Mount Hood

Too much pumpkin spice

By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

It’s fall. Classes are back, the leaves are changing color, and everybody is drinking pumpkin spice flavored coffee drinks. I’ll be honest, I live for this season and I have my fair share of pumpkin spice lattes, but this year pumpkin spice is out of control.

It seems like everyone is trying to hop on the pumpkin spice train. I’ve seen pumpkin spice flavored Oreos, yogurt, cereal and even Hershey’s kisses. In my opinion, the majority of the pumpkin spice flavored food out there right now isn’t good. It just doesn’t capture the same feeling that a pumpkin spice latte gives me.

The whole idea around pumpkin spice has been escalating over the past couple years. Starbucks has grown more aware of its popularity, other coffee places have tried copying it, but this year is too crazy.

Enough is enough. It’s time to draw the line between enjoying pumpkin spice and overdoing it.

I love pumpkin spice; it’s the highlight of my fall. It gets me through early morning classes, warms me up on cold autumn walks, but I want to keep it at that. If pumpkin spice is overdone, I fear that it’ll lose its magic. It won’t be special anymore. Even in the fall season, you have to have moderation. Going to the grocery store and seeing pumpkin spice everything ruins that.

The only thing to do is to just ignore these products, focus on what pumpkin spice has been for me in the past, and not let the name get overdone and ruined. I don’t need to breathe pumpkin spice to enjoy fall. I need to be strong, resist the temptation of things like pumpkin spice Ghirardelli chocolate squares and stay true to what pumpkin spice really is: the best fall drink flavoring out there.

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

A new kind of sit-in

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

The NFL preseason ended and games are now serious. The trial-and-error month is forgotten. Except for one moment.

Colin Kaepernick remained seated during the national anthem. I didn’t think much of it at the time, figuring he needed as much sitting practice as he could get. The San Francisco 49ers are a mediocre-to-bad team with Blaine Gabbert their mediocre-to-bad quarterback. This left Colin to fight practice team wanderer, Christian Ponder, for the backup’s seat on the bench.
Ponder had a good preseason too.

I figured Kaepernick wouldn’t throw a pass this year and I haven’t changed my mind. However, his protest will be intrinsic to the sports annals of 2016.

We’ve had a hot summer, folks. Philando Castile was killed by police while trying to show his license and registration. Alton Sterling was pinned to the ground and shot for selling CDs. Terence Crutcher was shot while holding his hands in the air.

Protests spread, often turning violent. Five police officers were killed in Dallas.

And the Democratic Party nominated a member of the old guard, whose 1990s party ramped up the War on Drugs. This escalation disproportionately affected blacks who, today, make up 40 percent of the American prison population despite being 13 percent of the general population, according to the U.S. census.

Kaepernick has brought all this summer heat into the football stadium, using his platform to bring attention to a people he feels this country has left behind. For largely the same reasons that Johnny Cash wore black, Colin Kaepernick now sits. Other players have followed suit, raising fists and kneeling.

But football is a conservative institution. Sports generally teach conservative principles from a child’s first youth league. Across the country, kids are brought up from peewee sports to blue collar work or military service.

It is in this spirit that the military has been evoked to condemn players sitting. The flag is very personal to a lot of people who have known or served alongside men and women who died protecting what the American flag represents.

It represents a country founded on the ideals of freedom. Which especially includes the freedom to critique. It is only through free democratic discussion that a country can grow. As anyone who’s played a sport knows, it is only through critique that you improve.

Whether or not you agree with his method, and whether or not you think America is already the greatest country in the world, the fact is America can still be better. The gulf between government and black communities it’s supposed to represent is one more problem that’s going mainstream.

In the hot summer of 2016, it seemed unlikely that Colin Kaepernick as a quarterback would ever be discussed by any sports panel. And then the hot summer went pro. Would Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharpe have discussed life in African-American communities on Fox Sports 1 without Kaepernick’s controversy? Certainly not. But now that discussion has come to America’s conservative institution.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Link to attach to “according to the U.S. census” in online publication: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html

A Note from the Editor

By: Stephanie Blair
Editor-in-Chief

As someone who has not only read this publication every week for the last two years, and worked on it for just as long, I can hardly explain the excitement I feel about taking the role of editor-in-chief this year.

