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The Cooper Point Journal (June 5, 2019)
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5 June 2019
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the cooper point journal
OSHA INVESTIGATION &
WORKER ALLEGATIONS
3
Teddy Soe
ARTIST INTERVIEW
7
LIT & CRIT
GUNS AREN’T JUST FOR WHITE 12
CONSERVATIVE MEN
@yourcpj
The Evergreen State College Newspaper Since 1971| June 5, 2019
STRUCTURAL ISSUES
The Cooper Point Journal
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Georgie Hicks
C r e at i v e D i r ec t o r
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Distribution Manager
Al li s on L eD u c
Writers
Mar ta Ta hja -S y ret t
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S teph Bec k Fe y
DJ Pfeifle
CONTACT
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© 2019 the Cooper Point Journal
02 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
FROM THE ARCHIVES “Students in the Tacoma campus program With Liberty and Justice for
Whom? end fall quarter with a mock trial on Tues., Dec. 7, 2017. They argued the speech rights of NFL players to protest during the National Anthem.”
HOW WE WORK
The Cooper Point Journal is produced by students at The Evergreen State College, with funding from student
fees and advertising from local businesses. The Journal is published for free every other Wednesday during the
school year and distributed throughout the Olympia area.
Our content is also available online at www.cooperpointjournal.com.
Our mission is to provide an outlet for student voices, and to inform and entertain the Evergreen community
and the Olympia-area more broadly, as well as to provide a platform for students to learn about operating a
news publication.
Our office is located on the third floor of the Campus Activities Building (CAB) at Evergreen State College
in room 332 and we have open student meetings from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday. Come early if you’d
like to chat with the editor!
WORK FOR US
We accept submissions from any student at The Evergreen State College, and also from former students,
faculty, and staff. We also hire some students onto our staff, who write articles for each issue and receive a
learning stipend.
Have an exciting news topic? Know about some weird community happening? Enjoy that new hardcore
band? Come talk to us and write about it.
We will also consider submissions from non-Evergreen people, particularly if they have special knowledge on
the topic. We prioritize current student content first, followed by former students, faculty and staff, and then
general community submissions. Within that, we prioritize content related to Evergreen first, followed by
Olympia, the state of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, etc.
To submit an article, reach us at cooperpointjournal@gmail.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
We want to hear from you! If you have an opinion on anything we’ve reported in the paper, or goings-on in
Olympia or at Evergreen, drop us a line with a paragraph or two (100 - 300 words) for us to publish in the
paper. Make sure to include your full name, and your relationship to the college—are you a student, staff,
graduate, community member, etc. We reserve the right to edit anything submitted to us before publishing,
Structural
Issues
News
Industrial Workers of the World South Sound General Education Union rally on Red Square, May 8, 2019. DANIEL VOGEL.
OSHA Investigating At Evergreen
Among Worker Complaints,
Admin Response
by Mason Soto &
Georgie Fehringer
Degrading pink pipe insulation with
possible asbestos containing material
in campus facilities. Courtesy of
Ricky Haney.
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 03
News
Certain names of Evergreen
employees have been changed for fear of
retaliation from administration
On Mar. 20, 2019 the U.S. Department of Labor opened two investigations at Evergreen regarding
health and safety complaints.
These investigations follow a Facilities Services employee lodging a
number of claims including: lack of
training, exposure to numerous hazardous materials, and a “Wild West
Culture” regarding accountability
from the administration, safety of
the employees, and ecological hazards.
The labor dispute also relates to
the ongoing restructuring of facilities, as well as, worker experiences
during the snowstorm that closed
campus this February. During the
suspended operations, employee
Ricky Haney suffered a hernia while
working a 51 hour shift, and student
workers were involved in fueling
emergency generators throughout
the utility tunnels along with Haney
and others.
CURRENT OPERATIONS
Facilities Services main functions
are groundskeeping, construction,
custodial work, engineering, and
maintenance services throughout
the college, as in places such as the
Central Utility Plant, which contains the school’s industrial heating and cooling equipment. Ricky
Haney has worked at the school
since 2016, and currently works at
the Central Utility Plant. He alleges
that during his time here he has
seen a deterioration of procedures,
administrative accountability, and
worker morale.
As a Maintenance Mechanic 2,
Haney’s duties include operating
“This has been an ongoing
thing for so long that the running
joke we have between each
other, you know, the gallows
humor, is we know
what it smells like.”
and maintaining the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and as an assistant at the plant,
though he said he often works elsewhere, and finds himself doing more
than what he signed up for.
Over the past few years of budget cuts, multiple workers allege the
consolidation of positions and increase in individual duties, with little
or no change in job classification or
pay.
Haney said his supervisors convinced him to go through the Cole
Industries program “Full Steam
Ahead” to start as a boiler operator,
and secure a job among the layoffs in the summer of 2017. After
he completed training and began
work assisting the single current
boiler operator, he realized that his
job classification did not mention
steam, nor was his pay adjusted for
the work he was doing.
Haney says this is a problem in
other departments as well. “We’re
talking about a substantial amount
of compensation they’re not getting
because of the way they classify the
jobs.”
Drennon told the Journal that
boiler operations are minimal and
more safe since the system was automated in the past decade, and that
the school has had trouble hiring
more full time operators. “Would I
love to have another boiler operator?
Yes. But worst case scenario, [we lose
04 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
the current operators], we would just
contract out to Cole Industries,” said
Drennon.
OFFICIAL COMPLAINTS
& ASBESTOS
On Feb. 20, Ricky Haney sent
a list of complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The list includes
employees working alone, with
no radio, in hazardous conditions
and mechanical operations; a lack
of proper training or a system for
tracking the trainings; lack of proper
protective equipment; inadequate
disposal and handling of hazardous materials; chemical spills; false
reporting and safety tests; disabled
safety monitoring; and high voltage
panels exposed to regular flooding.
They also allege repeated exposure
to deteriorating asbestos in facilities,
and exposure to the pathogenic bacteria legionella in the cooling towers,
with no tracking of these exposures.
Last November, samples from
the utility tunnels that run beneath
campus were tested by an external
company NVL Labs, and tested
positive for asbestos. Asbestos is legally allowed to be around workers if
undamaged and properly contained,
but photos shared with the journal
by workers from the tunnels show
damaged insulation and fibrous material poking out from around pipes.
