Task: Explore the neighborhoods surrounding Occidental to see what local restaurants and events Los Angeles has to offer for one night under $15.
Dinner: El Huarache Azteca
Cost: $5
Location: Highland Park. About one mile from campus – an easy walk or bike ride away.
Amidst the stretch of Mexican-style restaurants along York Boulevard, El Huarache Azteca stands out for its authentic huaraches and welcoming atmosphere. Decorated by a large billboard advertising tacos and huaraches, the restaurant offers an intimate arrangement of indoor and outdoor seating. The aroma of fresh fried bread wafts from the open kitchen located adjacent to the entrance. Surrounding the walls of the restaurant are framed newspaper reviews highlighting the restaurant’s outstanding delivery of authentic Mexican food.
The expansive menu is divided by breakfast, appetizer, lunch and dinner options and is complete with photographs of the meals such as fajitas, burritos, and enchiladas. The most noteworthy category of the menu is the antojitos, or snacks. All antojitos are under $5 and are plenty filling for dinner. Among the antojitos are the huaraches, a Mexican dish that consists of a fried, masa base with a variety of toppings such as carne asada, salsa, cheese and onions. Meat and vegetarian options are available, as well as additional toppings of corn, pumpkin flower and potatoes with jalapeños.
For those wishing to fill the Mexican food void without the typical addition of carne asada, the huarache vegetariano is a scrumptious choice. The plate consists of a shoe-shaped fried, homemade masa, topped with mushrooms, sweet corn, melted cotija cheese, a creamy green mole and cilantro. With the addition of salsa, onions and peppers from a toppings bar in front of the kitchen, the plate is chock-full of delectable bursts of corn and dashes of peppery salsa.
Drink options include aguas frescas, fruit- and flower-flavored beverages combined with water and sugar. Visible through the open back of the toppings bar are jugs of the six different flavors. Alongside the milky horchata and orange melon waters, the agua fresca de jamiaca stands out in its deep red hue. Made from Hibiscus flower, the lightly sweetened juice is a soothing compliment to the creamy mole and spices from the huarache.
Next stop: The Comedy Palace Cost: $0 – There is no cover charge and no drink requirement.
Location: Los Feliz area, about six miles from campus, fifteen minutes away.
A weekly comedy show, The Comedy Palace is situated above a Chinese restaurant (The Palace) in Los Feliz. The show offers free entertainment from a varying list of entertainers, which often includes comedians from Comedy Central, “The Chelsea Lately Show,” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Providing an intimate setting, the show offers audience members a close connection with each performer. The stage is defined by red curtains, a shining spotlight and a singular microphone stand. The nontraditional ambience of the show is exemplified by the Chinese lanterns and floral designs lining the walls.
Comedy Palace’s most recent show on Thursday, Feb. 20 included performers such as Demetri Martin (“Important Things with Demetri Martin”), Louis Katz (“Comedy Central Presents”) and Brody Stevens (“The Hangover”). The two-hour show was filled with constant laughter from the welcoming crowd. Each comedian presented their own farcical outlook on topics such as hipster style, the sexual orientation of Will Smith and the ambiguity of tomatoes.
The dining room chairs fill up quickly as first-timers and frequenters alike come to experience a night of free laughs.
Living in the Los Angeles area can get pricey, so restaurant and entertainment options such as the two highlighted here are important for college students. The variety of dining and shows ranges far beyond those listed, and extends throughout the greater L.A. area.
Donning an entirely black outfit and black-rimmed glasses, Professor of English and Comparative Literature Studies (ECLS) Martha Ronk stepped up to the lectern.Students chattered outside the window, but as Ronk swung from poem to poem, Johnson Student Center’s Morrison Lounge disconnected from the college just beyond its walls and the audience sat transfixed by the lines during her poetry reading on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Her ensemble already fit the demeanor of a Hogwarts professor, but as the reading began, it was was though she was working magic with words and the melancholy nature of her work.
Students absorbed the words, knowing that because it is Ronk’s last semester at Occidental, there is a finite amount of time left to pick the accomplished poet’s brain. Between the segments of her performance, Ronk explained where she drew inspiration for each book, citing “Hamlet” as a catalyst for “Why/Why Not,” andhumans’ connection to objects and the transience of memory as the thread running throughout “Transfer of Qualities” and “Vertigo,” respectively.
The thematic nature of Ronk’s work derives from very specific experiences. “All of my books have somehow come out of being in the arena of somebody else’s work or some area like the desert, so I wrote a book about the desert and what it was like to be in Joshua Tree and places like that,” Ronk said.
