America.

“Land of the free”, “home of the brave”, and ambition magnet. Isn’t that why people are willing to risk their lives crossing the Rio Grande? And why students everywhere dream of our ivy-covered, top-notch universities? You know, the ones that are financially inaccessible, even to Americans?

It all starts when you’re very young. Somehow you’re convinced that, once you get your college degree in this glorious nation, nothing could possibly go wrong after that.

Reality, on the other hand, hits you (and hits you hard) when you start realizing how pricy that ticket to success-land is.

With tuition rates ranging roughly from $5,000 to $40,000 a year, the USA is the most expensive country for a college student in the world. Ironically enough, according to the US Census Bureau, the average person between the ages of 18 and 24, of any race or sex, working a full time job in 2010, made only $23,060 a year. So you CAN go to a public, in-state, $15,000 College while working a full time job at 18 and support yourself. As long as you make sure you don’t spend more than $900 a month on food, rent, electricity and water. Don’t even think of getting a car.  Sounds doable, especially with today’s economy and housing rates, right?

But hey, if you ask mom and dad to pay, your odds are a little better: the US Census Bureau also found that in 2010, the average income of a family household, of any race, is $79,720 a year. That’s a FAMILY household, mom and dad combined are making money to support themselves, the house, the bills AND you and your two or three siblings. Sure, it’s easy to have the heart to ask them for 40 percent of their yearly income, right?

But come on! This is America, land of opportunities! Tuition costs a lot? You can TRY to get around it.

First off, you can get a scholarship. It’s easy. You either have to have the highest grades in the region (never mind that an A has become easier and easier to get these days) OR, if you’re not the brightest pea in your pod, fear not! You can STILL get a scholarship! I mean, of course, most of the time it will only pay off about 10 percent of what you need, and you also need to qualify for a long, never-ending list of qualifications: does your parent work for that big-shot company? Are you Slovak/Welsh/Episcopal/Unitarian Universalist/hemophiliac/Spina-Bifida or any other highly unlikely option like the above? Are you a member of that really fancy-sounding club you’ve never heard of? Have you demonstrated great leadership in defending a cause? Just qualify for all of these (and a few more) and you can be ALMOST sure you’ll get that scholarship! Never mind that we’re asking you, who is most likely 17 years old, to have achieved what many people don’t achieve until they are 40.

Okay, so scholarships are a long shot. What else is there?

Your safest bet is a FAFSA, need-based financial aid application. But hey, our economy is in GREAT shape these days, so you’ll definitely get all the money you need.

OR, and this, ladies and gentlemen, brings us to the side of America that everyone around the world knows and loves: you can take out a student loan.

I mean, what’s the risk? You’re 18 years old, so you’ll be out of college and on your feet with a high-paying job in no time! Especially since unemployment is, officially, at 8.3 percent today. So don’t worry, you’ll have that loan, along with its modest interest rate, paid off real fast.

Our higher education system is broken.

Before offering the best education to the world, American Universities need to offer the best education to the nation, and the ENTIRE nation at that. After all, what good is having the highest ranking colleges worldwide, if most of the American population doesn’t even have the financial means to access to them?

Higher education should be a right, not a luxury.

 

“This is my country. Go back to yours, terrorist.”

This was the note left for Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi-American mother of five who lived in El Cajon (an area near San Diego), California, three days before she was brutally killed.

First off, so many things are wrong with this statement. So. Many. For one, the U.S. is generally
regarded as a nation of immigrants. That being said, it isn’t really any one particular group’s
country. On some point in the ancestry line, everyone’s roots came from someone else-the only
people that can claim the most original status are Native Americans (it should be noted that the
majority of hate crimes are perpetrated by whites- the FBI estimates 58.6percent for whites, 18.4
percent black, 12 percent unknown, and 11 percent “other”).

A note of this nature is sickening for many reasons, one of them being that it seems they didn’t
know Alawadi or her family at all: She, her father, and her husband had worked as private
contractors for the U.S. Army, aiding them by serving as cultural advisers to train soldiers who
were to be deployed to the Middle East.

Whether or not this was a note framed by someone within Alawadi’s own family (as some new
sources are suggesting) is important to the case, but the note (whether framed or not) reflects an
anti-Islam (or the newly coined “Islamphobic”) sentiment that has been dangerously festering in
the U.S., particularly since the events of 9/11.

