of emotional abuse occurred. Gaslighting, threats, and wild accusations were common enough, and the hypervigilance that victims of abuse develop was certainly there. I was constantly looking to see what new damage to democracy has happened now.

    Even when it wasn’t exactly bad, it would be strange, and the absence of news and its terrifying unknown would leave me more worried than ever. Bad news was addictive. I had to know what horrible things were happening so I could stay informed, and once I was informed it was my responsibility to stress about them.

    For four years we lived under the constant anxiety that maybe today we would glance at the news and hear martial law declared. Maybe today we’d see World War III. Maybe today we’d lose the Civil Rights Act. It’s only now, when I look up the name of the current president of the United States and don’t see tweets accusing political rivals of treason, I realize that the news cycle wasn’t normal. We aren’t supposed to have panic attacks whenever we glance at NBC. That’s what CNN is for.

    I know bad things happened under the Obama administration. I know bad things continue to happen under the Biden administration. I know it’s an incredibly privileged take to say that if Hillary had been elected, we’d all be at a coronavirus-free brunch reading about how world peace was declared. We will still have climate change, inequality, poverty, unemployment, corruption, and, oh yeah, a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. But the truth is, it isn’t healthy to see a constant stream of bad news all day every day for four years. It’s even less healthy to read the rantings of a man who believes in his word over facts and his ego over human lives. While this section is probably near the back and it’s a bit late to hear it, please put down this paper. Remember that you don’t have to steel yourself like a lab rat for the next shock. What happened here wasn’t okay, and we need to heal.

  • Impending mergers threaten Humboldt’s identity

    Impending mergers threaten Humboldt’s identity

    The merging of departments within the College of Arts Humanities & Social Sciences will lead to the detriment of distinct programs and the appeal of Humboldt State as a unique university. 

    As smaller departments are pressured to combine in order to meet the demands of budget cuts that add up relentlessly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, we run the risk of losing the focused, intimate education that drew students to campus in the first place. 

    Due to low enrollment the journalism and communication departments have submitted a proposal to Dean Roseamel S. Benavides-Garb, suggesting they be combined, for fear of losing the departments altogether – a fear that is shared among many of the smaller departments on campus.

    One practical benefit of combining the journalism department with the communication department is the opportunity it would allow for courses to be offered more often with more students in the department. On the flip side, combining departments presents the potential to strip each major of its individual identity. While the increased size of the combined department could potentially attract more attention to each discipline, the lack of distinction between the two could also prove confusing and drive prospective students away. 

    Higher education is a step away from the general, scattershot education of grade school. We learn what we’ll focus on, and begin developing specific skills. We also begin to add to the greater pool of knowledge for our chosen field of study. The less our education hones in on a specific field, the more it feels like a shallow high school class – lacking the depth that student’s pay for when they attend a university. 

    While the emphasis of the study of communication is on the underlying meaning of how we communicate, the primary concern for most journalism students is the application of skills to make media of our own. Journalists are already required to take communication classes which prepare them for their chosen focus. Communication classes are valuable to journalists. Every member of our editorial board has taken a communication class which has shaped our perspective, just as our other general education classes impart valuable lessons. 

    Combining departments also comes with grave concerns that the departments will lose lecturers and potentially some of the classes they teach as former chairs are forced to move into teaching positions. This would cost journalism students opportunities to interact with more media professionals and those lecturers would be placed in danger of losing pay and the health insurance they have come to rely upon for themselves and their families. 

    The proposed plan not only throws the student experience in the department into question but ultimately, the merger’s promise to cut $180,000 in expenses annually feels almost like chump change in comparison to the monster deficit the university currently faces. At the end of the day, administrators, students and faculty have to ask themselves whether or not all this restructuring will benefit the university in the long term. Cuts save some money in the short run, but they represent a greater loss to the university and the Humboldt community.

    Some good will come of department mergers. We all have a lot to learn from each other. As journalism students, we will welcome our peers from the communication department and the value their program will add to ours in regards to the developing fields of ethics and theory of communication. Understanding how we interact with the world through language and the culture of communication is critical to operating as an effective journalist. 

    We hope that we can offer greater knowledge of media literacy. Today especially, media literacy is an essential skill any student with a university education should have, and it is crucial that students across all disciplines are armed with the tools to critically assess, analyze and critique media so that they can be more mindful of the media they consume.

    We also hope to impart our own personal experience writing about our university. All of us hear stories of poorly run programs, incompetence at the top of the HSU ladder, haphazard cuts, and a lack of forward thinking. We speak to staff who are afraid of the repercussions for simply telling us their stories. If we want to make HSU a better place, where else might $180,000 per year be saved?

  • Black History Matters

    Black History Matters

    The importance of Black History Month just goes without saying. This month is dedicated to the many struggles, movements, and achievements Black figures have experienced that have gone on to shape our country to where it is now. I believe, however that rather than celebrating Black culture in America for a single month out of the year, it should be taken into consideration that Black history should be recognized year round.

    Now, I’m not criticizing Black History Month for being the shortest month; February was actually chosen by Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History” because of the significant birthdays of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. I’m saying that Black history has decades of events and figures that can open the eyes of future generations and modern individuals that lead us to where this country is going or will go, if informed correctly.

    Woodson pushed for Black history to be integrated into public schooling systems in hopes that Americans could learn about the many achievements and hardships of Black Americans in this country; as well as provided the opportunity for Black Americans to learn more about their past and to be proud of their heritage. At first, Black History was only recognized as a week-long remembrance after Woodson reached out to the general public in which he established, “Negro History Week” in 1926. The shift from a week to a month started to take hold during the coming decades before Woodson’s death in the 1950’s as a few cities in the country began to acknowledge this celebration. After the revolutionary movements in the 60’s, in 1976 President Gerald Ford recognized that the month of February was dedicated to Black history. However, according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, founded by Woodson in 1915, “Woodson believed that Black history was too important to America and the world to be crammed into a limited time frame.”