Ronk draws inspiration from writerssuch as Henry James and W. B. Yates, and also imitates their sentence structure and reworks their words into titles for her own pieces. During her reading, Ronk debunked the image of a poet being struck by the perfect words and copying them down in one effortless try. She emphasized the work and editing that poetry requires, a concept she passes on to students in her creative writing and Shakespeare courses.
“Every time you think you’re done workshopping a poem, she always gives you a little bit more that you could do,” Editor-in-Chief of Feast magazineand English and Comparative Literature Studies (ECLS) major Theodora Doyon (junior) said. “She’s always asking more of you.”
Ronk’s poetic work has been chosen for the National Poetry Series and received a PEN Center USA Literary Award for poetry by an author from west of the Mississippi. Her latest book, “Transfer of Qualities,” is a National Book Award long-list selection. In addition, she has published a number of short stories and scholarly pieces.
Although this is Ronk’s last semester at Occidental, she hopes to return and occasionally teach individual classes (rather than a full course load)while also continuing her own writing.
It was a quote from engineer Jiro Horikoshi that inspired Oscar-winning animator and head of Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki to tell the aeronautical engineer’s story in his final directorial achievement, “The Wind Rises.”
“All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful,” Horikoshi, the designer responsible for fighter planes used by the Japanese in World War II, said.
Though Miyazaki is best known for fantasy films such as “Spirited Away” (2001), “Howl’s Moving Castle”(2004)and “My Neighbor Totoro”(1988), he has added a number of works of historical fiction to his repertoire in recent years with “From Up On Poppy Hill”(2011) and “The Wind Rises.” These films depict the distinctly Japanese struggle to modernize in the pre- and post-World War II era. Miyazaki’s own discomfort with modernization and neglect of the natural world are prevalent themes throughout his entire body of work, but these sentiments are especially apparent in his most recent film.
Miyazaki portrays the engineer Horikoshi as an artist obsessed with creating the ultimate plane, which isdepicted throughout the film as a white, bird-like form, unencumbered by guns or armor. The young designer struggles with the harsh reality that upon completion, his designs will be used to craft agents of destruction that will be responsible for the deaths of thousands of his own countrymen.
Horikoshi’s internal conflict is portrayed in the painterly, poetic style of Studio Ghibli, as sleep carries the protagonist into a surreal dream state throughout the film. In these sequences, he conducts a dialogue with an idealized version of a forgotten idol in the field of aeronautical engineering. The bright color, bustling, vibrant wildlife and exaggerated, peaceful forms of the planes in these scenes provide Horikoshi and the viewer alike with a respite from the harsh reality of looming war and economic depression in Japan.
Though Horikoshi’s creations would bring about thousands of deaths in the coming war, Miyazaki stays true to Ghibli aestheticand brightens the film’s tragic undertones with scenes of childlike innocence and optimism. These moments are provided by the protagonist’s younger sister and ailing bride-to-be, as they reinforce the feminist sentiments of Miyazaki films, while showing the viewer that positivity is even possible in the face of death and illnesseven .
Even the characters most deeply involved in the wartime politics of the film, who might be considered evil or unjust in their efforts to start another world war, are morally ambiguous. Horikoshi’s hard-nosed employer best exemplifies this role, as he works not only for the pride of the Japanese military but also empathizes with the passion of his employees. He exhibits reserved admiration for Horikoshi’s creativity and dedication to his craft, and provides stalwart emotional support in Horikoshi’s hour of need.
Ultimately, “The Wind Rises”is the culmination of a number of themes developed consistently throughout Miyazaki’s career. The animator’s appreciation for simplicity and tradition are realized through vivid depictions of the landscape that contrast immensely with the industrial constructs of pre-wartime Japan. Miyazaki’s films have consistently used the sky and bodies of water as symbols of detachment from materialistic, human motives.
In “The Wind Rises,” the secular realm takes to the skies in the form of fighter planes, corrupting the celestial symbol of the sky held in such esteem by Miyazaki. However, as is always the case with Ghibli films, the viewer is able to look at a tragic situation in a positive light thanks to the shared passion, creativity and support for one another exhibited by the film’s characters.
Only the beta of “Titanfall,” not the full game, is available right now. The opinions expressed in this article are reflective of my time with the beta. However, disclaimer, even the unfinished product is revolutionary and its reaction is nothing short of stellar.
Recently the “Titanfall” beta became available to Xbox One owners. Those lucky enough to receive their code have the chance to play one of the most anticipated games of 2014 a month before its official release. Publisher Electronic Arts (EA) and developer Respawn Entertainmenthave created a game that might be changing the first-person shooter (FPS).
“Titanfall” breaks the mold that has been left behind by years of “Call of Duty” games and their clones.
How does Titanfall break years of monotony? With free running, jump packs and giant robots that fall from the sky every two minutes.