Multiple employees we spoke to alleged routine contact with asbestos,
as well as chlorine exposure in the
pool operations without protective
gear and legionella exposure in the
cooling towers.
Haney said of working with asbestos, “This has been an ongoing
thing for so long that the running
joke we have between each other,
you know, the gallows humor, is we
know what it smells like.”
One worker, under the pseudonym Jacob, said that he was never
directly told by Drennon or Ward
that there was asbestos or what the
exact dangers were, and that it is still
difficult to understand what danger
the workers have been put in. Jacob
saw emails confirming identification
of asbestos in November, and abatement in January, but none of this
info was shared widely. “That’s one
of my biggest complaints, that if it is
dangerous to be down there, nobody
told us, and nobody is telling us to
this day.”
Evergreen’s asbestos procedures
from 2010 say that asbestos inspections “must be given to employees
working on in-house construction,
renovation, demolition or repair before the project starts.” It also states
that workers are not authorized to
clean up asbestos containing material, and that depending on deterioration affected areas should be
isolated.
“All my staff know, if you see anything that you think is asbestos, you
have to assume it is, and you have to
report it for testing,” Drennon said.
He explained that there are regular
abatement contracts, including two
currently being scheduled.
Main Switchgear
Haney expressed concern about
conditions of the Main Voltage
Switchgear as well, which distributes power to campus and is located
outside the Central Utility Plant,
running to transformers in the utility tunnels. Evergreen’s 2014 Master
Plan also mentions the need for updates to the switchgear and panels
in the buildings dating back to the
1970s, which were “at or beyond
their expected usable life.”
Besides being outdated, Haney
said the main switchgear is infested
with rodents and has been operated
by workers without proper training or protection. Another facilities worker, under the pseudonym
Joshua, said that he has witnessed
workers with little training using
sticks to maneuver the contractors
at the switchgear that are dangerous
to touch.
Drennon told the journal that
work on the switchgear is contracted out to Taurus Industries,
and that no Evergreen staff have
worked there for two years, though
this could not be confirmed in time
for publication. The school’s Critical Power plan from 2016 outlines a
number of updates to safety operations and calls for a new main switch
gear, with new buildings to protect
its elements. Drennon did not offer a timeline for this plan, but said,
“We’re getting rid of what I would
call an old potentially dangerous
switchgear to a new reliable medium voltage switchgear.” The new
switchgear will be operable from
fifty feet away from the breakers.
Haney said that OSHA investigators told him they are sending
High Voltage Investigators to report
on these claims.
Duct taped and degrading sign labeling asbestos insulation
in campus utility tunnels. Courtesy of Ricky Haney.
RAD Complaints
Student RAD workers have also
come forward with complaints of
safety issues and cover-up. Following the alleged flooding at the HCC
Mechanical Room, multiple workers who have asked not to be named
said they saw exposed electrical panels and power tools submerged in
water. The students also allege that
then-Assistant Director of Residential Facilities Jaymie Lacina called
lead student workers into a meeting to tell them to keep quiet about
the incident, or risk losing their jobs.
One student worker told the journal
that Jaymie directed workers to keep
the doors of the Mechanical Room
closed so that people would not see
what was going on, as well as to not
spread information about the hazardous conditions.
Hot Spot
Safety issues around what is referred to as the Hot Spot, marked
off by fencing and signs near Student Residences B Dorm, have also
come up as part of the workers’ worries. Haney said he began checking
the surface temperature without a
work order, “so people would eventually make enough noise to make
something happen.” Still, since
Haney and a few others were sent to
work on the active steam line, cutting through the concrete — then
ordered to stop due to billowing
steam — there has been no noticeable work at the site. In video shared
with the journal, the surface temperature registers at over 160 degrees
fahrenheit. Human skin burns at
106 degrees. Haney said he fears a
‘catastrophic disaster’ if no action is
taken.
These allegations from various facilities groups are particularly concerning since Evergreen’s
Health and Safety Committee in
charge of dealing with these issues
has not been fully active since 2016.
Environmental Health and Safety
Coordinator Matt Lebens sent an
email in April that said, “Member
participation rate (~50%) and overall committee output have been, and
continue to be, insufficient.”
SNOWSTORM
The mid-February snowstorm
that closed campus centered many
of the complaints workers shared.
While most campus activities were
closed during the storm, many facilities staff were still scheduled to clear
snow and keep the campus generators working. Haney and fellow fa-
Rusted pipe with fibrous and crumbling possible asbestos containing
material in campus facilitates. Courtesy of Ricky Haney.
cilities employees were part of this
group, though he and many others
had not done suspended operations
work before. During the weekend
from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11, the number of people on campus dwindled,
and Haney worked for 30 hours
before getting a break. While working what would be a 51 hour shift,
Haney suffered an inguinal hernia
for which he filed a claim through
Labor & Industries.
According to Haney’s report, the
hernia happened after he was refueling emergency diesel generators
in the utility tunnels for hours, in a
static position. Drennon officially
doubted these claims in communications with Human Resources,
where he said that the generators
have been fueled the same way for
28 years, that he and William Ward
both told Haney to go home and get
some rest ahead of his injury, and
that, “this was not anything that we
asked him to do.” Drennon was not
on campus during this weekend, as
text messages between Central Utility Plant workers confirm. Drennon
did send a message to the group of
workers on the evening of Feb. 10
saying, “Please make sure before you
all go home that we have the generators tops [sic] off and the fans
scheduled to run 24/7.”
Workers and Drennon have also
told the journal that student workers were directed to re-fuel the diesel generators in the tunnels beneath
campus during the suspended operations.
Kyle Flynn, a worker in the
construction group within facilities, who was also there during the
snowstorm said he spoke to student
workers during that time, and was
told that Drennon had requested
them to help re-fuel. Flynn worked
alongside students loading diesel onto the cart vehicles for travel
through the tunnels, and said that
he found the work “unusual.” As he
said, “I would describe it as, frantically driving up and down to fill up
the diesel, and driving it back under
the tunnels, and constantly doing
that all night.”
Haney explained he was uncomfortable with students working with
the diesel generators without protective equipment, and took on the
static position that caused his injury
to avoid involving student workers
in the process.