What’s curious is that in the first quarter of 2012 alone, the San Diego area had already tallied
a number of hostile incidents against Muslims nearly equal to the entire amount of incidents in
2011. According to Hanif Mohebi, director of the Council on America-Islamic Relations in San
Diego, the council has seen some “disturbing bullying of young Muslim students, discrimination
in employment, and even harassment in prisons, not just by fellow prisoners but even by prison
guards.”

Some particular incidents in San Diego last year stand out: A cab driver attacked a Muslim
praying near a local park, expressing the same sentiment on the note to Alawadi: “Go back to
where you came from.” A woman wearing a hijab was personally removed from a Southwest
Airlines flight because the captain “didn’t feel comfortable” with her on the flight. In October, a
group called “Defend Christians” tried to pass out anti-Muslim literature to high school students.

If this is confirmed as a hate crime, it reveals a disturbing pattern indeed: According to the
Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of anti-Muslim hate groups tripled in 2011. In 2010,
there was a 50 percent jump (FBI stats) in anti-Muslim hate crimes.

And yet the El Cajon police chief, James Redman, “said he was confident it was an isolated
incident but would not say why” (Associated Press).

Yeah…honestly? I don’t know why, either.

Needless to say, it hasn’t just been in San Diego. Last year, Lowe’s Home Improvement chose
to pull ads from the TLC program “All-American Muslim” after heated complaints from the
Floriday Family Association, that claimed showing the lives of average Muslim families was an
attempt to “manipulate Americans.” All sorts of myths have been perpetuated by the American
media, as early as in the year 2010: Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy wrote in
the Washington Times that “most mosques in the U.S. are actually engaged in a totalitarian
agenda…its express purpose in undermining…the U.S. gov. and its founding documents.” On

CNN Sunday Morning, Pamela Gellar said that “four out of five mosques preach hate.” Fox
News commentator Bill O’Reilly said that “violent extremism and sharia law is being condoned
in 75 percent of the American Muslim mosques.”

The fears and paranoia of Islamphobia are unfounded. Research shows that the majority of
terrorist plots in the U.S. since 9/11 have been perpetrated by non-Muslims, mainly right-wing
extremists and white supremacists (Congressional Research Service, Heritage Foundation).

So, I’m white. And yet, somehow, I’ve never received a note telling me to go back to my country
(which would be Italy, actually, in case you were wondering) and accusing me of being a
terrorist. But if the majority of terrorist plotters since 9/11 have been white…?

But I haven’t. Because phobia and paranoia don’t follow facts; they follow fear and ignorance.
If this was a hate crime, fear, ignorance, mistrust and brutality caused it, and all of those things
are what need to be targeted, not those who are hated.

It’s snowing in April and I’m torn between joy and sadness.

Well, for one thing, it’s snowing in April and anyone who knows me at all will tell you that I love to ski, and with this snow I’ll be skiing well into August. But at the same time…  well, honestly, I know spring quarter only just now started, but I am so ready for summer.

Skiing has been great. I’ve had powder days all the way into April and I can’t even describe how awesome it is to have the snowpack in this condition. Washington has been having one of the best snow packs in the country this whole season. At Crystal Mountain, the snowpack is at eighteen feet. Eighteen feet! In Colorado, at the most famous ski resorts in the country, the ski pack is barely forty inches. They’ve been having a horrible season, but still… we’re more than ten times that amount.

Just last week, in fact, I scored a great, three feet of snow powder day and skied like crazy in sunny conditions all day. It was awesome!

But honestly, I’m just about ready to start spring skiing – we’re only a month into spring, anyway. Spring skiing is fast and furious and super super fun, and I am ready for it! It’s the laid-back kind of skiing that I can do with my friends who don’t have proper avalanche training.

And beyond spring skiing, there’s summer skiing.  This only ever happens when we have a La Nina season – basically when we have a cold summer and a reasonable winter in the cities but insane storm fronts in the mountains (like this year) – and we get dumped with snow. During the months of February and March, we have to get huge amounts of snowfall in order to achieve a solid enough snowpack to ski into summer. And guess what, folks? This year we’ve got it!

Last year the snowpack was at 15 feet and I skied until the end of July. This year it’s 18 feet and the forecast is for skiing into mid-August.

Let me explain what’s so much fun about summer skiing: It’s my favorite sport, but in 70 degree weather. The snow is fast, the sun is shining, it’s nothing but lapping the easy runs… and my favorite part? I get to dress up!