These robots, or “Titans,” are unique to each player and can either be piloted (solely by the owner) or auto-piloted. Titans spawn on a timer that every player or “pilot” can shorten by preforming better in the heat of battle. Kills, objective scores and assists all lead to a reduced interval for a new titan.
The pilots have incredible stamina and are equipped with jump-packs, giving them the ability to run on walls and double-jump. The use of these two abilities makes the game remarkably vertical. Pilots have the ability to gain a vantage point by climbing tall buildings in a series of parkour-esque movements, all of which happen in the first person.
The controls are tight and the game runs fluidly. Fans of FPS games will know when controls just feel good in the players hands and “Titanfall” does exactly that. Players with a background in military FPS video games will have no trouble picking up the controller and mastering the parkour and piloting elements in only a few matches.
The beta did feel limiting in the amount of weapons and full customization options, but more complete load-outs will be available in the full game. All the new elements, like parkour and Titan gameplay, can be seen within about three hours of gameplay. Initially that can be concerning, claiming that the new elements are fleeting or that the enjoyment and newness could be short-lived. However, as with most multiplayer games, repetition is okay so long as the actions being repeated are fun, and with “Titanfall” they are.
EA went all in on “Titanfall;” they are taking chances while keeping the best parts that have been present for years in FPS games. It is nice to see massive publishers like EA taking a chance on a new intellectual property that dares to stray away from the original formula. Hopefully, “Titanfall” will start a trend to prove to other publishers that taking a calculated risk can be very worthwhile.
So far, “Titanfall” looks to be as good as it set out to be. It just might be good enough to buy an Xbox One.
Special thanks to Diplomacy and World Affairs and theater major Reza Vojdani (senior) for allowing the use of his Xbox One, making this review possible.
Numerous heated conversations have transpired about the social scene at Occidental since the moratorium on school dances last fall, yet virtually none delve into the complex relationship students have with alcohol. Although both sides of the debate have raised pointed questions and concerns about the implications of Occidental’s policy regarding alcohol use, the extent to which students use and abuse alcohol has yet to take center stage in such discussions. On the majority of college campuses — Occidental included — students, administrators and, to a certain extent, faculty members implicitly condone a culture of abusive consumption of alcohol that can adversely affect students’ lives.
Just as with coffee or chocolate cake, alcohol in moderation can be consumed in manageable ways that does not negatively affect people’s daily doings. It also serves important social functions across different cultures and is not, in and of itself, a product that merits immediate dismissal as problematic. What does necessitate further evaluation, however, is how heavily people consume it, why they consume it in excessive amounts and why the tacit abuse use of alcohol is accepted in our national and collegiate cultures.
We have reached a point as a society where the culture of alcohol consumption by young people has become almost exclusively one of dangerous and excessive binging. Students often joke with one another about being alcoholics or having alcoholic tendencies, but seldom do students reflect on their own or their friends’ experiences with alcohol. For many,the hardest part of confronting an abusive relationship with alcohol is admitting that a problem exists in the first place.
While the majority of Occidental students would not necessarily fall under the category of an alcohol abuser, some do, and many students have had negative experiences of drinking too much. Instead of reflecting on why those experiences were harmful and devising strategies for avoiding them in the future, students often dismiss bad nights of drinking as a night of “going too hard” and laugh about the wild things they did but do not remember.
Whether students drink to celebrate achievements, to distract themselves from a test they bombed or to help them in their social lives, all students have some kind of relationship with alcohol. Although it should be stated that many students choose to abstain from drinking altogether and others consume alcohol in a non-problematic way, those students are nevertheless affected: the person who binge drinks every night of every weekend could be the friend of a student who does not drink at all. As a small insular community, students should want to be there for their peers if they are struggling.
This unspoken issue of alcohol abuse does not cease at the end of undergraduate careers. Individuals who develop an abusive relationship with alcohol at an early age have a much higher chance of developing alcoholism later in life. As has been made abundantly clear, a culture of dangerous drinking behaviors pervades campus life and simply telling students who engage in unhealthy behaviors to stop is inexcusably naïve. If students feel concern about their own or their friends’ consumption of alcohol, then a respectful, nonjudgmental and open space must be created so that, as a student body, we can more honestly understand the abusive use of alcohol.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), nearly half of undergraduates who consume alcohol binge drink, meaning that they consume four to five drinks over a two-hour period. A quarter of college students experience difficulties in their academic lives as a consequence of their drinking, including missing class and receiving lower grades. Alcohol-related health problems develop in over 150,000 college students, while 19 percent of 18- to 24-year-old undergraduates qualify as having dependent or abusive relationships with alcohol. At a school of Occidental’s size, that would amount to approximately 400 students who abuse alcohol.