    It is great to know that Black History is actually being celebrated, but as a country we cannot even begin to unpack all that history into a single short month. Black history should be taught in schools year round. All that I can remember about Black history from my middle school and high school history classes is learning about the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, which yes, did go over a brief introduction to Jim Crow laws, but that was basically a week and half coverage of that history. I never developed a deep understanding of Black history from public education until I took it upon myself to research and learn on my own time, and when I got into college. The same can be said for a number of people in this country. Some people even think that racism doesn’t exist in America, and we all know that is just a blatant lie.

    If schools are to talk about Black history, they need to get into the meat of that history. I understand that the gruesome history of our country may be a lot for younger children to handle, but we can at least introduce them early on with detailed descriptions of heroic Black figures and accomplishments; like writers, athletes, scientists, inventors, musicians, historical attributors, etc. When schools start to talk more about American settlement, the Civil War, Civil Rights movements, etc. that is when students should be introduced to the deeper sides of our history. We cannot continue glorifying the Founding Fathers and other American historical figures who were actually terrible people. Who were slaveowners, abusers, and racists. Instead we should be learning about the heroic tales of Black historical figures; like Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) who not only freed hundreds of men, women, and children from slavery as a conductor for the Underground Railroad, but also became a spy and the first woman to lead combat expeditions for the Union Army when the Civil War started in 1861. Tubman later freed 700 more slaves in 1863 while she led 150 soldiers in the Union Army.

    Talk about Frederick Douglass (1818-1885) who had been a slave for nearly 20 years then escaped and fought to end the practice of slavery. Douglass was a national leader in the Abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. Douglass was firm on the equality of all races and genders. He was a renowned orator, activist, and writer.

    Speaking of writers, a great feat in Black History was the power of the Black Press after the Civil War had ended. One of my favorite journalists is Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), who was also one of the founders of NAACP. Wells was a well known investigative journalist who covered the tens of thousands of lynchings that were happening in the south. Her book “The Red Record” (1895) went over the horrors happening to Black Americans around the country and the struggles they had faced in the south after the civil war. Wells was a writer, investigative journalist, editor, educator, and an early Civil Rights activist.

    I’m sure most, if not all, know about Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68). He was one of the leading forces in the Civil Rights movement in the 60’s. The impacts he made through his speech and peaceful protests made a huge difference in our society. Take the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest in which activists alongside MLK boycotted public transport to take a stand on segregated seating Black Americans were facing on public buses. This boycott made a severe economic impact on the public transit system that ultimately led to the decision by the Supreme Court that segregated seating was unconstitutional in 1956. MLK also inspired many peaceful marches, protests, and sit-ins around the country, including the March on Washington during the Summer of 1963, where he held his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Around 200,000 to 300,000 people joined MLK and later it became the driving factor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

    Someone who had a different perspective than MLK’s nonviolent approach was Malcolm X (1925-65). Malcolm X was also an incredible speaker and civil rights activist. X encouraged Black Americans to protect themselves when it comes to white aggression, especially when it comes to law enforcement. His powerful messages gave fellow Black Americans the courage to stand against racism and police brutality. Soon after his assassination in 1965, the Black Panther Party was formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. One of the Black Panther Party leaders who made a phenomenal impact in the Chicago, IL community was deputy chairman, Fred Hampton (1948-69).

    Hampton was a revolutionary socialist who established free breakfast programs for young children, organized rallies, and brought together rival gangs and organized parties to create a “Rainbow Coalition.” Hampton was an extremely powerful leader and speaker; however, Hampton and the Black Panthers were deemed by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover at the time as “One of the greatest threats to the nation’s internal security.” Hampton was murdered, sleeping in his own home by the FBI in 1969 at the age of only 21. You can witness his story in the movie “Judas and the Black Messiah” that’s streaming on HBO.

    There are countless figures and numerous movements in our history that I can mention, like Marsha P. Johnson (1945-92); an American gay liberation activist; or even what is happening right now with the BLM movements. But, since it would become an entire book if I did, I suggest you take it upon yourself to do more research, because this knowledge is essential to our history and how we view our country even to this day.

    Just recently, I read in a CBS news article that in Northern Utah, parents dropped a request to a charter school wanting to opt out of Black history in the school’s curriculum. Black history should never be an option to “opt out” of, our children need to understand the obstacles and struggles that Black Americans have and continue to face to this day. If we neglect our responsibility to teach the younger generations about Black history, we’re creating an even bigger problem: raising sheltered and ignorant individuals around our country.

    America has a deeply embedded dark past, we know this. This is why we can’t selectively overlook it and claim to be the “greatest” country in the world. What we can do is continue to educate those who simply don’t know. We need to show the accomplishments behind Civil Rights activists, The Black Panthers, BLM activists and more. We need to continue to call out racism, oppression, and discrimination when we see it. We need to recognize the achievements our Black figures have accomplished in order to show this country that Black and POC voices matter and have mattered. That is why instead of just making it a month, we need to push beyond the boundaries that have been set in our system and acknowledge Black and brown excellence, whenever and however we can.

  • The world was a better place the last time I took a bath

    The world was a better place the last time I took a bath

    Even as the world and our perception of it changes at an exceeding pace as we age into adulthood, there are certain constants in life that we can always rely on. For me, it’s that taking a bath is a big mistake.

    The fond, foggy memories of 3-year-old me sitting in the tub with a rubber ducky and a dozen other toys, paying no attention to hygiene and playing until the water grew cold are an unpleasant reality today. Now, what you get is a 22-year-old man-child sweating into a soapy Dakota flavored soup. Yuck!

    The last time I took a bath, I was living in the studio apartment on my uncle’s property that had been designed for my grandmother – without a shower. For four of the longest months of my life, I was oppressed by my circumstances to an archaic method of bathing, one only the greatest of my enemies should ever be forced to endure.

    After spending the holiday back home with my mother, I returned to my studio to discover the greatest Christmas present I’d ever been given. While I was gone, my father had a showerhead installed above the tub and a curtain put around it for good measure. Since that day, over two years ago now, I’m proud to say that I am both metaphorically and literally clean.