As I read over the opening statements of the last three editor-in-chiefs before me, I found myself feeling inadequately prepared to write my own.

Even more daunting is the fact that my mostly new staff and I are coming in at the height of election season, but I trust in our ability to handle the issues facing each student with grace and care.

screen-shot-2016-09-28-at-6-56-59-pmOur staff will strive to produce a paper that balances entertainment and information. The Western Journal aims to provide the truest form of journalism: a clear delivery of the facts without personal or political agenda. Our duty is first and foremost to our readers.

This will be in the forefront of our minds leading up to November, with accusations against ‘The Media’ as a heartless, faceless conglomerate tied to corporations backing specific candidates. The Western Journal is, and will remain, an independent publication. This ensures that we are not obligated to withhold facts in accordance with the desires of a benefactor or, similarly, to produce propaganda.

In the upcoming weeks, there will be opportunities for members of each party to make arguments in our editorial section, but elsewhere we will be delivering the news so that our readers may form their own opinions as well.

When writing about news on campus, our section editors and I will strive to not only to highlight more clubs and organizations in spotlight articles, but also to involve them in our conversations. This, along with the decision to continue “Campus Voices”, is in an effort to publish the voices and opinions of as many students as we can each week.

In the same vein, because this publication is by students for students, it makes sense that the best improvements will be made by our readers. And so, just as I ask our readers to trust us with the responsibility of reporting unbiased information, I ask our readers to write to us, to give us feedback both positive and negative.

For guidelines regarding submissions of letters to the editor, see the masthead on page two.

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu

Vegan

By: Jamal Smith
Sports Editor

Knowing that I was about to embark on one of the most difficult challenges of my life, one week of eating vegan, I decided to head to Fogo de Chao, an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse in Portland to fill my belly up on a week’s worth of meat.

As I sat at the table devouring mouthfuls of scrumptious prime cuts from beef, chicken, and lamb, I questioned whether I had bit off more than I could chew. Was the next week going to be a complete failure? After a night of drinking, could I avoid Taco Bell, and replace my familiar drunken meal with a vegan burrito or a vegan meatless patty that sat in my freezer?

Deep in thought, I was interrupted by a waiter who came to my table and asked, “Would you like a brandy marinated chicken thigh wrapped in bacon?” Ashamed at my reliance on animal flesh, I nodded in approval, for my mouth was full of prime rib.

To say that I love meat is an understatement. For me, a meal is not complete without some sort of meat. Then there is dairy: ice-cream, butter, milk, yogurt; all important foods in my animal-reliant diet.

By now you may be asking yourself, why then would you put yourself through the torture of eating vegan for a week? The answer is simple: I am appalled at the exploitation of animals for human consumption.

My conundrum started when one of my vegan friends posted a video to her Facebook feed of animals being mistreated in slaughterhouses and it opened up a Pandora’s Box of savagery. After watching other online videos concerning this subject, I felt sick to my stomach. It was then that I decided I would eat vegan for a week.

To prepare for my week of veganism, I stopped by Whole Foods to stock up on vegan delicacies. I plundered various fruits and vegetables, almond milk, meat substitutes, and other items lacking animal byproducts. My normal five minute trip to the grocery store took nearly an hour as I carefully examined the ingredients on the food labels.

The first day of the challenge was by far the most difficult. For breakfast I ate a banana with a bowl of cereal — with of course, almond milk. At lunch I heated up a vegan burrito which was mediocre at best. For dinner, I ate a vegan bagel and a salad medley which I smothered in caesar dressing. It wasn’t until I had half consumed the salad that I realized that the dressing that I liberally poured on the vegetables violated the challenge. I took a mental note of my indiscretion and vowed to be more careful for the remaining six days.