Alcoholism, defined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as the inability to stop drinking once a person starts drinking (in one sitting), having a high tolerance, craving alcohol and “continued use despite repeated physical, psychological, or interpersonal problems,” affects millions of Americans. Alcohol abuse, on the other hand, is defined by the CDC as the use of alcohol that negatively impacts a person’s health, work and relationships. According to the NIAAA, 17 million Americans either abuse alcohol or qualify as alcoholics, and alcohol-related deaths are the third-leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.
The reality is that although many students may not qualify as “alcoholics” per se, many have a problematic relationship with alcohol. If students who struggle with their alcohol use do not address their abuse of or dependence on it, transitioning out of college will be all the more difficult.
Alcoholcan serve as a “social lubricant” not only in college parties but also in life after college. Social gatherings — from weddings to office parties to weekend activities — tend to revolve around the consumption of alcohol. Seniors can expect to continue participating in a drinking culture after they graduate, whether they are grabbing drinks with coworkers at the end of the week or trying to make friends after moving to a new city.
It is imperative that students ask themselves and each other how alcohol use and abuse ripples out into their personal lives, their professional lives and their surrounding community. Occidental students are well-versed in the harmful consequences of binge drinking, including violence against others, sexual assault, death and unintended injury. But as a community, Occidental needs to move beyond this basic understanding of alcohol abuse. The takeaway point is not to shame people about their behaviors or to definitively vilify alcohol, but instead to get students — and the rest of the Occidental community— thinking more critically about how, why and when they use alcohol. Cordelia Kenney is a senior history major. She can be reached at ckenney@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyCKenney.
California is currently experiencing the third straight year of below-average rainfall, causing the state to enter into a severe state ofdrought. The lack of rainfall decimates harvestsand infringes on the ability of local authorities to reliably provide basic amenities such as drinking water. Simultaneouslyhappening on the other side of the world, following months of severe storms that have flooded thousands of homes and drenched vast amounts of farmland, the United Kingdom is experiencing the wettest winter on record. Governmental response has so far focused on relieving those who have been directly affected by the weather, which does nothing to help the communities if a similar weather pattern occurs in the future. There needs to be a greater focus on what is causing these events and why the human impacts are so devastatingly widespread.
Following the driest year on record, which left nearly two-thirds of the state in an extreme drought, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a statewide drought emergency on Jan. 17, followed by a $687 million comprehensive proposal of relief funds on Feb. 19. The plan includes provisions for emergency food and housing for those whose jobs have been lost due to the drought, as well as funds to provide drinking water and improve irrigation. Yet nowhere in the plan does it suggest implementing some form of water conservation program to encourage residents and businesses to stop wasting water when maintaining swimming pools or cultivating gardens.
Brown has been asking for a voluntary reduction in water usage, but people are unwilling to forgo their luxuries. For water conservation to have any success, mandatory water restrictions need to be put in place. There is precedent of such a tactic working elsewhere; hosepipe bans are, somewhat ironically, a tried and tested way of conserving water during particularly dry years in the U.K. Strict restrictions on water consumption should be put in place in order to avoid the necessity of paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in relief funds in the future.
While addressing a water crisis, the U.K. government is preoccupied with announcing tax breaks and grant schemes for those forced from their homes during the flooding, instead of dealingwith the reasons behind such a sustained problem in the first place. With more than 5,000 homes and businesses flooded and no end to the wet weather in sight, it has become the political priority to placate the thousands of voters affected by the flood before the general election next year.
As a result, members of the government actively avoid considering some physical factors that have exacerbated the situation, such as the refusal to dredge rivers early in the season. They also lay blame to actions taken when the opposition were in power, such as allowing building on floodplains. Most floodplain areas are protected against development due to flooding concerns, but about 13 percent of all developments are still planned in areas with high risk of floods. In order to avoid the catastrophe the viability of some buildings currently on the plains should be reconsidered.
There are also problems with inadequate sea and flood defenses. The Thames Barrier, a large flood defense protecting central London from tidal surges and flooding, built for the modern day equivalent of $2.6 billion of tax payers money, has been raised 40 times so far this year. Since becoming operational in 1983 the barrier has been raised a total 166 times. These statistics are staggering and raise questions about the effectiveness of the barrier and the availability of alternatives to prevent a devastating flood of the capital. The reasons behind such high water levels and ways to protect and prevent such extreme weather patterns must be considered, not just the homes of a few thousand members of the voting public.