    In the time since I last took a bath, an incredible amount has changed in my life and in the world. While my personal experience has followed a roller coaster of highs and lows, it seems every time I turn on the TV, there’s another tragedy on the news.

    7 months clean.

    In the summer after I graduated from community college, more than 46,000 fires were started in the Amazon Rainforest to clear land for crops and grazing. Deforestation has plagued the Amazon Rainforest since the 1970’s, claiming tens of billions of trees so far, and what’s projected to be 27% of the entire forest by 2030. The effects of the devastation to the forest is already having a measurable impact on the region with temperatures rising, causing more frequent floods and a longer dry season. With the world’s largest forest disappearing before our eyes, to be replaced mostly by endless fields of cattle, producing methane at an increasing rate, our window of opportunity to combat global warming is closing more rapidly than ever.

    10 months clean.

    With the holiday season right around the corner, I became the victim of grand theft auto around the same time the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Wuhan, China. Since then, as of Feb, more than 100,000,000 cases have been recorded and over 2,350,000 deaths have been linked to COVID-19. The initial feeble response of nations like the United States and their failure to correct the mistakes following the resulting massive outbreaks have caused this pandemic to grow much larger and last much longer than it ever should have with the modern advancements in science and technology we have available today.

    The late response and the fail to correct our mistakes has caused this pandemic to become much bigger and last much longer than it could have. Instead, we have placed all of our faith in a vaccine that’s sure to be refused by a large enough stubborn portion of the population to keep us inside for at least another year.

    14 months clean.

    After spending 17 years legally single, my mother remarried less than a month after the world lost one of its foremost living idols when Kobe Bryant passed away in a tragic helicopter crash. Recent years have also seen several sudden deaths of rap artists, including rising superstars Juice WRLD, Pop Smoke and the controversial XXXTentacion, along with hip-hop legends Nipsey Hussle, Mac Miller, MF DOOM and too many others. Because of the internet, the state of celebrity culture today leads most of those with a considerable following to live their entire lives in the spotlight, thanks to social media. Having access to your favorite celebrities 24/7, as a fan, creates an artificial perception of a personal relationship that makes losing a star harder now than ever.

    17 months clean.

    While I sat home last summer, lamenting the loss of a childhood friendship that could have been avoided with a mature conversation, a police officer sworn to protect the lives of the citizens of this country, Derek Chauvin, stood with his knee on the neck of George Floyd for nearly nine minutes – long after he’d become unresponsive. This extremely public tragedy came only months after police mistakenly broke into Breonna Taylor’s home, then opened fire, fatally wounding her. These police murders reignited the Black Lives Matter movement that was first conceived in 2013 when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, who was acquitted for claims of self-defense. Trayvon Martin was far from the first black person to be killed at the hand of someone who’s supposed to protect them, and this will unjustifiably continue until the people committing these heinous crimes are held accountable.

    25 months clean.

    Over two years have passed since I last took a bath. I am no longer the clueless child, sitting in a tub of Dakota soup, without an Associate’s degree. Now, mere months away from receiving my Bachelor’s in a field I stumbled into and fell in love with, there’s finally something on TV resembling good news. Though Joe Biden is certainly no Bernie Sanders, the end of the Trump era is cause for a collective sigh of relief. Gone are the days of waking up to the president’s latest outburst on Twitter. The appearance of professionalism will once again return to politics and we can go back to living in ignorant bliss of the deteriorating state of our country.

    Here’s to hoping the next time I take a bath, I can climb out of the tub into a better world than the one we have today.

  • Is my cat mad at me?

    Cats are weird animals. This is an established fact among anyone who has ever seen one. Fortunately, this behavior does have several explanations! Rest assured, your cat doesn’t hate you for cleaning up after him. He hates you for reasons he refuses to divulge to the press.

    One of the most likely explanations is simple curiosity. Cats are inquisitive creatures, and they may not be sure what you’re doing. The act of burying their waste is an instinctual behavior to hide their scent from predators, and seeing you dig up what they so carefully hid might confuse them. Somewhere in the world, a cat is writing to a cat advice column to ask why his human is carelessly revealing their presence to wolves.

    Cats also like to watch what their humans are doing, and even try to participate. We’ve all been at our computers and had a cat sprawl across the keyboard to see what the hype is about. This behavior is called mirroring. It’s a sign that your cat wants to be included in whatever strange thing you’re doing, and it’s the cat’s way of spending quality time with you. If your cat is sitting by you or even putting a paw in the litter, he’s simply doing his best to help. It’s not his fault he has no thumbs.

    On the other hand, cats are territorial animals. They see your home as their home and everything in it as theirs. The litter box is the only place inside where they can relieve themselves. Seeing you clean it out, the cat wants to supervise you, essentially to ensure you clean it properly and that there will still be a litter box when you’re done. However, territorial behavior can go a bit far. If your cat hisses at you or even attacks you when you clean up after them, this could mean that they feel insecure and unsafe. It’s a good idea to get your cat a second box to use while you clean the first one outside, to give the cat a bit of security that there will always be a usable litter box.

    So long as the cat has an adequately sized box and a sense of consistency, he shouldn’t be angry at you for keeping it tidy. Odds are he appreciates it, as cats like to keep their space clean. Plus, he can only bury his waste so deep and appreciates you hiding his location from large predatory birds. Yes, human. Put the dirty litter in a bag to be taken far from this place. Our enemies shall not find us here.

  • America has an entitlement problem

    America has an entitlement problem

    We often hear about white privilege and I am not denying its existence. However, I think it goes even deeper than we realize. Historically caucasian people have had it much easier than minoritized groups. We still see avenues in which this exists today, and that needs to change.

    We have seen a shift from gratitude to entitlement amongst virtually all ethnicities in this country, but only after we become accustomed to the simplicity of life here. The truth is we are all incredibly privileged to be United States citizens.

    Donald Trump is the epitome of the American culture which is so frequently criticized around the world. Americans are often viewed as loud, narcissistic, ignorant, materialistic and completely disrespectful. Granted, this is a rash generalization, but there is no other country with such a widely recognized stigma surrounding the population’s attitude towards the rest of the world.