The next three days came and went without any hiccups; however, on the fifth day, in a drunken stupor after a night out celebrating my friend’s birthday, I stopped by Wendy’s. I’m not sure if it was the lack of meat, or if it was from all of the vodka Red Bulls that I had consumed, but their Baconator was to die for. Strike two.

When I awoke the next morning and saw the empty Wendy’s wrappers scattered on my coffee table, I have to admit that I felt a little ashamed. The caesar dressing fiasco was an honest mistake, but indulging in a greasy bacon layered burger was self-sabotage. At that point I could have given up on the challenge, but I already had a few more days left of vegan food, and my momma didn’t raise a quitter, so I decided to continue.

I finished out the challenge strong, and despite the two mess-ups, I would consider my overall results successful. The challenge wasn’t nearly as hard as I had expected; I felt great at the end, and I consumed more fruits and vegetables in a week than I had over the course of the entire year.

My advice for anyone who is thinking about eating vegan is to realize that if you make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world. Just put down the meat and try again.

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU

A Final Sendoff

By: Conner Williams
Editorial-in-Chief

What a year it’s been. For you faithful readers who have followed The Journal’s commentary throughout the school year, you know we’ve covered some big topics and made some big changes.

We’ve added in the Humor section, slapped in a weekly crossword, switched to a tabloid-style front page, and given you lots of tasty recipes to get drunk from (you’re welcome).

As we implemented all of these changes, we had one thing in mind: you.

Each decision we’ve made this year has revolved around one question: what can we do to engage and entertain our readers more? We’ve focused on the stories of the characters of Western in our Humans of Western segment, included your opinions in our Campus Voices columns, and given you some brilliantly orchestrated … erm, I mean, predicted, horoscopes to help guide you on your path to astrological righteousness.

I’m quite proud of the progress this newspaper has made; it took countless hours of interviewing, writing, designing, photographing, editing, and cultivating content to bring you a product that we can say we’re proud of, and what I honestly believe has gotten better week in and week out.

And with all of this progress in hindsight, it is with a heavy heart that I write my final column for this publication that has allowed me to express my own opinions and grievances with the world of Western. For those of you that enjoyed my columns, I thank you for your readership, and for those of you that did not, I hope at least that I have made you think about something in a different way or question your own beliefs to some degree.

Because that’s what has always been my goal: to provide validated and credible information that allows the readers to think critically, and to then form their own opinions.

Despite my best efforts, I recognize that I may just be another guy with opinions that hopes to inspire change through written word; a task that is not easily accomplished. I have attempted to sift through the mountains of BS that seep into our everyday news rhetoric, and to create a lens for you to see through said BS.

To quote one of my favorite political analysts/comedians/humanitarians, “The best defense against bullshit is vigilance … So if you smell something, say something.” We miss you Jon Stewart.

So I encourage you, reader, to lift up the gas masks that CNN and Fox News and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and all the other professional bullshit dispensers have attempted to slip over your faces.

Question everything. Seek further truth. Do not silently accept a politician’s word as gospel. Follow a page on social media with different views than your own. Do your best to learn something new every day, and challenge others to do the same.

Things will be changing throughout our society soon, and as one that will be graduating in a few weeks, I must admit I’m a bit intimidated. It’s a big, bad world out there, and sometimes running home to mom’s house for a hot meal and a visit with the cat seems like the best thing to do.

But feigning ignorance and submitting to the fear of the possibility of failure will get us nowhere. An important lesson to remember is that we should not be afraid to fail, but even more important is that we should also not be afraid to succeed.

To quote one of my favorite films, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” So get out there and make it happen. Whatever it is that you decide to do, give it your all. Do what makes you happy, and do it for the rest of your life.

As we prepare for commencement, I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors and hope you may look back on your time at Western with a sense of fondness and pride.

Go Wolves!

Contact the author at cwilliams14@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalEIC

Third party’s the charm

By: Ben Bergerson
Designer

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not the only options for president this year.

Though you may not know it from how the media represents the race, parties other than the Democrats and Republicans (known as third parties) exist in this country and in the past have had an impact on elections. This year, people with no political party affiliation will represent the biggest voting block at 42 percent of all voters. Democrats represent 29 percent and Republicans represent 26 percent.