At a time when natural resources are running short, policy makers need to consider ways in which resources can be preserved and reassesstheir lifestyle in terms of sustainability. It is unknown if these weather patterns represent a trend that will plague the Northern Hemisphere for years to come, but the possibility must be considered by policy makers and provisions must be made. Neither California nor the U.K. can survive many more years if this weather pattern persists. The focus for legislators is currently on the short term, on visibly being concerned for the voting public, rather than considering the long term implications for future generations. This may not be an ongoing trend, but it is necessary to start asking questions. The “why” should not be forgotten even after the communities devastated by this season have recovered. Charlotte Flight is a junior Media Arts and Culture major. She can be reached at flight@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyCFlight.
The media capitalize on scandal. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s recent drug overdose was still feeding stories ten days after his death. Comedian Sid Caesar passed away another ten days later, and again the media had the opportunity to report on drugs: Caesar was an addict in his thirties. But for stars such as Caesar, Shirley Temple Black and Pete Seeger (two more celebrities who recently passed away), the dark periods of their lives did not overshadow the accomplishments highlighted in their obituaries. Hoffman’s obituary, in contrast, was tainted by the circumstances of his death.
The opening paragraphs of a story are the most important, since nowadays they are often the only part of a story that people read. As a result, the media were in the position to designate the most important aspect of Hoffman’s death, and they chose drugs instead of Hoffman’s accomplishments, which include an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Illustrating the media’s lack of restraint when publicizing scandal, NBC released the contents of Hoffman’s private diary online.
These breaches of privacy that capitalize on scandals attacks not only Hoffman’s legacy, but his surviving family members as they grieve. Private information about him, his children and his longtime girlfriend and mother of his children is not the public’s business. In fact, Twitter users denouced NBC and the police who released the diary by using words like “nauseatingly intrusive,” “tacky” and “despicable,” according to an Los Angeles Times article.
Seeger, Temple Black and Caesar’s deaths did not need scandal to be newsworthy, even though their renown is fading. They merited significant media coverage simply because of their celebritystatus, and even more so because they made positive contributions to the world.
When covering a celebrity death, news outlets must consider what interests their audience, what captures attention and makes a story unique. There is a fine line between reporting the news and dragging out a scandal. It is newsworthy that Hoffman died of a drug overdose since he died young and unexpectedly. However, the media portrayed drugs as a side-note to Caesar’s life, withhis comedy as its defining feature. With Hoffman’s impressive list of accomplishments, his acting should have been the put first as well.
Seeger’s life was celebrated with a two-page spread in The New York Times. The Times articles, as well as numerous others by outlets including NPR, CNN and the Huffington Post, were complimentary of a life that lent momentum and a voice to activism from the ’40sright up to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. It is not that Seeger’s life was without any scandalous features – he was a Communist in the ’40s and was indicted for contempt of Congress, according to The Times article. That being said, the scandals in his life were recalled without tainting the message that a person who made a positive contribution to the world had died.
It seems that drug use permits an override of respect for the dead. The cause of Hoffman’s death was not immediately verified, but the evidence that he was found with a syringe in his arm and heroin in his apartment was enough to let loose a flood of coverage prefaced with the phrase “drug overdose.” Again, the media outlets reported on a life lost, this time weaving the stories with details about an ongoing struggle with addiction.
Weighed against his exceptional lifeand career, the circumstances of Hoffman’s death merely provide shock value and are otherwise unimportant. His name merits headlines whether he overdosed or not. His life was worthy of celebration and his memory deserves more than a drug scandal.
Lena Smith is a sophomore group language major. She can be reached at lenasmith@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyLSmith.
I would like to take this opportunity to respond to The Weekly’s recent opinion article about Greek Life’s exclusivity. Speaking on behalf of Greek Council, I want to offer our perspective as well as more information regarding this semester’s Recruitment Week.
Before I address the points raised by last week’s article, I want to state that not all Greek organizations participate in Greek Council’s Formal Recruitment, so efforts to generalize all organizations overlook the true makeup of Greek Life at Oxy. Sigma Lambda Gamma and Kappa Alpha Psi conduct their own independent Recruitments and have different intake system without a bid process that caters to students specifically interested in them. When discussing the Greek system it is important to take the different processes into account, as doing so will lead to further understanding of why organizations conduct Recruitment in different ways.
This spring, 209 students registered for Formal Recruitment to meet six out of eight Greek organizations. That number is higher than it has ever been since I personally have been at Oxy, unsurprisingly – the Greek population at Oxy has climbed from 10 percent to 25 of the student population in three years. These increased numbers clearly demonstrate that students see Greek Life at Oxy as a positive and beneficial feature to student life. We like to pride ourselves on being inclusive, and we are, compared to most other schools, but certain factors now structurally prevent our organizations from accepting every interested student. However, Greek organizations must take into consideration significant risk when accepting too large a new member class.
