Relativity of Change
Staring at blank paper, pen in hand, I sat down tonight to write something inspirational. Something witty and clever. Something to be remembered. As I wait for these glorifying words to populate the blank page, I realize not everything has the capability of inspiring, but we, as humans, all have the ability to create change. Change is not something which simply occurs; normally change is driven by someone or something. Change can be fought for--hard, while inspiration is a product of honest change. Few humans understand the trials and tribulations necessary before change is possible. In many cases, men will collapse after being beaten and broken down, but some will rise again to make strides towards the finish line. Those men are the inspirational ones. Nelson Mandela was a man of extraordinary strength. His morals and ethics, along with this strength, gave him the power to create tidal waves of change. When I heard of his passing, my thoughts were not of sadness or grief, but rather appreciation and inspiration. I feel as though it's often forgotten that memories don't fade when souls depart their earthly bodies. We are blessed not only with Mandela's memory, but with the positivity his light has provided countless around the world. He was a man of conviction, and he knew change was needed. His eyes saw both sides of the coin; how things were and how they could be. I believe there is a lesson for us all to learn from Mandela's and several other revolutionaries' lives. His actions urge us to not accept the way the world works if we see wrong, but instead to create change. Fear of government control, and prejudice should not hold us back from correcting evil in front of our eyes. I hope Mandela's memory can provide inspiration to keep moving forward. Perhaps one day, our actions will bore change so great, inspiration will become infectious. Everyone will join in, and together, we can make this world a place worth living in.
-Steph
Captain Trips.
What is in your meat?
This week there have been two separate news stories highlighting legitimate health concerns.
The FDA in their infinite wisdom has put pressure on the meat industry to curtail the use of antibiotics that are used to essentially have food animals grow quicker.
This practice has been around for decades.
The uproar is over the human consumption of the meat and the amount of antibiotics that are transferred to humans. The secondary causation is that when we eat the meat products that contain high levels of these antibiotics we essentially weaken our immune response to ‘superbugs’.
These superbugs pose a threat as real and as insidious as any terrorist organization and actually claim the lives of around 25,000 people per year. This number could pale to insignificance if allowed to go un-checked.
Because the pharmaceutical industry which produces these antibiotics make millions of dollars from them they tend not to want to go along with changing the status quo.
The world health organization has expressed concerns over the rise of these superbugs and the fact that diseases that we can control now may be too strong in the near future.
The other related news is that anti-bacterial soap may not be as good for you as regular soap and water.
Triclosan the active ingredient in anti-bacterial soap is under review by the FDA who questions its efficacy.
Of course the makers of these products stand by them and claim that they are a benefit as opposed to a detriment.
In my opinion I wouldn’t trust these people as far as I could spit.
TDB.
27 Years
He was imprisoned for 27 years. That's my entire life span to date. Behind bars. Freedom ranging from which one of my sides do I want do sleep on to today may be a good day to die. He was convicted for his conviction, I can't even keep a relationship from sinking let alone be so dedicated to a cause a government court puts me in cuffs. Doesn't necessarily mean you did anything wrong. Might now have gone about it the perfect or ideal way, but is there even such a thing? Let's even get biblical on this: Did Jesus take the best case scenario? Was there really no other way than how it all played out? Would MLK have had an even stronger impact if he was still alive today? Or did his death motivate his supporters and seal his legacy? What kind of moves do you make after you lived some type of way for the past few years, let alone 27 in a cage. Nelson came out swinging. Picking the fight up where he left off. Paving paths and blazing trails like he didn't have a choice in the matter. Despite all the wrongs he was battling, he still left this place better than he came into it. I don't even care to get out of bed some days. But I want to make moves as great as the men I read about, still see their influence around me. Institutionalized is my excuse. Still trying to shake off an all in bet gone wrong. Will keep looking around this cell until I find something worth the bail.
-DCR
My First Semester at a Women's College
OR
What it Means to Be an Uncommon Woman
4 months, 16 credits, a brief meltdown,
And 2 snow storms later,
I am heading home.
The lessons I’ve learned have exceeded
What I had expected
And expanded far beyond
The classroom.
At a women’s college,
I have worn makeup twice:
Both times to go to another campus-
One with men.
I have straightened my hair once:
A party off-campus.
I have gotten shit faced wasted
ONCE.
Nobody told me before heading off
To college that I would feel
Miserable the day after a party,
Look ratchet as hell,
And have to pay an extra $3
To wash my vomit-worthy clothes
In a different machine.
But there has been much joy
In wearing a sweatshirt
And pajama pants to class,
For getting dressed only 4 days
A week,
For having a roommate from the Bronx
Who terrifies cocky boys asking
Me for a “good fun night.”
I have learned a new jargon,
With vocabulary like
‘Turnt’ and ‘Holla Back.’
When it reaches negative
Temperatures, and I have to walk
In the Noreaster snow storm,
I wear my orange flip flops
Like a true Texan.
As for my classes,
I had a ginger Philosophy professor,
Who was such a nerd!
I had Santa Clause for a Politics
Professor,
An ancient, kind, and vaguely terrifying
Poetry professor,
And my advisor/English professor
Who told me that NO,
I cannot double major,
Double minor,
Study abroad,
Write a thesis,
Do pre-law,
And graduate in 3 years.
Doesn’t she know that
Overachiever is my middle name?
But, out of everything
From this semester,
I’ve learned that loving myself
Doesn’t directly correlate
With being loved by a guy.
It comes from respect,
From promise,
From having hope.
I may not be the perfect example
Of self-esteem,
But I am a scholar in progress,
A poet in progress,
And I am ready to go home,
Test my skills, then come back
To my second home
Amidst the lovely ladies
And the whitest snow,
And most of all,
I am ready to be me,
Wherever I am.
Because, as one of my friends
And fellow poets once said,
“Home isn’t where the heart is,
It’s where you struggle the hardest.”
And to quote my roommate,
“I’ve got an unlimited metro card
On the Struggle Bus.”
The struggle is real.
Never Fear/Change,
Mount Holyoke.
I am an Uncommon Woman.
-Seraphine the Poet
December 21, 2013
Soulstice
I feel lonely without you
Surrounded by emotions
Projection and no trace to the source
Attraction like this develops with no remorse
I told myself no more holding back
Thoughts telling me if I was yours my eyes would cease their unsatiable tendencies
And your love feels like art
Mysterious and relentlessly painful to the core
And I too wear my heart exposed and everyone sees it bleed
I didn't mean to like every part of you, especially the ones that you don't approve of yourself
Today I saw something that said to remember that there is someone who loves all of the parts of ourselves that we hate. That is what love is made of,
Or, I try to remind myself anyways.
This home wasn't built on possessiveness
ownership is an internal illusion
I just want to dance with you
in the fire of my passion
Before my heart
Burns it up like a star.
My intensity will never learn from itself
Because restraint doesn't belong here
I hope the power of my soul
transcends my pain into meaning.
I mean madness feels like something
And the solstice is here to kill everything
Light up my frozen heart
Stone blown away cold and heavy
My method of freezing all of the parts of my heart
has made it easier to
sever
-Sunny