Flynn said it was dirty work,
with diesel spilling onto the workers’
clothes. He knows that having not
done that work before, his training
was limited, and the students’ training even more limited.
Workers also described questionable calls by Ward during the storm,
including having janitorial staff
clearing snow without the required
clothing, since their footwear and
outfits are meant for indoor work.
At least one Resident Assistant
has alleged similar issues, including threats of job actions if workers
did not show up to shovel snow, for
twelve hour shifts throughout the
week. The worker felt they were not
compensated fairly for their time,
and that the dining credits and “RA
Appreciation Day” offered by administration after complaints did
little to quell resentment.
After the storm ended, facilities
workers expected the same pay allotted during previous suspended
operations, including time and a
half plus hour-for-hour paid time
off. Many did receive these hours,
but were later told by management
that the hours had only shown up
because of a computer glitch, so they
were removed. One worker said he
saw more than 30 hours removed
from his paid time off. Eventually
workers were told that they would
not receive paid leave compensation.
Another worker, under the pseudonym Steven, said, “If people knew
they weren’t going to get paid [like
they expected], they wouldn’t have
stayed and worked fifty hours.”
On Mar. 6, staff protested the
lack of pay from the snowstorm in
a rally on Red Square, organized
through the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal
Employees Union and supported
by the IWW General Education
Union. When they delivered a letter
of grievances to the President’s office, they tried to meet with Bridges,
but ended up leaving the letter with
the secretary. “The only fair thing I
can say, I agree that I think compensation for the work that they do in
situations like that, I would love to
see my staff get paid more,” Drennon said, “but that’s between them
and the union.”
David, another facilities worker
under a pseudonym, said that when
workers reached out to the Washington Federation of State Employees union representative for help
drafting the list of grievances, they
received little support. The union
representative could not be contacted in time for publication.
RESPONSE
On May 7, Ward sent a staff
email that listed a number of plans
facilities intended on implementing in the future, including research
into new emergency generator
procedures, new snow equipment,
elevator safety compliance, and the
formulation of a new safety council.
Haney responded in another
email, and said, “This sudden outward interest in health/safety is
clearly a smokescreen you are putting out to cover the fact that TESC
has been in non-compliance w/
OSHA safety & health regulations
for many years and on several different fronts.”
The journal sent a request for
comment to Ward, Drennon,
Bridges, and other administration
regarding worker complaints. On
June 1, Public Relations Manager
Allison Anderson sent a response,
which included the statements that,
“No students were required to work
in utility tunnels,” and, “Evergreen
remains compliant in safety requirements and immediately marks all
zones with asbestos or any other
hazard for sampling and analysis.”
In response to issues around the
snow days, the email said, “In the
spirit of community during the unusual weather event in February, students and staff came together and
worked to support refueling generators during the snowstorm. They
were under direct supervision. Those
who did not wish to participate were
not required to do so.”
On June 11, Evergreen’s Classified Staff Union are holding a
“Brown Bag Lunch event to support Ricky Haney and his return to
work,” per a group email. The email
calls classified workers to show their
support for Haney during his meetings with Labor and Industries, and
to show the administration that retaliation will not be tolerated. The
email also includes allegations about
ongoing safety issues, saying, “There
are very serious safety concerns on
campus relating to asbestos abatement, chemical spills, etc. especially
in areas on campus most out of the
public eye. We all need to be able to
work in a safe environment and have
the proper training and equipment
to do our jobs with minimal risk of
injury or illness. The safety issues
currently make this impossible. This
must be addressed immediately!”
TEMPS AND MORE
PROBLEMS
Beyond the wider issues, multiple workers have told the journal of
being assigned tasks outside of their
classification, such as, felling trees,
performing managerial tasks, and
time tracking of fellow employees.
These new responsibilities for
employees come as the school hires
more temporary staff and makes
cuts all around, leaving positions unfilled as workers retire. In response
to this allegation by employees,
“That’s one of my biggest
complaints, that if it is dangerous to be down there, nobody told us, and nobody is
telling us to this day.”
News
Drennon said, that for the Central
Utility Plant, “To say that we prefer
temporary staff would go against everything we stand for.”
Drennon explained the general
loss of staff throughout facilities as
follows: “Because of low enrollment
and our budget being cut, it’s been
very difficult to replace people that
have left on retirement, or people
that have gotten jobs elsewhere.”
One facilities worker, Adam (a
pseudonym), is concerned about the
way the college uses temps, and said,
“I think it can create some safety
issues because they’re not used to
working with the crew. We spend
a lot of time training temps, fixing
things that get messed up, and then
they ship them off and bring in others,” said Adam. “That whole concept of how they treat people, they
don’t have to pay them any benefits.”
Adam also felt that some workers
who are classified as temps should
be offered full time positions, and,
mentioning a fellow employee, he
said, “In my mind, someone who’s
given ten years to the college should
not be a temp.”
Safety is a major concern for
workers as staffing decreases, as one
worker in the motor pool explained
he has had to work alone in the shop
a number of times. He expressed
fear of what would happen if he was
alone and an accident occured, “It
could be a day or two before anyone
finds me, ya know?”
A few motor pool employees believe that they are being pressured to
quit so that the school can close the
operations and contract the work
out, while workers in other facilities have similar worries about the
transition to less unionized workers. There is sentiment among at
least ten facilities workers we spoke
with that the school is interested in
contracting, cutting corners, and approving inadequate operations for
the sake of saving money.
Others described years of of safety violations: below standard safety
procedures, lack of training, standing on milk crates, faulty ladders,
and a lack of sufficient clothing to
protect from hazardous conditions.
Workers say that Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Matt Lebens and Maintenance
Supervisor Michael Drennon have
known about these issues for years,
but made no change. There was also
a strong perception among employees that things have worsened in the
past year since Associate Vice President of Facilities Services William
Ward took over management, and
many accused Ward of bullying and
intimidation.
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 05
News
Olympia Capitol Building,
courtesy of Evergreen Archives.
Socialist
Trucker
Joshua
Collins says
Hell with Heck
Joshua Collins is a truck driver, a
democratic socialist, a small business
owner and he’s running for congress
– at 26 years old.