When organizations have too many members, their leaders have more difficulty with member management and accountability, and have fewer resources to use to further their organizations’ goals. Some organizations’ facilities are just too small to fit more than a certain number of members. And recent experiences over the past few years have shown that a larger new member class leads to more new members dropping out of their organizations, as they have a more difficult time truly becoming a part of their new organization on an individual level.
Risk is perhaps the most important issue. Risk management is a large and admirable part of Greek organization leadership, and when an executive board cannot adequately manage all of their members under risk policies, bad things happen. As much as inclusivity is extremely important, we cannot be fully inclusive at the risk of damaging or losing existing organizations.
We have been challenged to come up with a solution to this problem, and we think expansion is the appropriate step toward this solution. This spring, Delta Sigma Theta sorority will be forming a new chapter on our campus. Oxy students must know, though, that the expansion process is long and difficult, but we are working as fast as we can to continue to bring new Greek organizations to campus. Inclusivity is one of Greek Council’s core values, and we recognized this problem and began working to create an expansion process long before The Weekly’s article reminded us.
We hope this letter offers a bit of clarification about our recruitment process. Greek Council is planning an informational panel to take place in April, and if anyone has further questions about expansion or Greek Life in general we would be happy to address them there. Check our Facebook page, Occidental College Greek Council, for updates.
Christian Wolfgram (Sigma Alpha Epsilon President)
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Dear Editor,
The question of Occidental’s tolerance, or lack thereof, is a recurring debate that resurfaces every semester. Usually, the central subject of Oxy’s tolerance debates revolve around how accepting a “liberal” college is or is not to conservatives, racists, sexists, homophobes, etc. This conversation is worth having because debate and action are necessary to improving our campus climate for all students. However, I write this in hopes to bring a certain counterargument to Ms. Juliet Suess’s definition of “tolerance” or lack thereof.
To illustrate her point, Suess defines intolerance as a simple reactive backlash toward an unpopular opinion. I would argue that the “intolerance” she claims this campus exhibits is more complex than a knee-jerk reaction. I would even contend that the majority of this campus fails to even qualify as a “liberal” or “progressive.” This is not to say that everyone, save for a select few, are racist/classist/sexist, but rather if this campus were truly “liberal,” there would not be a prevalent need for various student organizations to combat intolerance. Organizations such as O.S.A.C. (Occidental Sexual Assault Coalition) and C.O.D.E. (Coalition at Oxy for Diversity and Ex have demonstrated the history of institutional ineptitude toward issues like sexual assault and diversity. These organizations have also suggested, empirically, that part of the campus climate fuels our ongoing problems.
As someone who has programmed numerous events for the Black Student Alliance in years past, as well as an attendee or programmer of various related events, I can attest that the audience reaction is not as hostile to intolerance as the piece suggested. This is not to say that the opinions expressed by audience don’t conflict or that the analysis is always on-point. However, given the lacking presence of the “conservative” people at these events, it is very hypocritical for these same absentee critics to indict these meetings as “intolerant.”
Therefore, is it not only not “intolerant,” but it is absolutely necessary to call out persistent problematic behaviors. There are numerous emotional and physical consequences when dealing with oppressive behavior. The same cannot be said of those whose oppressive behaviors get called out.
If someone dislikes Ke$ha’s music for artistic reasons, they aren’t demonstrating the same hatred that many other marginalized groups go through. It’s apples and oranges.
Therefore, it makes sense that Dean Avery and a whole host of students would have a visceral reaction to the Nazi swastika. Regardless of the intent behind the swastika’s posting on the door, the symbol still represents a legacy and ongoing ideology of anti-Semitism, racism, and genocide: a true representation of intolerance. The absence of malintent does not excuse how hurtful someone or something can be.
I neither write this letter to silence Ms. Suess’s opinions nor to indict against The Occidental Weekly. Rather, I just want to deconstruct this notion of challenging intolerance as, in fact, a form of intolerance. It is this notion, of which, I find to be somewhat insulting to the work many people have done and are currently doing to create a safe, equitable, and democratic space on campus.
It’s a Wednesday. You’re walking through the quad on the way to your second class of the day, and the ground starts to rumble. The trees that line the quad sway vigorously, and cracking sounds ring through the air. Three seconds have passed and you can barely stand up on the shaking ground. You duck under a the wooden bench and begin counting to distract yourself from the mayhem. Tiles from the roofs of Johnson and Fowler slip and come crashing to the ground. You hold on to the leg of the bench and cover your neck. Branches whip through the air and fall next to you. You keep counting, waiting for the shaking to stop.