That might seem a little eccentric, but it’s incredibly fun. I was on KOMO 4 news last summer for skiing in my bikini all day. I also skied another day in a complete Renaissance costume and was classified by the ski patrol as “the strangest thing they’d seen all day.” Another guy was skiing in a Batman speedo. It’s the time to ski and show your crazy side!

But skiing isn’t the only thing I do in summer, believe it or not. I’m a senior and transferring to WSU in the fall, so this is my summer to do everything! I need the weather to be good, and honestly, I’m ready for it to start warming up, for the sun to start shining consistently, and to be able to put away my heavy down jackets. I have plans for this summer – my epic Greatest Water Parks of the Northwest road trip tour – and I really need it to be sunny!

Yeah, it’s April and still snowing… I can appreciate it in the moment, but right now, I’m getting over winter and moving on to spring.

A 17-year-old boy is walking home on a rainy night. He holds a canned iced tea, a bag of Skittles, and is talking on his cell phone to his girlfriend.

So what’s the punch line? What’s the solution to this riddle?

There isn’t one. But there’s a gunshot, and because of it, that boy is dead. He’s never going to celebrate his eighteenth birthday. He’ll never graduate high school, go to college, get married, or have boys and girls of his own.

The man who admitted to killing Trayvon Martin is one 28-year-old George Zimmerman.

Oh, and I forgot to mention something: The victim was black.

Does that matter? Abso-freaking-lutely.

It matters because Trayvon’s story isn’t unique, except for one respect: It’s gained significant media attention.

As an infant, Trayvon was over twice as likely to die than a white infant. As soon as he reached his teens, he was 1.5 times more likely to die than his white peers. FBI statistics show that blacks are the victims of hate crimes at much higher rates than any race in the U.S., making up 70 percent of victims of these crimes in 2010. Homicide is the most likely cause of death for black men Trayvon’s age.

If he were in his 20s, the plastic baggie with traces of marijuana that cost him a suspension in high school would’ve most likely equaled a prison sentence, on the fact that his race and gender alone insured him a one in eight chance of going to prison period.

In general, the media has grasped on to the negative; not of the shooter, as you’d expect, but of the victim. They’ve clasped that plastic baggie with traces of pot like it’s their last dying breath. They’ve focused on the hood he was wearing— Geraldo Rivera of Fox News even went as far as saying that “the hoodie is just as responsible for Trayvon’s death as George Zimmerman” (after scathing criticism, Rivera hastily apologized and hoodies mysteriously disappeared from the Fox Merchandise website).

Folks, that’s victim-blaming: Blaming the choices of the victim (such as a hoodie, or walking late at night) rather than the perpetrator of the crime. Such grossness is irresponsible at best and purposefully disrespectful at worst.

Here’s what they don’t tell you: Trayvon was an A and B student. He wanted to be an engineer and was studying at an aviation school in addition to his high school work. He had a girlfriend. He had no criminal record whatsoever.

Let’s set the scene again. It’s raining (most likely why Trayvon was wearing a hood), it’s night, and Trayvon’s carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea.

OK, now let’s take a look at George Zimmerman (who was carrying a 9 millimeter handgun). He outweighed Martin by at least 60 pounds and 11 years. His criminal record consisted of resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. He has called the police 46 times since 2004.

According to his peers and neighbors, he was “fixated on crime and focused [on] young, black males” (Miami Herald). His neighbors also complained about his “aggressive tactics” (Huffington Post). He was not, as he so claimed, a member of a registered Neighborhood Watch group.

Zimmerman claims Martin was the attacker in this scenario, that he punched him in the nose and slammed his head on the sidewalk over and over again, leaving him bruised and bloody.

However, there is so much that refutes this statement it’s ridiculous.

Three witnesses say they heard a boy (read: A boy, not a man) cry for help before a shot was fired (Miami Herald). His girlfriend said on the cell phone conversation they had that night that a man was watching him, that Trayvon had finally lost him.

She asked him to run, but he said he wouldn’t, that he’d just walk fast. The last thing she overheard was Martin asking “What are you following me for?” and the man saying “What are you doing here?” Surveillance videos taken right after the shooting show no blood or bruises on Zimmerman, which would be evident if Martin had indeed attacked him.

Perhaps most telling of all, Martin’s funeral director has said that his body showed no signs of fight: No knuckles or bruises on his hands (which would be there if he had indeed punched Zimmerman).

Justice hasn’t been done here. I really, really hope that it will be.