    What we saw on Jan. 6 at the nation’s capitol is nothing short of embarrassing.

    In 2021 we see tremendous polarization surrounding topics that frankly do not improve the quality of life for all people across the board. We see misinformed, desperate citizens arguing the election was stolen from Donald Trump. On the other end of the spectrum, we see passionate individuals arguing that keeping a dog as a companion is equal to slavery. We are distracted by issues that are subjectively important, not necessarily universally beneficial.

    My mother immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was 25 years old, just three years older than I am now. She was removed from school in the sixth grade and sent to the fields to pick strawberries along with several of her eleven siblings. My father was born in San Francisco to an Irish Catholic family with eight children. Both of my parents grew up in large, relatively poor families, but my mother is an immigrant, and my father’s family immigrated here generations before he was born.

    I have watched both of my parents work almost every day of my life just to barely make ends meet in their pursuit of happiness. My father has lived his life as if the world is his to take. If you ask my mother, however, we must all pay our dues and work hard every day simply so that we never have to suffer the way she saw her family suffering in her youth.

    Life in Mexico is not identical to what it was when my mother was growing up, but it is far from what the United States truly represents. We live in the land of opportunity. It seems cliche, but nowhere else in the world can a 25 year old move to an unknown land, find employment, build a family, become an entrepreneur and work for themselves for over 14 years.

    As citizens, we have all of the freedom to do whatever makes us happy, so long as it does not cause harm to others, and so many of us have developed an unconscious sense of entitlement to this truth. As a result our society appears set on regressing to a pre-civil rights era, or worse, abolishing our first amendment rights because there are people we disagree with and desperately wish to silence . We have to be able to take a step back and acknowledge how irrationally we have been behaving as a society in the short time the United States has existed.

    The men and women alive today are not the ones who built this country. We simply reap the fruits of the labor of great men and women who struggled every day to build the towns and cities we live in. The vast majority of which immigrated to this country to escape oppression and extreme poverty, something we are truly unfamiliar with as United States citizens.

    Large portions of our population have come to view our freedom as something that can never be taken away simply because of where we were born. It is an unfortunate turn of events, and I am nowhere near old enough to understand when this radical shift in perspective took place. However, my parents are, and with their unique upbringings they both notice this overwhelming sense of entitlement sweeping the nation. It has given my parents a shared perspective that they were not able to appreciate before the last four years.

    I am hopeful that our society will soon be able to view every human being as just that, a human being. Until then, we must all do our part to not take life in this country for granted. I am proud of my mother’s journey. I am proud to be a United States citizen even though, after 28 years of hard work and dedication to keeping the “American dream” alive, my mother remains not a citizen. She cannot vote, yet she loves this country and the life it has allowed her to create for herself. The ultimate goal for life around the world should be to promote and optimize happiness for all, and we have to appreciate the fact that we live in the only country in the world oriented towards this goal for anyone willing to put in the effort.

  • It’s time to stop the taboo talk around therapy

    It’s time to stop the taboo talk around therapy

    I remember the first time I went to therapy. I had just dropped out of a public high school my sophomore year and joined a charter school with only two days a week of face to face classes. I was 15, overwhelmed, depressed and confused – all things that come along with growing up. I told my parents I didn’t know how to handle these feelings, how empty and lost I felt. So my dad connected me with a local therapist.

    For a long time, I didn’t tell people I was going to therapy because it felt shameful. Now as a 10-year therapy veteran, I can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made.

    You are not any less valid for wanting to better yourself, and therapy can help you do that. It isn’t something that will happen overnight, but therapy can help you learn and exercise healthy coping mechanisms.

    Being able to talk to someone I knew I could trust helped me process the feelings at hand. Being stuck in my own head was detrimental to my well-being because I couldn’t always see both sides of the coin. When you talk to your therapist, they will offer you alternative perspectives that you may not have ever considered.

    The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that I am allowed to feel sad, angry and happy. I can give myself permission to experience all of the emotions that come with life. With negative emotions, it’s important to recognize them, accept them, but not let them consume you, challenge them. I have learned, and am still putting into practice, that concept.

    The coping mechanisms that I find most useful when I’m not able to see my therapist are reaching out to people I trust, letting myself enjoy moments of happiness, to be vulnerable and receive emotional support. Self-care is another important coping mechanism. Mine is drinking coffee and watching Gilmore Girls. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. It can be as simple as letting yourself sleep in one day a week, taking a walk on the beach or writing down how you feel, whatever brings you joy.

    The Mental Health America Association has a long list of healthy coping mechanisms to adapt which I learned in therapy as well, including but not limited to, connecting with yourself, doing things you enjoy, and setting realistic goals for yourself.

    Life is not one size fits all. Everyone struggles in life, everyone has a story and trauma unique to themselves. You are valid in your feelings, you deserve to be helped, you deserve to flourish. When I understood that reaching out for help can only benefit me, it changed my life.

    I’m not cured, but I’ve learned to function with my mental illness, how to adapt in times of distress, and you deserve that too.

  • Ask Evergreen’s Valentine’s Gift Guide

    Ask Evergreen’s Valentine’s Gift Guide

    This is a classic predicament. You want to acknowledge the holiday, but you don’t want to come on too strong. For example, ideas of fine jewelry, dinner from a Michelin-star restaurant, or a commissioned Renaissance-style oil painting of the two of you should be thrown right out. Instead, focus on the thought behind your gift. This first Valentine’s Day gives you an excellent opportunity to prove that you’ve been paying attention to their interests.

    The simplest thing to do is to ask yourself, what do they like? Buying a book, game, or album they’ve mentioned having their eye on is an easy way to prove your interest in theirs. You can even start reading/playing/listening along with them to better understand their passion. If your significant other is the more practical type, think about something they’d use, such as a cozy scarf for someone who’s always cold or a cast-iron pan for someone who loves to cook. However, you’ll want to avoid strictly utilitarian presents for Valentine’s Day. While it’s thoughtful to pick up a box of tea that helps with your partner’s stomach aches, you should avoid making that their big gift.