On average, there is a magnitude seven or greaterearthquake south of the San Gabriel Mountains every 150 years, but the last one to shake Los Angeles that severely occurred in 1769. While a large rupture is expected along the San Andreas Fault, a major geographical fault that runs through California,geologists can not predict the exact time that the next “big one” will happen.
According to a U.S. Geological Survey study called the “Shakeout Report,” when a high-magnitude earthquake does shake the San Andreas Fault, the damage to L.A. will far exceed that of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. While the 6.7-magnitude Northridge earthquake affected about 500,000 people, the next big one along the San Andreas Fault could affect up to 10 million California residents.
Dr. Lucile Jones, a leading earthquake expert, recently gave a lecture in front of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco entitled “Imagine America without Los Angeles.”Nicknamed “The Earthquake Lady,” Jones highlighted how Southern Californians need to worry about keeping the complex social structure of L.A. in place after the next big earthquake. Power lines, train tracks and freeways traverse the San Andreas Fault. If the fault were to rupture and L.A. were to experience an earthquake of magnitude seven or higher, commuters residing on opposite sides of the fault would be stranded, about 1800 people would die and at least 1500 buildings would collapse.
According to Professor of geology Brandon Browne,Californians should be focused not on the timing of an earthquake, but on their level of preparedness should one hit.
“The San Andreas Fault has caused a lot of big earthquakes before, and it will have big earthquakes again,” Browne said. “We shouldn’t be worrying about if the earthquake is going to occur tomorrow but, rather,if the earthquake were to occur tomorrow, how would we deal with that?”
With Occidental’s campus located in northeast L.A., the community has acknowledged that the next “big one” may detrimentally affect the city and thecampus, and the college has taken important steps toward emergency preparedness.
The Facilities Management and Campus Safety departments at Occidental constructed an Emergency Operations Plan to be implemented in the event of an earthquake. Life safety, preservation of the environment, preservation of property and business recovery are the college’s priorities. In the event of an earthquake, the Emergency Operations Plan can be implemented whether or not the phones are operational or the incident occurs after normal business hours.
If an earthquake affects Occidental, an Emergency Operations Center will be headquartered at Campus Security’s office, where members of the Occidental community will assume new roles in order to help campus recovery.
“[The Center] is not very big,” said Director of Campus Safety Holly Nieto.“Because what it needs to be is flexible.”
Occidental has implemented initiatives for earthquake preparedness such as “Oxy Has a Plan For That,” in which students were sent an e-mail highlighting an emergency action summary in the event of an earthquake. The school is also going to place “Oxy Emergency Procedures Flipcharts” throughout campus as guides to appropriately deal with and prepare for emergencies such as earthquakes. Additionally, each academic department is currently working individualized plans. Members of Campus Safety are also considering offering meetings in April, which is Earthquake Awareness Month, for community members to engage with each other on the topic.
Occidental students who have taken or who are taking “Earth: Our Environment” (GEO 105) or “Geologic Hazards” (GEO 240) have been exposed to the likelihood of earthquakes in Southern California.
“I don’t think Oxy students realize how real the risk is,” geology major Aly Thibault (junior) said. “Not everyone takes the seconds to think about how the earthquake would affect us. I don’t think that school would be able to continue a semester that ‘the big one’ hits.”
Nieto stressed that all students need to keep a case of water in their rooms, as food and water may be hard to come by after a high-magnitude earthquake. However, there are stashes of water all over Occidental’s campus. There are cases of water in each residence hall, a storage shed by Fiji with 55-gallon drums of water and large containers of water holding up Bike Share’s benchesunder Berkus Hall. Occidental’s water storages will be invaluable to the community when the next “big one” hits, as many of L.A.’s water pipes are expected to break during the next major earthquake.
“Remember the first thing you put in in a city is the water pipes. That means our water pipes are some of the oldest parts of our infrastructure,” Jones said. “Seventy percent of the water pipes in Southern California are AC pipes and many of them will be breaking when this earthquake happens.”
While creating access to emergency water is one issue, supplying the college with food presents another. According to Nieto, students should also store non-perishable food in their rooms in preparation for a possible earthquake.If a high-magnitude earthquake hits L.A., the college will only be able to feed students for a certain amount of time.
“Campus dining will be able to sustain us with food for at least three days before we really have to start worrying,” Nieto said.
This could become a problem as L.A.-area supermarkets depend on Internet systems for storing and shipping food to stores within the city. With the development of the Internet and increased immediacy of budgeting, grocery stores no longer store food on the L.A. side of the San Andreas Fault.
In her lecture, Jones stressed modern society’s dependence on the Internet and telecommunication as a vulnerability that will slow recovery after the next major earthquake.