Going viral upon its release on March 5, “Kony 2012” is a documentary filmed to raise awareness regarding the Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, who abducts children and then turns them into child soldiers and sex slaves for his army, known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The documentary also says that he forces children to kill their own parents and mutilate people’s faces. Kony is among the International Criminal Court’s most wanted for his countless war crimes as well as crimes against humanity.

While this video definitely achieved its objective of making viewers more aware of what’s happening, I think it may be slightly distorted.

Invisible Children’s expenditures for last year were over eight million dollars, but only a third of it went to direct services or African programs. The rest was for advertising, awareness, and fundraising. Don’t forget about film production, transportation, and staff salaries, which was what the majority of its money was used for. Most donations aren’t even used to address the problem itself.

Its call to action is to sign the pledge of support, share the video, and donate a few dollars each month. Cool. So I can virtually pledge support (fluff), spread the video (more fluff), and give this organization money for a T-shirt and stickers and believe that my money is going to capture Kony. Portions of donations are used to fund scholarships and educational and livelihood programs, but do nothing to directly stop Kony.

The documentary also establishes an event known as “Cover the Night” on April 20. It encourages supporters to place posters and stickers in major cities across theUnited States. Their goal is to raise awareness to ensure that American advisors remain in Uganda to assist the Ugandan army. What supporters don’t know is that the Ugandan military has been also committing crimes, such as rape and looting.

The documentary also stated that Kony has not been active inUgandasince 2006, so it makes no sense why the Invisible Children Organization is supporting the Ugandan military.

Spamming of presidential campaign look-a-like posters won’t get the job done, and American advisors won’t necessarily either.

In fact, the U.S. has been involved with stopping him for years through the U.S. African Command (AFRICOM), which has attempted to find and capture Kony, but have failed many times. Each attempt has been reported to evoke retaliation. Plus, the film lacks information regarding what Africa itself is doing about Kony, such as Ugandan activists like Betty Bigombe or African organizations like Ushahidi or Africans Act for Africa.

It took ten years for the international and U.S. militaries to find Osama Bin Laden, so what makes supporters believe that one hundred Americans can find Kony this year? AFRICOM has already attempted to kill or capture Kony, but has failed.

I hate being pessimistic, but simply knowing about Kony and clicking share on Facebook once you see the thirty-minute video will not bring any results.

 

 

Technology may be taking over the world, but it will never invade my library.
I’m an active bibliophile, and I love more about books than just the stories in the pages – I love the pages themselves! With e-readers taking over the literary industry and even putting Borders Booksellers out of business, I will stay a resolute fan of real, honest-to-goodness paper books.
There are qualities to physical books that you just can’t get on an e-reader: the feel of the pages, the smell of the book, having two pages open at once. An e-reader is nothing more than words on a screen, and books are more to me than words on a page.
Every individual book is special – the cover art, the print-type, the physical thickness. I can tell things about a book just by picking it up and opening it, not to mention the really cool collection aspect to physical, hard copy books.
With an e-reader, you don’t get any of that. There’s no cover art, the print type is standardized, there’s no way to judge physical dimensions, and there is no way a collection of books on an e-reader is anywhere near as cool as a physical book collection.
I have a huge collection of real books – over 700 in my bedroom, but I’ve got at least 300 more elsewhere in my house.   I’ve even branded them with my own personal stamp: “This Book is the Property of the Michelle Fredrickson Personal Library.” I had to do that because I lend out my books like crazy.
The library system really isn’t that good anymore – I want to encourage literacy in all my friends and no one really likes using the libraries. Because of this I’ve taken personal responsibility for making sure all my friends read. So, I have to lend out my books to everyone.
And guess what? You can’t lend out books on an e-reader to friends! Once you buy a book, it’s confined to your e-reader and your e-reader alone. See how the e-reader could decrease literacy? Say I download a really good book and I tell my friend to read it – I’ll tell them to download it, and they’ll shrug and say they don’t want to pay for it.
So many people never want to pay for books. That’s why I lend them out so much, and have a lending ledger so I can keep track of who has which book. And with books on e-reader, that just goes away.
I go to book signings, too. Maybe 1/5 of my collection is autographed by the author. How would an author sign an e-reader, hmm? The concept of collectible books would disappear!
The other thing about e-readers is the distraction aspect; when you have a “book” with the ability to play Angry Birds and Temple Run, it can be tempting for people who aren’t as literature-crazy as I am to blow off reading the book and play games instead. It’s like trying to write an essay on Facebook.
I’m not saying that e-readers are bad; they just won’t replace normal books for me. They do have some uses – I think the most practical use is for textbooks. Take off the distraction factor – leave that for the tablets – and make it a total e-reader for textbooks.
I don’t love textbooks as much as I love regular books – they’re heavy and they don’t smell nearly as good as regular books. The print is small, it can be hard to keep track of… I think a really good use for an e-reader would be for textbooks. Think of the scoliosis it would prevent to have all textbooks on one light e-reader!
Plus, textbooks are so expensive – a hundred and fifty dollars for a book is crazy.  It’s cheaper and more efficient to have textbooks on an e-reader- but not normal books which can be picked up at Half-Priced Books for $5-$10.  For me, the hard-copy book will always be better than the impersonal reading on an e-reader.
Technology is invading the literature world. Amazon has already run Borders out of the game. But no Nook, Kindle, or other type of e-reader will ever replace real hard copy books for me – I just love them way too much.