Collins is challenging incumbent
representative Dennis Heck in the
Democratic primary. Heck, an Evergreen grad, has represented Washington’s 10th congressional district
since the state legislature carved out
the district in 2012.
Collins says Heck has failed to
represent and communicate with
his district, which centers on Olympia. “I’ve been in his office over the
Green New Deal, trying to get him
to take the fossil fuel pledge, trying
to get him to stop taking money
from fossil fuel companies, and to
support a radical, bold plan to actually deal with climate change on the
scale that’s necessary. And he won’t
even meet with someone.” said Collins.
So Collins decided to run himself.
Coming of Age in
the Recession
In his words, Collins grew up
“in the poorest city in the poorest
county in Kansas.” At 14 he moved
to Las Vegas to live with his mom,
who had just established herself as a
nurse. “We had one good year,” said
Collins, before the housing market
crashed.
“My mom was married, and they
were fighting about money all the
time all of a sudden. Just out of nowhere. I never had seen them fighting about that,” said Collins. “I feel
like a lot of people kind of watch this
stuff happened. They lost the house.”
Collins said his mom “was hard
on herself ” for being unable to help
Collins with college. Collins got his
first job at 15, and planned on joining the Air Force before complications from a car accident disqualified
him and left him with a $20,000
emergency room bill.
“I tried to pay my own way
through school and spent two years
going part time while working full
time 60-70 hours a week,” said Collins. “It ruined my way to pay for
school. Every penny I needed was to
get by. That was a big burden on my
finances that made it so I was denied
financing for a car, denied housing.”
Then Collin’s grandmother became ill while he was working at a
glass factory in Vegas. He got time
off approved to see her, and began
the three-day drive to Virginia
where she lived. “When we got halfway, I got a call from them saying
I was going to be laid off if I didn’t
get back to work within a couple of
days,” said Collins. “Shortly after I’d
already turned around they said I
was still being let go. So not only did
I not see my dying grandmother, I
was now out of a job.”
Having spent the last of his
money on gas to get halfway to Virginia and back, Collins decided to
go to trucking school.
The Radicalization
of Joshua
Collins has been an owner-operator for the past year, meaning he
owns his own truck and has some
leeway to choose which shipping
contracts to fulfill.
“I believe that workers should
have more freedom and more say
in how their workplaces run. And
there’s, there’s no one in this country
who kind of understands that more
than someone who’s an owneroperator truck driver,” said Collins.
“All the money, the wealth that I
generate with my labor goes to me.”
Collins says socialism means that
workers control the workplace, not
the government.
Although his experience running his small trucking business has
informed his politics, this is not his
06 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
by
Daniel Vogel
first foray into the political arena.
In high school Collins volunteered
for a state senator in Nevada and
worked with other students to push
back on a bill that moved money
from the education fund to private
prisons.
“We got 1100 students to occupy
the legislature, so I guess it could be
considered part of the occupy movement,” said Collins. “Ultimately, we
were unsuccessful, and that this was
when I realized that a lot of politicians, they’re unmovable, because
their donors are against what the
people want.”
Collins regularly criticizes his
opponent for accepting campaign
contributions from the fossil fuel
and finance industries. Political contribution tracker OpenSecret says
Heck received more than a hundred
thousand dollars each from the securities, insurance and real estate
industries in the 2018 election cycle.
Heck did not respond to a request
for comment.
Collins has raised almost $12,000
on CrowdPac from 360 donors, with
an average campaign contribution of
$33 dollars. He says he was inspired
by the small-donation campaigns of
Bernie Sanders and New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
A Policy Wonk
Collins campaign may run on
small donations, but he’s a man with
big ideas.
He wants a $20 minimum wage
by 2028 and a two-year 100% tax
break for households making under
80k a year balanced against taxes on
the rich “at least as high as FDR.”
In his view, school funding should
be disentangled from property taxes
and teachers paid substantially more.
Fossil fuels should be owned and
managed by the government. The
federal Housing and Urban Development department should be
re-empowered to build new public
housing to combat homelessness. He
wants Medicare for All, free college
education for people of all ages, and
for all medical and student loan debt
to be erased.
Collins wishes Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were more vocal about
foreign policy. Collins himself wants
the defense industry to be nationalized, the US to pull out of overseas
bases, and for the CIA to be investigated, prosecuted and abolished.“The
CIA is an unaccountable, unelected
group of spies with a very dangerous
agenda, who have overthrown governments and have likely assassinated
politicians and political figures in our
own country,” said Collins.
For the trucking industry, he
wants to ease the process of automation by empowering the government
to offer interest-free financing for
truckers to purchase their own cleanenergy trucks. “It would create the
largest worker owned industry the
world has ever seen.”
He compares this transition to
the ongoing yellow vest movement in
France, which was sparked by a fuel
tax increase and the French government’s plans to move away from diesel engines. “We saw in France when
they just tried to impose carbon taxes
to get diesel trucks to try to transition. What that did was it screw over
a lot of truck drivers, even just regular
employee truck drivers,” said Collins.
He wants a worker-first Green New
Deal.
“My philosophy with policies is
never asked for what you want. Always ask for more,” said Collins. “You
always aim for more than what like
what people think is possible. And
we don’t know what is until we do it.”
Internet Prescience,
IRL Presence
Like many DSA members,
Joshua Collins is extremely online.
Collins cites interactions on twit-
ter with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
as directly inspiring his decision to
run. “In November, I started using it
to follow Alexandria, Casa Cortez –
I already followed her on Instagram.
“I tweeted out or twice. And both
times, she retweeted me. And this
took my followers from 34 – mostly
spam accounts – to like 800. And
from then I decided to use that for
the campaign,” said Collins, whose
twitter account is @Joshua4Congress. “I got that up to 8500 by just
expressing my opinions and saying
things that I feel like everyone kind
of already agrees with. Leftist things
that should be obvious.”
Collins tweets exclusively from
an android smartphone that he nervously fiddled with during an interview at downtown Olympia’s Batdorf & Bronson. He’s posted 2,000
more times than his opponent, despite joining the platform two years
later. Heck posts from a number of
different twitter clients, which may
indicate that his social media accounts are managed by his staff.