“The World Wide Web wasn’t in existence at the time of the Northridge earthquake,” Jones said. “Right now, think of how much both your personal life, but also our economic system, depends on having cell phone communications and internet connectivity.”
As large power lines cross the San Andreas fault, fiber optics could also be cut off when the next high-magnitude earthquake occurs.
“Two-thirds of the connectivity from Los Angeles to the rest of the world go through fiber-optic cables crossing the San Andreas Fault,” Jones said. “So we expect, at the time of the earthquake when the fault moves, we will break these fiber-optic cables and two-thirds of the data capacity between Los Angeles and everyone else will disappear.”
Apart from the technological impacts that an earthquake could cause, L.A. residents will also face the possibility of structural damage. Occidental’s campus was resilient in the face of the Northridge earthquake. Swan Hall and Johnson Hall suffered the most damage but both buildings have been restored and retrofitted since.
“Our buildings have withstood nicely,” Nieto said of buildings that have withstood earthquakes in the past, crediting architect Myron Hunt’s original designs.
Points of danger on campus during the next earthquake will be buildings with many glass windows, areas outdoors where clay tiles can fall from building roofs and science buildings, where chemicals may be released from fume hoods.
However, since 1997 Federal Emergency Management Company (FEMA) building guidelines in L.A. require a 90 percent probability of not collapsing, as it is not cost-effective construction to ensure that a building won’t fall down, and investors otherwise may not. That means there remains a 10 percent chance that all buildings built after 1997 in L.A. could collapse.
If a building is irreparably damaged, a red tag is put on it to indicate that it must be torn down. In the Northridge earthquake, there were 230 building collapses in L.A. and 2,300 red tags. Additionally, yellow tags are put on buildings after an earthquake to indicate that they are not safe to live in during the aftershock sequence. After the Northridge earthquake, there were four yellow-tagged buildings for every single red-tagged building.
“This actually implies that virtually all of our buildings are non-inhabitable,” Jones said. “This is not something that means our cities can survive.”
While many houses in L.A. will be uninhabitable when the next “big one” hits, Occidental will be a place of harbor, according to Nieto.
Occidental is currently working on agreements with Red Cross to have the collegedesignated as a location of shelter for locals in order to acquireadditional supplies, such as food, water, search–and–rescue–services and cots. Occidental also has contingency plans with companies that will do an assessment of the campus after an earthquakeand the college is first on lists for deliveries of fresh food. Occidental has been in communication with LAPD so they know the college’s needs in the event of an earthquake and are aware of structurally weak spots on campus.
“You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket,” Nieto said. “The best thing anybody can ever do is just be aware.”
It would appear, then, that Occidental does have a plan for that.
“It’s nice to know we won’t be completely on our own and Oxy is going to help us out when disaster strikes,” Thibault said. “An earthquake can happen any second, and that’s what I keep thinking about.”
The Redskins’ namesake is not a new problem. For decades, people have been concerned with the racial slur that is their mascot.
Last year, though, the problem reached fever pitch. Suddenly, the debate was on every sports channel and every news program: Would the Redskins change their infamous logo?
Then members of Congress involved themselves instead of allowing the process to sort itself out naturally.
Some in Congress are trying to make a name for themselves by using the issue as a way to get attention. They have threatened the Redskins — a private organization — with a change in tax status, which effectively means a loss in revenue.
It is obnoxious enough to watch a football game with overly attentive referees, but it is even more of a power trip for Congress to get involved in such a matter.
The name “Redskins” is not trivial to some; it is deeply offensive and should be changed. But Congress’ job is not to be commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). It is to safeguard the interests of the United States’ citizens in an increasingly global society. Perhaps Congress should be more concerned with the many injustices occurring around the world, for instance the unrest in Ukraine or Venezuela.
Even then, Congress is assuming an imperialistic role in which it perceives itself as correct and the rest of the world as incorrect. Congress should instead focus on protecting the rights of freedom of speech and expression, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, rather than the dealings of a private organization.
This is not the first time that Congress has intruded upon a professional sports league. It previously heard testimony on Major League Baseball’s (MLB) problems with players using banned substances, including steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.
It is time for certain individuals to stop meddling in an ultra-popular institution just for the sake of notoriety and vote mongering. Sports leagues should have the power and capability to dictate their own regulations, assuming that no laws are violated.
While the name “Redskins” may be offensive, it is not against any laws set forth by the Constitution. Therefore, Congress is outside of its boundaries. In fact, it would violate the Constitution by invading on the Redskins’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.
Matters of pro sports should be sorted out in the public sphere by fans and by teams. Unless Congress plans on donning a black and white striped shirt, it has no place in the realm of athletics.
Juliet Suess is a senior ECLS major. She can be reached at suess@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyJSuess.