These are near historical lows for party affiliation, and the mainstream media has said relatively little about how that affects our party system. With both of the leading candidates for president having extremely low favorability ratings, many people are turning to see what other options are out there.

There are three third parties in the US that have large enough voter registration to get on state ballots. You can check them out below, and see if any fit your political beliefs:

  1. Constitution Party
    If your problem with Donald Trump is that he isn’t conservative enough, look no further than Darrell Castle, the candidate from the CoScreen Shot 2016-05-23 at 7.50.42 PMnstitution Party. Castle is a lawyer and ex-Marine who advocates for the US to withdraw from the UN and NATO. He wants to end the Federal Reserve and is against abortions.

 

 

 

2. Libertarian Party

Though they haven’t selected their nominee, the Libertarians look likely to choose former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson again, havingScreen Shot 2016-05-23 at 7.50.29 PM nominated him in 2012 as well. Johnson is pushing for a balanced national budget, the decriminalization of marijuana, and lowering taxes. As a Libertarian he is conservative on fiscal matters, and more liberal on social matters.

 

3. Green Party

The Greens have also yet to choose their nominee, but their 2012 nominee, Jill Stein, looks Screen Shot 2016-05-23 at 7.50.15 PMlike their probable choice. She made history in the last presidential elections for receiving more votes than any other woman in U.S. history. The Greens’ campaigns focus on environmentalism, participatory democracy, nuclear disarmament, and social justice.

One last note on third parties: Many people have pointed to the 2000 election as an example of the “spoiler effect.” They argue that the Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader, stole votes away from the Democrats, thus “spoiling” the election for Al Gore and handing the presidency to George W. Bush. While this spoiler effect can be a concern for battleground states where a few votes make a big difference, here in Oregon voters have reliably voted Democrat for a few generations. Because of that, Oregonians have the ability to vote for the candidate they align with the most, rather than voting tactically against someone they don’t want. It’s something to remember as we go into what seems will be an extremely bitter political season.

How about we teach people not to rape?

By: Zoe Strickland
Staff Writer

Recently, a lot of my classes have started talking about rape culture. Being a gender studies minor, this isn’t anything new. My classes have specifically been talking about how, when dealing with rape culture, we often teach people how to not get raped instead of teaching other people to just not rape. Buckle up and prepare to listen, because this stuff is serious.

Not trying to solve the problem at the root sounds crazy and completely unreasonable, right? I think so.

Why is it that we teach children to always walk in groups, instead of teaching them about what consent is? Why do we tell girls in college to walk with their keys carefully positioned in between their fingers, instead of teaching people in college that you can’t actually consent to something if you’re under the influence of any drugs or alcohol? Why is it that even after doing all of these studies showing that sex education is important to preventing sexual assault, schools across the country still push abstinence-only education? It’s absurd.

I’ve taken multiple classes on the Western campus wherein rape culture is discussed. I’ve sat through throngs of students in various sexuality and gender classes wherein we’ve talked about how society has uniformly taught women to be afraid of getting raped and has taught men that they should be feared for potentially having the power to rape. In these classes, it goes without saying that every student found the “teach women how not to get raped” method upsetting. So, if so many people find this upsetting, why haven’t we made more strides in fixing it?

A fundamental component of this discussion is believing victims/survivors of sexual assault. I swear, if I have to sit through one more person mentioning how “sometimes people make it up,” I’m going to scream. Look at the statistics: only two to eight percent of reported sexual assaults are ruled out as being false reports. Why are we still doubting the believability of something if 98 percent of reports are true? Why aren’t we seeing how we can help people get through the traumatic event that they’ve just experienced?

These things are serious. Instead of people being afraid to walk around alone because something might happen to them, we need to start teaching personal boundaries and the meaning of consent at a young age. Young people aren’t too young to grasp the basic concept of human decency.

Contact the author at zstrickland14@wou.edu or on Twitter @nwpmagazine.

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