    For those who aren’t sure where to begin, standards like a stuffed animal, flowers, or candy are a good starting place. Instead of a stuffed bear holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates you can grab at CVS, why not pick something more personal? You can pick up a Pokémon plush for the Nintendo fan in your life, or a violet in a cute planter for someone with a green thumb. Even the classic box of chocolates can be upgraded by finding their favorite brand or getting a sampler box of candies from around the world.

    The primary gift-giving tip, of course, is to simply listen to and communicate with the person you’re buying something for. When they tell you what they like, pay attention and store that information away for later. You don’t have to break the bank to find something they’ll love, what matters most is showing your partner that you value what matters to them.

  • Students and staff are afraid of HSU administration

    Students and staff are afraid of HSU administration

    Humboldt State nearly broke me in a way that I did not know was possible. After months of nearly obsessive reporting and looking for the truth, I became a burnt shell of a person with depression with no desire to write again.

    While News Editor for The Lumberjack, I covered the actions that the administration was taking regarding the University Center, who previously ran many of the student-facing services on campus before being formally shut down in December of 2020.

    What started as a piece about the UC group eventually connected to the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center and the possibility of, what seems to me now, the administration taking advantage of the pandemic to put forth plans with as little input from students or staff as they needed.

    Over the course of the semester, I spoke to a wide variety of sources, both on and off the record, for hours via any method that I could. Some were angry at what they perceived as an intentional lack of communication and the others were tired of the way that members of the administration seemingly acted on their own authority when executing plans, without thinking of the consequences for those beneath them.

    The one common thread amongst them all, however, was a sense of fear about what may happen if they were caught expressing themselves in a manner that was critical of HSU.

    I was told stories of long time, dedicated workers, literally working in supply closets and rooms with water pipes running overhead because their offices were being claimed for other things that the administration deemed more important. Staff told me point blank that they were ordered not to talk to the press by higher ups and could face repercussions.

    I listened to Zoom meetings where student workers testified for the importance of these programs and how unsure they were of how they would react if they did not exist in the same way.

    Every time, their anxieties seemed to fall on deaf ears as the plans continued to move forward without care.

    When I wasn’t reporting I was listening to my friends, fellow students, talk about how they felt abandoned by HSU. I saw panic attacks and depression sweep over them like waves on the shore during a thunderstorm.

    Even now when the topic comes up the most common reactions are that of anger and confusion at why any of this seems to be happening while the entire education system is experiencing unprecedented difficulty.

    Words cannot express the emotions that I saw and what reporting all of this did to me, or how hard it is for me to type this. For a while, I was angry at what I thought was apathy from others over what seemed like such an important story.

    Eventually I realized that it wasn’t that others didn’t care what the administration was doing, it was the fact that no one had the energy to combat any of it. How could anyone try to fight back against this injustice when everything else was already so demanding? It seems to me that these large shifts of power and control occurred during a time when people were distracted by the world around them.

    I wrote at the beginning of this that I never wanted to write again, and for a while that was true. Before the semester even ended I began to clock out mentally of classes and conversations. On one or two occasions, I came close to crying in Zoom classes due to absolute emotional exhaustion. I kept my head down, went to work and tried to bury these feelings, and just let it all go.

    But I couldn’t. I had to write this, partially as a form of catharsis but mostly to state my opinion on what I think are unjust actions.

    I am taking this semester off to better myself and I plan on returning in the fall. When I do, I will write with everything that I have. HSU knocked me down, but I will not let it break me.

  • Shopping online saves lives and kills local business

    Shopping online saves lives and kills local business

    As our collective shopping behaviors change to accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon feasts on the misfortune of millions of Americans struggling to pay their rent and keep food on the table.

    According to data gathered by Yelp, approximately 60% of businesses registered with the app that shut down when the pandemic first reached the United States will never re-open. Only including the 5.3 million active, claimed local businesses registered with the app, as of August 2020, nearly 100,000 American businesses have been forced to permanently close their doors.

    Many corporations have also experienced varying degrees of drowning during the pandemic, with retail chains closing over 8,700 stores in America in 2020 according to the Coresight Research report. This number comes in just shy of 2019’s record breaking 9,300 closures that’s predicted to be broken in 2021, with over 2,000 closures already in the first month alone.

    This downward trend of brick and mortar retail is an ongoing result of the 2008 real estate bubble burst. Combining a struggling economy with a rise in popularity of e-commerce – allowing customers to seek out the best possible deal through a variety of providers at the click of a button – brick and mortar retailers were forced to significantly discount their prices in order to convince an especially stingy consumer base to buy. With shoppers becoming accustomed to the new prices, retailers were forced to adjust or disappear. This phenomenon has gone on to become infamously known as the “retail apocalypse,” claiming over 1.3 million American retail jobs in the last decade alone.

    The enormous gap in the market created by the retail apocalypse has been seamlessly filled in by e-commerce. While tens of thousands of brick and mortar stores have closed over the past decade the internet’s online shopping Goliath, Amazon, has massively multiplied in size, increasing their 2010 net income by a factor of almost 10 in 2018 and growing their employees by a factor of nearly 20 in that same amount of time. To meet the increased demand for online shopping created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon hired over 400,000 new employees in 2020 alone, bringing their total employee count over 1 million.

    Amazon has achieved such massive growth so quickly as the result of a business model that is essentially built around one core concept Jeff Bezos refers to as “customer obsession.” Amazon’s ultimate goal is to create loyal customers that won’t just return once, but hundreds and thousands of times. They do this with the assistance of a website the company has collectively invested billions of dollars and man hours into, in order to connect customers with as many possible items they’re interested in, in as few clicks as possible.

    Providing additional incentive for customers to spend even more money and time engaging with the brand, Amazon’s Prime membership includes free shipping on all items and access to Amazon’s video and music streaming services for the price of $119 per year – a number small enough for almost one in three Americans to justify the purchase and large enough that they will be especially inclined to get their money’s worth out of their subscriptions. Combining the perks of membership with a consistent and vast stream of products that appeal to the consumer and a pricing model specifically designed to undercut the competition, they become unstoppable.