It all began with the massive white tents that overtook portions of Marymoor Park, similar to those from Cirque du Soleil. After the tents followed the enormous billboards scattered seemingly everywhere with the handsome grey horse accompanied by the name “Cavalia.” I was intrigued. The only barrier between me and seeing the performance were the over one hundred dollar seats. I was ecstatic when my mom purchased tickets to the show.

Cavalia contains equestrian and performing arts as well as splendid multimedia and special effects. It is a tribute to the relationships held between horse and man throughout history; it was remarkable to see the connection from riders to horses.

Created by the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, Normand Latourelle, Cavalia premiered in January. However, prior to opening, the show was extended due to its high demand. Cavalia features 46 horses corresponding to 11 various breeds from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The most common horse breed in Cavalia is the Pure Spanish Breeds (18) and Quarter Horses (13). There even was a miniature horse!

In one act, there was a group of horses that had no riders or any sort of equipment attached to them. They followed the requests of the woman in the center. The horses would stay perfectly spaced from each other and canter in circles, change directions, rotate, and follow sophisticated commands while moving freely.

Another impressive act was the Roman riding, in which riders had one foot on one horse and one foot on the other. They would gallop in circles and eventually got to trickier riding when both horses underneath them would jump an obstacle while the rider maintained the same position standing straight up! One rider, a humorous character, rode the Roman way, but instead of having the horses jump, he leaped over the obstacle himself and landed back on top of the two horses perfectly while they continued to canter.

All kinds of riding were depicted, such as Dressage, a type of riding in which the rider must use discrete signals with their legs, seat, and reins to ask the horse move in what some consider “horse ballet.” Horses in Cavalia stretched out their legs, moved in sync with their pair and showed off many more fancy tricks while the riders wore elegant costumes and soothing music was played live.

Vaulting was an additional form of riding seen in the show, which is much more difficult than it may appear. It includes having someone in the center keeping the horse going while the rider stands up, stands on one leg, rides backwards, and performs gymnastics while mounted.

Though equestrian art was the centerpiece of Cavalia, amazing acrobats preformed, such as a man who would roll around on a giant ball and do tricks, such as flipping in the air. It took a lot of concentration and accuracy, and though he did fall off the ball once, I found his performance to be excellent.

One of the performers that never messed up was a woman who would create lassos and jump through them, almost like a new type of jump roping. She would keep the lassos spinning as she did tricks and awed the crowd with her precision.

There were some acrobats who used trampolines, Russian bars, tumbled, the Chinese pole, and some who were lifted into the air. It was amazing to watch a guy do a back handspring all the way across the stage.

I cannot stress how much I enjoyed the show. There were only two downsides, however. The seats were really crowded, causing me to have to stand whenever someone in my aisle had to get through. The other negative aspect was that you had to travel from inside one tent to another by going outdoors. I happened to see the show on a typical Seattle night that rained heavily.

These two negative parts of Cavalia do not reflect anything on the show’s content because I was simply blown away by everything I saw.

Over three million people from the U.S., Europe, and Canada have witnessed this lifetime experience of Cavalia since its premiere in Montreal in 2003. There have been over 1,800 performances since Cavalia’s debut, and many well known celebrities have witnessed the show, such as Justin Timberlake, Demi Moore, Julia Roberts, and Cameron Diaz.

The show wrapped up last week but will continue to thrive all over the world.