Collins has done “ask me anything” interviews on reddit under
the username SocialistHiker. He’s
a regular poster to the ChapoTrapHouse reddit, a subreddit for fans
of the leftist Chapo Trap House
podcast.
“With our generation there isn’t
really isn’t that much of a divide between online stuff and real life,” said
Collins. “For older folks, they don’t
really expect it to be the same. And I
think that also gives me the advantage over my opponent, who won’t
expect how much support I have in
real life. Because he feels like probably like most my support just online
people show up.”
Collins is recruiting volunteers
and hopes to knock on every door
in the district. Interested people can
sign up on joshua2020.com.
Community
T
At Evergreen, Soe has taken classes with both Aisha Harrison and Mukti Khanna. In the class Studio
Arts for Expressive Arts Therapy: Developing Cultural Competence, Soe was able to merge their interests major interests of drawing, poetry, and critical
race theory. Much of the art they presented in this
feature was made in this forementioned class, and
is a combination of both their drawings and poetry;
centered around the processing trauma and decontructing thought. Below are a selection of the poems
featured in many of their drawings, and some that
we’re written unaccompanied by visual art.
eddy Soe is a visual artist and poet raised
in Portland, orginally from the country of
Burma(Myanmar). Soe has been drawing for a large
part of their life and started taking professional art
classes, last year while they were attending Portland
State University. Their first ever college art class was
taught by a powerful woman of color named Una
Kim. Kim taught her class in an actively decolonial
manner that gave no time restriction, nor did it subscribe to the guideline of a singular process.“With art
itself, there’s like gatekeeping. It’s boujee,” Soe said.
“A lot of art that you see in museums is done by white
people, for white people, of white people. It feels gated, like its a White hobby.” In Kim’s class, however,
Soe felt as if “there wasn’t a fucking a box” that they
were constricted by when making their art. “She told
me that some students can’t abide to the Eurocentric
structured academia we have…Every art class in college that I’ve ever taken has been taught by a professor that was a woman of color and that impacts my
experience so much.”
TO FEEL HOMESICK
BUT TO NOT KNOW WHERE HOME IS
I DON’T BELONG
I WANT TO GO HOME
WHERE IS HOME
DENIED THE RIGHT TO FEEL
COMFORTABLE
DENIED THE RIGHT TO FEEL
SAFE
DENIED THE RIGHT TO FEEL
TO FEEL HOME.
TO FEEL
PUSHED AWAY
FROM A PLACE
AND NOT WELCOME
IN ANOTHER.
WHERE DO I GO
FROM HERE.
--------------------------------------------------BEING A STUDENT OF COLOR
IN HIGHER ACADEMIA
AND MAJORLY WHITE SPACES
IS TRAUMATIC
AND I FEEL LIKE
IM LOSING MY MIND
IM LOSING MY MIND
IM LOSING MY MIND
--------------------------------------------------A NOTE TO SELF.
DON’T LET SOMEONE IN UNTIL YOU’RE
SURE
THEY ARE CAPABLE OF SHOWING YOU
THEY RESPECT YOU
THAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF DOING THE
LEGWORK
OF ACTIVELY ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR
PRIVILEGES
CAPABLE OF ACTIVELY BEING ANTI RACIST
BEING ANTI OPPRESSION
CAPABLE OF DOING THE LEG WORK OF
ACKNOWLEDGING
THE COMPLEXITIES OF YOUR IDENTITIES
THAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF
RESPECTING YOU
FOR WHO YOU ARE
AS YOU ARE.
P.S. MEMORIZING MY PRONOUNS IS NOT
ENOUGH
--------------------------------------------------AT MY CORE
I RECOGNIZE MY OWN EXISTENCE
AS RADICAL
AS RESISTANCE
Artist
Interview
by Brittanyana
Pierro
Teddy Soe
@thatchinkybitch @lilsleepypoo
AT TIMES I FEEL IM NOT DOING
ENOUGH
OR AS MUCH AS I CAN
I REMIND MYSELF
SOMETIMES JUST EXISTENCE IS ENOUGH.
I AM DOING WHAT I CAN
IN A SYSTEM BUILT TO DESTROY
MY EXISTENCE
AND MY BEING.
SOMETIMES WHEN PEOPLE KEEP
DENYING YOU OF RESPECT
YOU START TO BELIEVE YOU’RE NOT
WORTH IT. IM TIRED.
---------------------------------------------------PEOPLE CHANGE
AND PEOPLE GROW
AND PEOPLE GET BETTER
IT’S MOST OFTEN TIMES
ANOTHER PERSON’S STORY
A STORY OF SOMEONE
THEY KNOW.
INTERESTING TO HEAR
PEOPLE TAKE UP SPACE
IN PLACES THEY
CONTRIBUTE POWER DYNAMICS
SHARING STORIES
OF TRAUMA
THAT AREN’T THEIRS.
“COLONIZING TRAUMA / GENTRIFYING
RACISM”
---------------------------------------------------I AM NOT
INTIMIDATING
YOU ARE JUST
INTIMIDATED
BY ME
MY VOICE
AND MY EXISTENCE.
BUT YOU DO NOT
OWE THEM
MORE CHANCES
YOU DO NOT NEED
TO LET THEM BACK IN
YOU DO NOT OWE THEM
YOUR PRESENCE
OR YOUR LABOR
PEOPLE LEARN
BUT IT DOES NOT
NEED TO BE AT
THE EXPENSE OF
YOU HURTING.
YOU DON’T OWE ANYTHING.
---------------------------------------------------I AM FORGETTING
PARTS OF MY CULTURE
OCCUPIED WITH FIGHTING STRUGGLING
TO SURVIVE.
ONE DAY I WILL REMIND
MY CHILDREN
THE THINGS I FORGOT.
AND THEY
WILL TEACH THEIRS.
AND I WILL
BE GONE,
KNOWING
THAT I WILL
PASS ON
THE PARTS OF ME
I ALMOST FORGOT.
---------------------------------------------------IT’S INTERESTING TO SEE
HOW WHEN WHITE PEOPLE
SHARE STORIES OF TRAUMA
AND EXPERIENCES OF
SYSTEMIC OPPRESSIONS
I AM NOT INTIMIDATING
OTHERS ARE INTIMIDATED.