    In order to consistently provide the best prices for a vast variety of products on the internet, Amazon trades off especially low net profits on sales for the increased business their prices attract. In fact, the majority of the corporation’s income is actually generated by the Amazon Web Services. Essentially, this means that Amazon has been reducing businesses to rubble left and right for the past decade, all so they could eventually capitalize on their popularity and finally make a decent profit from a virtual cloud.

    With the pandemic stoking the fire of the retail apocalypse, as is the case with climate change, we are fast approaching a point of no return. While faceless retail corporations will continue to exist in some capacity for those who refuse to conform to the online platform, private businesses will someday become a thing of the past if we can’t collectively escape the “every man for himself” attitude our society has adopted.

    We need to look past the immediate future and understand that helping others ultimately helps everyone in the long run. So, instead of outsourcing your next purchase for a cheaper price, whatever it may be, invest in a business from your local community. Take pride in watching your wealth spread, rather than sulking in the shame of knowing you’re feeding the beast that intends to devour the businesses your neighbors have devoted their lives to.

    Author’s Note: This righteous rant brought to you by a shameless Amazon Prime member. Do as I say, not as I do and together we can save the small business.

  • Why shifting the true-crime narrative matters

    Why shifting the true-crime narrative matters

    As a true crime junkie, I will and have consumed all things released that I can. That includes documentaries, podcasts, books— basically label anything true crime and I am there.

    In the true crime community, there is ongoing discussion as to whether or not retelling these stories is glorifying criminals and exploiting survivors for views and reads, which ultimately equate to dollars. You can tune in to any crime program and walk away whenever you find yourself getting bored, without the cognitive realization that the reality still stands. Survivors and victims’ families must live with this day in and day out.

    Recently, Netflix released a new documentary, “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer,” based on the crimes of Richard Ramirez, an elusive and controversial serial killer active in the mid ’80s. Netflix is no stranger to true crime docuseries, they have a slew of them in their catalog, but now with the Night Stalker we’re seeing a deviation from the traditional storytelling.

    Shifting the narrative is crucial for true crime. The new style is not as controversial or shocking because we’re not seeing the nitty-gritty, dirty details, but, the stories of survivors and victims are still able to be told. True crime is built on shock value, but it’s vital to remember that there are real people behind the headlines.

    Television writer Kayla Cobb explains in an interview with “Decider,” “They’re all too focused on providing some sort of explanation about how this monster came to be that the reason they’re monsters — the very people whose lives they ruined become sidelined. These survivors become secondary characters in the story about the worst moment of their lives.”

    One of the most popular true crime documentaries released last year, “Seduced: Inside The Nxivm Cult,” was based on Keith Raniere who profited off of people in a multi-level marketing scheme turned cult. Show creator Cecilia Peck chose to focus and let the story be told by survivors.

    “One of the reasons that people will speak about traumatic subjects is because they believe that others can learn from their experience,” Peck said in an interview with “Decider.” “They want to turn that trauma into activism.”

    Recognizing true crime as more than entertainment allows for uncomfortable conversations to take place about reform – how we approach and prosecute predators, how to support survivors and how we can continue to keep our communities and loved ones safe.

    True crime journalist, Billy Jensen, has highly publicized the idea of crowdsolving, “utilizing the eyes, ears, and expertise of individuals, both locally and across the globe via social media, to aid in the solving of crimes”, and citizen detectives, “an individual who devotes his or her time and expertise to aid in the solving of crime, without compensation or expectation of reward.”

    Through Jensen’s podcast with Paul Holes, the notorious cold case detective who solved the Golden State Killer case 40 years later, they utilize their standing with law enforcement to vet the tips and suggestions from “citizen detectives” to pass on to detectives on active cold cases.

    Take a look at how cases are being handled now. Cases from decades ago are being solved through DNA submitted in public databases, through tips after reintroducing the cases, through real and honest conversation between media and their audience.

    And that is what true crime should be, a lesson, a warning, advocacy. The shift has, and will, continue to create a space for empathy and reflection, healing for survivors and families of victims.

  • The vaccine rollout creates more controversy

    The vaccine rollout creates more controversy

    Following the tireless debate that we began to witness in March over wearing masks and the continued misuse of the social distancing mandates, we should not be surprised that continuing to adhere to these guidelines post-vaccination is questionable to some.

    Yes, according to the Center for Disease Control, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 95% effective, but that doesn’t mean you should throw away social distancing measures just yet. Although it is highly effective, the vaccine is not perfect and health care professionals remain uncomfortable with “returning to normal” after the first couple rounds of vaccines have been distributed. Dr. Michael Saag, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama, compared the pandemic to a wildfire, saying the vaccines take fuel out of the fire.

    The small chance of getting COVID-19 after receiving the vaccination continues to grow as cases are still on the surge within many counties, especially Humboldt. On Jan. 26, in a virtual meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, they indicated that although the state has lifted stay-at-home orders, Humboldt County is still in the purple tier and is expected to stay there for several weeks.

    In a new model released by the CDC, we see that around 60% of new COVID-19 cases have been linked to asymptomatic spread. The concern of scientists is that those who have been vaccinated could potentially still have the ability to spread the virus, even if they are not likely to get sick themselves. The common misconception is that once you are vaccinated, you are immune to the virus, but there is not enough evidence that suggests this to be true.

    “If they were asymptomatic but equally contagious, then that’s going to have quite an impact on the epidemic,” said Richard Menzies, an epidemiologist who directs the McGill International TB Centre in light of the new CDC model addressing asymptomatic spread. Dr. David Ho, a virologist working on developing monoclonal antibody therapies for COVID-19 at Columbia University added that it sometimes takes up to one month, or slightly longer, for protective immunity to set in after vaccination.

    It is especially important during this time that those who’ve been vaccinated continue to wear a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines. As we move through the following weeks, to ensure the effectiveness of newer vaccinations, those who are already vaccinated have an important role.