Ballpoint pens, ear thermometers, shoe insoles, long-distance calling, the computer mouse. These are pretty normal items that a lot of people see or use every day. And every single one of them was developed by NASA for the space program. Let’s face it, folks. The space program matters.
I can think of a lot of colloquial phrases that everyone says constantly that speak towards the importance of the space program – “Shoot for the moon: even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” “It’s the journey, not the destination.” Maybe some people don’t think it’s important to go to space when we have enough problems on earth, but the scientific innovation we will reach along the way to space development will be worth it.
At the last press for space, NASA invented or led to the invention of tons of things that we use in everyday life today – who knows how, or if, these items would have been invented without the space program?
Ballpoint pens were invented to be able to write without gravity. Before these were created, a pen had to rely on gravity to pull the ink down – but not anymore. During the Space Race, the US wanted a pen that could write in space (while the Russians just used pencils.)
Ear thermometers are also based on NASA technology – Diatek, the company that first produced them, took advantage of NASA’s ability to measure the temperature of a star using infrared technology. They worked together with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and modified the star-radar to use infrared sensors to read energy emissions on the inside of a person’s ear drum (from Discovery magazine).
Athletic companies have taken the technology from spacesuit boots and added it to sneakers – any time you wear shoes with “boost” or “airwalk” or any type of specialized insole, you’re walking on NASA development. The first ones were partially developed by NASA in the 80s. If you’re like me and you ski with custom insoles, that technology was also created by NASA – in fact, ski boots in general are based on spacesuits (from NASA Science and Technology).
There are a lot of creations that happened because of the space program—long distance calling uses satellites, adjustable smoke detectors were created for the first space station, water filters were created for astronauts, and NASA even developed the computer mouse. The list could go on and on and on (from Discovery and NASA Science and Technology).
This brings me back to my original point: The space program matters. It’s not only about going to space, it’s about all we can achieve on the way to getting there. Most of the inventions I mentioned were created in the 1980s Space Race—think of all we could achieve now.
Bellevue College has a really good science program—my sisters are all scientists who started here, and I’ve written a few articles about it myself. The development of the space program promises a lot of exciting opportunities to science students.
The school just hosted some awesome planetarium exhibits of black holes discovered by the Hubble Telescope – how can anyone see something like that and not care about the space program?
Right now, NASA is facing serious cuts that are going to practically halt its work. President Obama has said that he wants to resume exploration and development, but nothing has changed. The program is not a waste of money—it’s a method of research and development that has already proven to be extremely successful.
Obama plans to encourage privatization of the space industry—I’ll be very interested to follow exactly how that turns out. Is this really going to work? I certainly hope so.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Surprising how much of our everyday life comes from NASA. The R&D we get from space exploration is arguably more important than the exploration itself. Even if space flight doesn’t save the planet, by aiming that high scientifically, we’ll develop much more. The space program does matter. And anyone who thinks it doesn’t needs to watch some Star Trek.

Ninety-nine percent of women 15-44 in the U.S. use it. Eighty-five percent of Americans think it is “morally acceptable” or “not a moral issue” (Pew Study, 2012?). It’s small, white, and powerful.  It will cost the average woman $69, 854 (without insurance) and $12,412 (with insurance) in her lifetime. And one of the 2012 Presidential candidates has called it “dangerous to women.”

It’s contraception, and the candidate who condemned it is Rick Santorum.

I don’t actually know what his exact view is on this beyond the fact that he has condemned it. Different statements paint different pictures entirely. Because of this, I researched not only what he said on contraceptives, but what he said on sex education and abortion (all three tend to tie together, after all).

On Feb. 10, Santorum explained that he didn’t believe insurance companies should cover contraception.

“This has nothing to do with access. This having someone pay for it, pay for something that shouldn’t even be in an insurance plan anyway because it is not, really an insurable item. This is something that is affordable, available-”

Arguments — legitimate ones— are backed up by facts. But Santorum’s facts and assertions are plain wrong (and I don’t even mean morally, I mean literally, as in “opposite of correct”), and have been for a while. One may even call them a recurring pattern.

A survey of Planned Parenthood found that 55 percent of women ages 18-34 (the biggest demographic at BC, actually) have experienced a time where they could not afford consistent birth control. Fifty-seven percent of young Latina women ages 18-34 have also struggled in this manner, along with 54 percent of African American women in the same age group. Besides which, almost 14 percent of all birth control prescriptions are filled for reasons other than contraception, including ovarian cancer, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, acne, cramps/heavy periods, and endometrial cancer.