I AM NOT AT FAULT
FOR WHITE PEOPLE SCARED
OF MY VOICE AND MY PRESENCE.
---------------------------------------------------JUST BECAUSE
I’VE BEEN HEALING
PAST THE TRAUMA
I HAD GOTTEN FROM YOU
DOES NOT MEAN I FORGIVE YOU
DOES NOT MEAN I FORGIVE YOU.
---------------------------------------------------TO GROW UP
WATCHING THE PROCESS
TO EXPERIENCE THE PROCESS
OF THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU CHANGE
HOUSES TORN DOWN AND REBUILT
REBUILT AND OUT OF PLACE
AND THE SPACE THAT’S OUT OF PLACE,
GROWING
PUSHING US OUT
I COULDN’T STAY
AND KEEP WATCHING
SO I LEFT
BUT I MISS MY NEIGHBORHOOD
SO, SO MUCH
IT’S NOT THE SAME
IT’S DIFFERENT
IT’S GONE EVEN WHEN
I GO HOME.
NIGHTS OUT
DOING THINGS
I WASN’T POST TO BE DOING
MEMORIES WITH
FORGOTTEN FACES
I HAVEN’T SEEN IN YEARS
IN PLACES
THAT ARE NO LONGER THERE.
---------------------------------------------------DO NOT APPROACH
THE PEOPLE
IN MY LIFE
IF YOU CANNOT
ACKNOWLEDGE
ME
MY PRESENCE
AND THE
PAIN YOU CAUSED.
-----------------------------------------unlearning past ways,
and teaching yourself
how to take better care
of you and your body
is a process…
healing isn’t linear
and sometimes it’s easy
to forget that.
the journey of self
acceptance, self love,
self recovery, and self care
is a difficult one.
--------------------------------------------
there’s something about
becoming exposed to trauma
and abuse
from a young age
and becoming used to it
because then,
growing up
you become colorblind
to every type of red flag that passes you.
there’s something about
having trauma passed down
through your genes from your mother
and your mother’s mother
and her mother.
something about feeling it
beating deep within your chest
feeling it flow through your veins
feeling it fill your lungs
ache your bones
water your eyes
and brings down your heavy heart.
because then,
when you wonder what you did
to make you feel this way
you remember that you carry the weight
and the pain
that your ancestors never got the chance
to resolve.
To heal.
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 07
Arts & Culture
Teddy Soe
08 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
Arts & Culture
“There’s something else
that’s happening between the
lines that we don’t always
really see in media or in art”
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 09
Our Graduates
Georgie
How long have you been at Evergreen and what do you do here?
3 years. I’m the creative director at the CPJ.
What is your most Evergreen experience?
Lying down in a gymnasium with my entire class and screaming/moaning into the void, collectively, in order to gain inspiration. It was disturbingly… poignant.
Is there someone or something at Evergreen that deeply impacted you?
Evergreen has cemented my idea of what I wanna do later it life. Working at the CPJ given me an intense amount of design
and writing skills that I could not have gotten anywhere else at this school.
How do you feel about Seminar?
Seminar is a trip. Seminar is a great place to either show off that you read, or show off that you never have to read. I find
myself seminar-ing with my friends at the bar every time I go out.
What is the most Olympia thing you’ve incorporated into your life?
Mccoys and LaCroix
What is one of your greatest accomplishments at Evergreen?
I turned in this mess of a 50 page collection of source material, quotes and original writing to my professor. In my eval he
said “Mason’s project profoundly speaks about the reading mind, reading itself.” If people can think of my stuff like that,
then I must have accomplished something while I was here. I also designed the paper every two weeks, so that’s cool.
How can Evergreen keep encouraging students to learn here?
To not let the current trends of higher institutions strip Evergreen of its quality as a ‘Sandbox’ for learning; where you have
find your own way and learn what you want to learn by actively creating the means for that learning. Also fire the cops.
What would you tell your freshman self?
Flirt more. Finish more books instead of putting them down ½ way thru. Cause you’re just gonna end up rereading them.
Where are you going from here?
Falling flat on my face. Haha I’m just kidding. I’m moving to Atlanta. I’m probably going to go back to the corporate job
I was working before I got here, but with hopeful applications to any, and all, writing opportunities. So if you have any
Atlanta contacts in publishing, do reach out.
Daniel
Mason
CPJ GRADUATES 2019
How long have you been at Evergreen and what do you do here?
4 years. I studied Creative Writing and I’m currently the Editor in Chief of the CPJ.
What is your most Evergreen experience?
1) One time I heard someone in class say “I touched this gum and then I was like ‘ew’. Then I thought ‘the gum probably
doesn’t wanna touch me either.”
2)Got lost in the woods
3) I helped start a national controversy. Still slightly traumatized from that.
4) I took a class on memes and Queer Vidding.
5) I read a book from the 1500’s about Margery Kemp having sex with Jesus
Is there someone or something at Evergreen that deeply impacted you?
Miranda Mellis and Stephen Hendricks we’re incredibly encouraging and transformative profs. Access to the letter press
studio. The CPJ, I’ve gotten pretty much all of my working journalism and design skills form here.
How do you feel about Seminar?
It really depends on the professor and the people in your class. Its far better to discuss things with other people who are also
trying to learn rather than listen to someone lecture.
What is one of your greatest accomplishments at Evergreen?
I published two books. One of my own work, the second one with Mason is an anthlogy with 5 contributers. And we started a
small press. I also got to teach a class. During my time at the CPJ I published and designed 15 newspapers.
How can Evergreen keep encouraging students to learn here?
The PR and Administration departments should take the time to understand students. Also influencing students to take different types of classes and ILCs. Offer some Summer classes during the regular year so they don’t cost a bajillion dollars.
Where are you going from here?
Me and Mason are still going to run our press, @PixelandFragment on Instagram. I’m moving back to Seattle, but my main
goal is to get into a fully funded MFA program so I can become a professor.
How long have you been at Evergreen and what do you do here?
I’ve been at Evergreen for two years, also known as two years too many. And I study computer science and media studies.
What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment here at Evergreen?
I convinced Evergreen to let me study memes. I did an ILC that focused on when Ted Cruz accidentally liked a porn
tweet. And since then, I’ve studied memes about It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office.