    Since vaccine distribution began in the U.S. on Dec. 4, the CDC’s daily data tracker shows that we have administered more than 30 million doses as of Monday, Feb. 1. In order to achieve herd immunity through vaccinations, experts believe 75-80% of the population or more would have to be vaccinated.

    Vaccinations are massively important in combating COVID-19, but simply administering doses to the public is not going to be enough in ending the pandemic. The best way to ensure that we are doing our part for our community is to continue adhering to mandatory state guidelines: wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance.

  • Embrace the idea of spending another year in isolation

    Embrace the idea of spending another year in isolation

    The never ending year has finally come to pass, but the cause of our suffering remains.

    When COVID-19 made its way to the United States in early 2020, the uncertainty surrounding the virus brought society and the American lifestyle to a sudden halt as businesses across the nation closed their doors and citizens locked themselves inside their own.

    As we approach the anniversary of quarantine, cases continue to rise at an alarming rate and the end of the pandemic is nowhere in sight. A new year has begun, the period of denial has long since passed and the time has come to accept and adapt to the circumstances of the pandemic, if we as a society place any value in escaping them any time soon.

    Consider this: cared for properly, the average flesh wound will heal in a matter of days. Left untreated, however, and exposed to harmful contaminants, the same wound can become infected, spread to a larger area and in extreme cases lead to the death of the damaged limb or even the host. To neglect taking the proper measures to heal the wound would be an irresponsible act that would present unnecessary risks. To intentionally expose the wound to harmful contaminants would be an unthinkably reckless act that would surely cause further harm. Now, think of it like this: COVID-19 is essentially a series of massive, infected flesh wounds we’ve allowed to spread across the body of the human race for nearly a year now.

    While the majority of people have enough sense to wear a mask in public and stay home when they get sick, in this instance, the bad apples overwhelmingly spoil the bunch. With the extremely contagious nature of COVID-19, unnecessary gatherings – especially involving anti-mask COVID-deniers, who typically come in contact with a significantly increased number of people – pose a direct and immediate threat to the entire species, as proven by the massive spikes in cases and deaths surrounding each major holiday since the pandemic began.

    The effectiveness of complete lockdowns and strict public health control measures in preventing the spread of COVID-19 have been proven time and again in Italy, the United Kingdom and especially New York, where devastating initial outbreaks were contained to manageable positions before the holiday season. The simple solution to escaping this nightmare has been clear since nearly the beginning, if only we would pay the virus the attention and respect it deserves: stay home and it will be over before we know it. Unfortunately, that’s proved to be easier said than done.

    The bottom line is if you’re not willing to be a part of the solution, you’re actively contributing to the problem. By walking around in the world without taking the necessary measures to protect yourself from the virus, you put millions of other lives at risk, you invite the virus to extend its stay, and you spit in the face of all the people doing everything they can to avoid getting sick.

    With daily cases still coming in near the peak, unless we collectively agree to adhere to the restrictions already proven to work, we can look forward to another year of ignoring the increasingly attention starved elephant in the room, while we wait for the vaccines to come to our rescue.

  • 100 Days Of Pain

    The beginning of 2021 is but an extension of 2020 – a chaotic stretch of time that feels like everything and nothing is happening. Joe Biden is not only the successor of the only US president to be impeached twice, but he is also the president that will have to enforce a nationwide mask mandate, make a futile effort to reopen schools, and direct the rollout of over 100 million vaccines.

    That’s just the stuff that Biden said he would prioritize in his first 100 days speech. He failed to include other urgent issues such as demilitarizing/restructuring the police, cancelling student debt, restoring the endangered species act, eating/taxing the rich, and housing the homeless.

    Part of Biden’s 100 day plan includes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. This is not enough for some cities such as Oakland, LA and San Francisco where rents average from $1,900 to $3,500 per month. The Fight For 15 began in 2012. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage should be at least $17.00 per hour, and that does not factor in the rise of cost of living.

    The corona crisis has brought structural issues to the nation’s attention while simultaneously preventing us from making progress. Disadvantaged students are failing due to no or poor internet access at home. We will soon see vaccines funded by the government when medical care costs are at an all-time high.

    The pandemic showed us that we can make a drastic shift in a short period of time. If we can get most people to wear masks and stop physical contact, we can convert our transportation systems to green energy. We can establish a universal basic income for those in poverty. And we can staff police stations with mental health professionals and de-escalation teams.

    Joe Biden cannot just return things to a pre-Trump era. Even if Hillary Clinton had won back in 2016, the US would still have been built on a foundation of capitalism and white supremacy. We need to move towards a society that puts people and the planet first, not money. We need to get ready for a cultural revolution.

  • It’s not just the Capitol Police

    It’s not just the Capitol Police

    As the world watched from their televisions on January 6, we witnessed scenes unfold before our eyes that were, to many, unimaginable: supporters of President Trump swarmed the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building, then proceeded to break in and advance as far as the Senate Chamber. 

    In the build up to the attack, Trump and his allies delivered speeches near the White House reaffirming his baseless claim that the election was fraudulent and that they must fight to overturn the election results.

    As rioters made their way past the barricades and through the doors, one thing was clear: at the time of the attack, there were few attempts made by police to stop the rioters. This comes as a sharp contrast to the Black Lives Matter protests that took place just this past summer, in which peaceful protestors were frequently met with violent police intervention.

    According to The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project that took place May 1 to November 28, 2020, Black Lives Matter protesters were significantly more peaceful than right wing groups, but law enforcement resorted to using force in 51% of Black Lives Matters demonstrations they engaged with, while only restoring to using force in 34% of right wing demonstrations they interacted with during the same period. 

    These statistics confirm what many activists already knew. The Lumberjack has documented the Eureka Police Department using more force against protesters in Eureka this past summer than the capitol police used when an attack was made against the capitol. The police use more force against journalists documenting protests than when right wing groups raided the capitol building. 