On Feb. 16, Santorum said “How do I feel about the issue of contraception? It should be available…I object to [it] when the federal government says that religious organizations that feel the way the Catholic Church feels should be required to provide it.”

OK, so what are you saying, Santorum? You say it shouldn’t be covered by insurance, but available (despite the fact that to a lot without health insurance, it’s not available), and then you say its availability should be limited. Which is it?

According to the Center for American Progress, even women with private health insurance often shoulder a significant portion of the cost for their prescription birth control needs. That’s one of the reasons women of reproductive age spend 68 percent more on out-of-pocket health care expenses than their male counterparts do.

On the issue of rape, Santorum accused his opponent, Romney, of mandating that hospitals provide emergency contraception to rape victims.

On rape victims in general, Santorum, pro-life, has said that a child as result of a rape is a “gift in a very broken way, a gift of human life, and the right approach to this is to accept what God has given to you…we have to make the best out of a bad situation.” His views are so extreme Wowza.

On sex education, Santorum has said that “comprehensive sex-ed has not been shown to have ANY impact on pregnancy or STD rates,” and that abstinence-only-sex-ed is the way to go.

Wrong again. Abstinence-only programs have no effect in reducing the risk for teen pregnancy and STD. Comprehensive sex-ed, on the other hand, was significantly associated with reduced risk of teen pregnancy, according to the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Why is a man in politics allowed to be so wrong, again and again, on these three encompassing, important issues? Imagine what would happen if, in a class presentation, you just started spouting what you believed to be facts, with no regard to what they actually were. You’d be kicked out of class.

What I see with this is a higher standard of a community college student than a presidential candidate. It’s weird, and it reveals a strange value system within our society.

“Come one, come all, and see the amazing planetarium show—FREE! This show will explain how awesome black holes are and other amazingly cool stuff in our universe.” OK, so that’s not exactly what the posters read, but I think you see my point. We have a lot of cool events going on, and we should take advantage of them. How many other colleges have a planetarium for their astronomy students to learn about the universe? I’ll tell you: None around here. Bellevue College is the only community college in the state with a planetarium like ours. We are also the only one with a Digistar 3, which is basically the machine that can show pictures and movies of our universe in 3-D.

*Whistle*Personally, I am impressed that BC has such remarkable equipment and resources to offer its students. What impresses me even more is the fact that the college offers it for free. We don’t have to pay for the show, we don’t have to be astronomy students—we just sign up if we’re interested. It’s that simple—and it just goes to show how cool our college is.

Think about it. I don’t know what other colleges do, but I know that the legislature has been cutting funding right and left. Our college could easily start charging money for the planetarium shows—and all the other amazing events it puts on. But it doesn’t.

Look at another example. This month, February, is Black History Month. I’ve gone to two free events celebrating black history (I think there were more, though). Each one had speakers, singing, entertainment, and free food. One even had break dancing afterwards. And these events weren’t small, either. They filled up the cafeteria. These events probably cost the college some money, right? Probably. But did the students have to pay extra for anything? Nope. Not a dime.

That’s my point. Probably one of the best things about BC is the fact that it’s starting to host tons of free events for its students. How many of us attended The Buried Life a few weeks ago? Even tonight, I’m going with some friends to see the new movie “Red Tails,” which is about African American fighter pilots in World War II. The Student Programs bought 100 tickets and gave them out for free to students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Personally, as someone who has really wanted to see that movie, the fact that the college gave me tickets for free is a very pleasant surprise.

I think we should be grateful for all the events Bellevue College has been putting on recently. Even with rising college costs, us students are still given opportunities to have fun and enjoy ourselves. And even though work and school may take up most of our time, I think we should seize our chances and enjoy them. If my friends and I hadn’t gone to the cafeteria during the MLK celebration, we would have never enjoyed the amazing food they served for free, or seen some of our fellow students break dance. Heck, I wouldn’t have been able to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.

So let’s thank our college for all the time and effort put in to events like these. BC wants its students to enjoy their time at college, so let’s do it! We shouldn’t take for granted all the amazing things that are available to us here, like free movies and opportunities to celebrate various cultures and heritages. And if anyone has an idea of what other fun things we can do, then talk to someone at Student Programs. For my part, I’m going to participate in as much as I can. See you at the planetarium!