How can Evergreen keep encouraging students to learn here?
Students do a lot of learning at Evergreen, but not necessarily from Evergreen. So the more institutional support that can
be given to students pursuing independent studies, or incorporating existing coursework into their independent studies, the
more students will actually learn.
Is there someone or something at Evergreen that deeply impacted you?
I think working at the CPJ as deeply impacted me. You know, in my reporting, I’ve gotten a lot of pushback from staff
administration who are nominally intending to be transparent and progressive.
They use this strategy to deflect from their actions, which are not progressive. So the impact of that has been realizing
that, as it is used in institutions today, progressivism is more of a marketing strategy than an actual commitment to do
good.
What is your most Evergreen Experience?
My most Evergreen experience is arguing with vegans and avoiding known abusers.
10 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
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MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 11
Lit & Crit
Black Panther members at the Capitol protest unconcealed weapon ban, 1969.
Courtesy of Washington State Archves.
Guns Aren’t Just for
White Conservative Men
How Gun Ownership Revolves Around
Power, Self-Sufficiency — Not the
Liberal and Conservative Divide
by Marta Tahja-Syrett
When marginalized people are deterred
from gun ownership, they are actually being
deterred from a particular avenue of power.
This same avenue has long been utilized by the
United States government, and individual citizens, to enforce and maintain lethal systems of
oppression.
In slivers, and flashing moments, my father
has instilled in me the notion of sticking to
your guns: standing behind your beliefs, and
holding tight to the things you feel cannot
be compromised. My father taught me what
it was like to live as a coonass (for those who
don’t know, coonass means a Cajun person,
and is a term that reflects either connotations
of pride or prejudice), with a fierce heart and a
need for self-sufficiency that originates from
trauma and poverty. He also taught me to
cling, with white knuckles, to my identity and
my right to live as a woman. I know that this
information, imparted from him to me, was
rooted in my father’s life — informed by both
his individuality and the collective sense of
strength and outspokenness that stems from
his rural Cajun-ness.
My identificatory narrative has been
formed, in part, by the stories I grew up hearing about my great-grandmother. My greatgrandmother, who was referred to by her racist son-in-law as “Blackie” Bertrand, owned a
gun just like everyone else in the south. Her
marbled wood-grain shotgun, now collecting
dust in my parents’ closest, was once utilized as
a tool — both a source of concentrated physical power and self-sufficiency. For prolonged
periods of her life, my great-grandmother,
Bernadette, lived alone. She needed to keep
herself protected from the woes of Texan
dusk, where the shimmering pelts of panthers
shuffled bushes, cooing like crying infants
just beyond the back porch. Her gun kept her
safe from home invasions, and it signaled to
the abusive, betraying hands of men that they
weren’t welcomed. Bernadette’s black walnut
shotgun also kept our family off the brink of
starvation — no baby goes to the crib hungry
when their ma’s equipped with great aim and a
hankering for some rabbit gumbo.
In terms of staying full during times of
financial drought, my father, Toby Syrett, articulates a similar attitude surrounding gun
ownership. Through the pages of writing once
long-forgotten, my father conveys to his readers a sense of his life.
“When I was in the 3rd grade, my Uncle
Richard was on the run from the law and he’d
come to live with us. He spent most of his time
hiding in the Southeast Texas woods along the
gumbo-muddy banks of Cow Bayou using the
skills he picked up in Vietnam to lay low. It
was 1981 and for Christmas he gave me a
present: a Benjamin .22 caliber air rifle. Some
would call it a BB gun, but it was far more than
a BB gun,” Syrett states.
“He entrusted me with the responsibility of possessing a useful and dangerous tool,
12 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
one that carried great responsibility. This tool
was like a passport into the woods and bayous of my youth. Without it, I was just a kid
running around playing. But with it cradled
in my arms, I became a biologist, connecting
with and learning from rabbits, armadillos,
squirrels. I became a scout, walking the woods
and neighborhood, taking in information, detecting trends, watching for trouble. I became
a provider, putting food on our kitchen table
many times as a pre-teen.”
I am fully aware that these narratives may
catch someone dazed with fright, heart-racing
at the thought of “Blackie” and her gun — the
image of a poor Cajun boy utilizing weaponry
to feed his family juxtaposed with gun violence
statistics and school shooting photographs.
Perhaps the onset of cold sweat inducing
fear is not just the liberal “oh no, guns!” alarm
sounding; it may very well be a reflection of
white-progressivism-fueled racism and sexism. According to Lara Witt’s 2017 article
published by Harper’s Bazaar, white liberals
fear confronting “how white supremacy protects them” and how “they still benefit from
generational wealth and privilege from as far
back as 400 years ago.” “Well-intentioned”
anti-gun liberals will likely struggle to address
the reasons why my great-grandmother needed to own a gun, as many of them find it easier
to reject, rather than accept, the blatant truth
that the United States continues to uphold, on
a very deeply rooted and systemic level, vio-
lence against women and people of color.
Although there is validity in the statistical evidence surrounding homicidal violence
against women, many narratives concerning
these statistics fail to examine the ways in
which sexism should be dismantled, seeking
instead to disarm women as a means to end
femicide. These narratives seem to serve as a
warning, a cautionary tale, that asserts the
belief that women — women whose safety
has been compromised (beyond the inherent
safety risks that come with being a woman, no
matter the individual context) — shouldn’t be
looking to weaponry in terms of protection.
Writing for The Atlantic in 2014, Evan Defilippis cites a 2005 study to back up his claim
that guns are not “a great equalizer between
the sexes.” The study found that two-thirds of
femicides committed by an intimate partner
end in suicide. Drawing his conclusion from
this statistic, Defilippis states that mental help
for men at-risk (of killing women) needs to
be viewed with great immediacy. He goes on
to state, “that owning a firearm may make a
household more vulnerable than ever.”
But does the issue of violence perpetrated
against women really lie solely in debating the
mental health of men, or is it possible that it
also lies in the very systemic policing and oppression of women? Is it the gun that makes
the household vulnerable, or is it really just the
man?