    On January 6, it took the National Guard four hours to deploy from the D.C. Armory from the time that the mob began making their way from where Trump was speaking. In contrast, in June at the height of the Black Lives Matters protests, there were about 1,700 National Guard members from Washington D.C. alone who were mobilized to respond to the demonstrators. 

    The feeble response from authorities in Washington D.C. to the attack on the Nation’s Capital is another undeniable example of racial biases that remain alive and thriving in this country. Our police protect white domestic terrorists and continue to endanger the lives of Black protesters advocating to have their voices heard and their equality recognized. 

    It is a message to all of the activists who choose to speak out against police brutality and all the journalists who cover the efforts of activists. Even here in Humboldt County activists face police brutality for daring to ask for an end to police brutality. Meanwhile, police open the gates across the country for violent extremists. The department might be different, but the institution is the same.

    It will take a dramatic institutional change in how the country approaches law and law enforcement to begin to dismantle the structure of white supremacy. The attack on the capitol showed the world that the institutions of law in D.C. need to change, but we have the same institutions here at home. Humboldt needs to change, too.

  • 8 of the best local places to safely visit

    Local destinations around HSU to get your adventure on during the pandemic

    (Photos by Elise Fero)

    Trust me as someone who has had COVID-19, it’s better to be in quarantine than to catch the virus and be isolated alone. So what do you do with your spare time? If you have any sort of adventurous spirit, this is the list for you. In no particular order, here is eight of the best places to go to while attending Humboldt State University.

    1. Redwood National and State Parks

    On a cold day in Redwood National Park, the forest is filled with sounds of rain hitting leaves of every individual plant

    While this is a farther location 29 miles north of campus, it’s absolutely worth the drive. This is one of the coolest and most beautiful places I’ve ever been. The area has multiple hiking trails, beaches, a canyon of ferns, and of course, the world’s tallest tree, Hyperion. If you like National Parks, go scratch this one off your list. Not only is it breathtaking, but it’s also where parts of Jurassic Park and Star Wars were filmed. It crosses between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties and protects 45 percent of the remaining coastal redwood trees. This location is an endless adventure that you can return to and still find something new.

    2. College Cove

    Waves crash against rocks where anemone and starfish live at College Cove as people walk dogs and throw frisbees in September

    College Cove is located in Trinidad about 13 miles away from campus. This location has brilliant blue water surrounded by forested boulders. Visitors walk on the beach, and some surf. You’ll also find a plethora of dogs! There are tiny pools of water where anemone and starfish live. Lots of studying to do? Bring your work here. Homework with a view while listening to the sound of waves is unmatched.

    Melanie Guillen is a freshman film major who finds serenity at College Cove.

    “I’m not really a beach person but it’s more secluded than the others,” said Guillen. “I like it.”

    3. Clam Beach

    The sun sets and the tide leaves seafoam scattered across Clam beach on Sept. 24

    This beach is closest to campus and only a short drive headed north, toward McKinleyville. The sand is soft and warm, perfect for finding sand dollars. Watch for jellyfish washed on the shore, that goes for most beaches. While it’s not surrounded by trees, looking back behind you is the forest and beautiful fog. This area is also phenomenal for sunsets and changes in the tide.

    Freshman wildlife major James Lara said he loves Clam Beach for the picturesque views.

    “I like the little dunes it has, it’s pretty cool. It’s very pretty for stargazing,” said Lara. “The water’s pretty low so you can go pretty far into the waves and be safe.”

    4. Arcata Community Forest

    If you want to explore the forest, this location is a lovely place to start. You can find loads of mushrooms. I even found a mushroom in the shape of a heart! Remember to always research and double check when foraging. The forest hosts large trees, tall and wide. There are multiple paths to take, great areas to jog or bike. There’s often people around, but you can find a little oasis within your path. At the top is Redwood Park with a friendly playground and picnic area.

    5. Moonstone Beach

    This beach looks straight out of a fairytale. Located in Trinidad, this beach is on the scenic coast and has a boardwalk. The beach is the perfect local vacation spot. The views are breathtaking, and a large stream of water flows through the sand, leaving a perfect wading area and play space for children. The beach is dog friendly, as well. Sunsets are magical, the waves are great for surfing and there are restaurants nearby. A perfect combination!

    6. Agate Beach

    Waves bring new stones in as people search for the perfect agate at Agate Beach

    Another location in Trinidad, Agate beach is located at Patrick’s Point State Park and has a campground for those interested. You do have to pay $8 for day-use but it’s well worth the expense. This beach is exactly what the name says. You’ll find people looking through all the pebbles on the beach, and you should, too! It’s also a spot to watch wildlife and be completely engulfed by nature. You shouldn’t swim here, but you can take long walks on the beach. It’s a beautiful area, and not too crazy busy. Take some time for yourself, bring a picnic basket and have a good beach day.

    7. Avenue of the Giants

    Of all of the listed locations, this is the farthest from campus at 40 miles north in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. If the name didn’t intrigue you, the description will. Imagine every post you see on Instagram or Pinterest with a van in the middle of the road surrounded by extremely tall trees, I know you know the ones I’m talking about. Those are here. The redwoods surround the road, looking like a magical pathway through 31 miles of epic perfection. Some of the trees are over 300 feet tall, and one tree is almost 1,000 years old!

    8. Forest paths around HSU

    Plants hang over a cliff to show their roots and reach for the sun underneath redwood trees allow the paths around HSU

    If you don’t drive, no worry! Stick to the paths that are connected to campus. You can find all sorts of mushrooms, ferns and creeks. This area is easy to access and absolutely beautiful. Students are usually the only people exploring, but sometimes you’ll see someone else jogging. The area is perfect for walking your pet, biking, running, or just enjoying the views. This is also the spot where I have been able to find the most banana slugs. They love blackberry bushes!

    Undeclared freshman Natalie Barber laughed with her friends, Guillen and Nicole Velazquez, about going on spontaneous adventures on the paths around HSU.

    “One day you’ll be like you guys wanna go hiking? Yeah okay! Let me get my bag ready,” said Barber.