Barring oppressed groups of people from
gun ownership far predates these aforementioned narratives surrounding the need
to disarm households where women live, in
an attempt to end gendered violence. In his
2018 article written for The Root, Michael
Harriot addresses legislative attempts to
prevent black gun ownership. To support
his argument that “White men have always
been afraid of armed black people,” Harriot
highlights Ronald Reagan’s fight “for gun
control legislation after another group of
black men called Black Panthers marched
on California’s Capitol carrying shotguns.”
Marginalized gun ownership isn’t the
solution to dismantling and overturning
systemic oppression, but it is a tool that
some seek in regard to protection — protection from both interpersonal violence
and systemic violence. We should never
deny the people who have long been brutalized by our nation the right to deal with
their oppression as they choose. To quote
Toby Syrett, “Until we make the world safe
for everyone, we have no business telling
someone that they can’t carry a gun to protect themselves.”
Submission:
Legislative Success
for Evergreen by Annie Landis
From King 5 to the New York Times,
Higher Education in Washington has
been making headlines throughout the
nation. The bill behind all the buzz is
E2SHB 2158, sponsored by Higher Ed
champion and Representative from the
23rd Legislative District, Rep. Drew
Hansen. This piece of legislation is the
most progressive Higher Education
investment in State history, and will
positively impact thousands of students
throughout Washington, including students of The Evergreen State College.
The bill will replace the State Need
Grant (SNG) with the Washington
College Promise (WCP), the difference
being that the College Promise is fully
funded. Last year, over 20,000 eligible
students did not receive SNG funding
due to the shortage of funds invested by
the Legislature. Now, after a long and
hard fought battle by key Legislators,
students, and other Higher Ed Stakeholders, every eligible student will get
the aid they are entitled to. With over
half of our student body qualifying for
financial aid, this is big news for Evergreen.
The WCP isn’t the only great part
of 2158 either. The bill also creates a
Student Loan Refinancing Program
which allows the Washington Student
Achievement Council (WSAC) to contract with financial institutions to provide more favorable loan conditions. It
would allow Washington Residents to
finance their existing student loans as
well.
For our Student Veterans, 2158 will
raise the mandatory tuition waiver from
200 to 250 credits, enabling students
to get a double major or stay in school
an extra year. The waiver also applies to
children, spouses, and domestic partners
of service members who died during
service, became fully disabled, or have a
POW or MIA designation. It also expands the definition of eligible veteran
for the purpose of tuition to include Veteran or National guard members who
were discharged solely on the basis of
gender or sexuality (this is especially relevant in light of Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military).
Another section of the bill allows
Federally recognised American Indian
Tribes to contribute to the Washington
State Opportunity Scholarship fund, enabling all participating tribes to receive a
1 to 1 monetary match from the state to
fund scholarships for Native Americans.
All this legislative progress would not
have been possible without the hardworking student lobbyists representing
the Public Four Year and Community
Colleges, including two Evergreen stu-
dents. Almost every day of the Legislative Session, at least one member of the
Geoduck Student Union (GSU) was at
the Capitol, meeting with Senators and
Representatives and advocating for the
students of Evergreen.
In addition to 2158, the Legislative
Team successfully lobbied for various
other bills as well. 2SSB 5800, sponsored
by Senator Emily Randall, implements a
study for providing wrap-around services for formerly homeless and foster care
youth in community and four year colleges. These services would include short
term housing, access to laundry facilities,
reduced meal plans, and case management services. The idea came from an
Evergreen student, Charlie Adkins, the
Director of Legislative Affairs for the
GSU. As someone who had experienced
homelessness in high school and lacked
reliable support from his family, Adkins
struggled to find the resources he needed
when he started college. Wanting to prevent other students from facing the same
struggles that he faced, Adkins turned to
Senator Randall, who was happy to help
craft the legislation, and together they
pushed 5800 through both houses and
onto the Governor’s desk, who signed
the bill on May 9th.
Evergreen students also successfully
advocated for a $350,000 study in the
Transportation Budget for a passenger only ferry. The ferry would go from
Olympia to Seattle and is estimated to
take 90 minutes, one way. It would help
travelers skip the traffic on I-5, and
would allow carless Greeners and community members an alternative to busses. They also lobbied for the creation of
State Public Lands Day (HB1449), on
the 4th Saturday of every September. On
that day, Discovery Pass fees would be
waived at State Parks.
Other Legislative success include
close to $30 million per year for the
College from the state operating budget. Close to $3 million more than the
previous biennium even with declining
enrollment. An additional $6 million for
the building of a new Health & Counseling Center, $5 million for making
the college more affordable for our students, and close to $20 for other critical
upgrades & maintenance for facilities
throughout campus.
All in all, this has been a successful
session for the Evergreen State College
and its students. The days, nights, and
early mornings spent tirelessly advocating at the Washington State Capitol
have paid off. Now it is time for our GSU
Legislative Team to take some time to
relax before preparing for another busy
session next year.
Letters & Opinion
KAOS TOP 30
89.3
THE WEEK OF May 27
1 Aretha Franklin - Amazing Grace (Soul/Funk/R&B)
2 Magela Herrera - Explicaciones ( Jazz)
3 Lee Fields And The Expressions - It Rains Love
(Soul/Funk/R&B)
4 Sneaks - Highway Hypnosis (Electronic)
5 Analea Brown - Queendom (Reggae)
6 The Cash Box Kings - Hail To The Kings! (Blues)
7 Jamila Woods - Legacy! Legacy! (R&B)
8 Ex Hex - It’s Real (Rock)
9 Christone Kingfish Ingram - Kingfish (Blues)
10 Maybird - Things I Remember From Earth (Rock)
11 Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Mettavolution (Alt. Latin)
12 Tacocat - This Mess Is A Place (Rock)
13 Amon Tobin - Fear In A Handful Of Dust (Electronic)
14 The Mountain Goats - In League With Dragons (Rock)
15 Johnathan Rice - The Long Game (FCB)
16 The Big Cheese Band - Among The Stars (FCB)
17 Sasami - Sasami (Rock)
18 Lambchop - This (Is What I Wanted To Tell You) (Pop)
19 Low Life - Downer Edition (Punk)
20 Mellow Mood - Large (Reggae)
21 Syml - Syml (Pop)
22 Lucille Furs - Another Land (Rock)
23 Vouna - Vouna (Loud)
24 Helms Alee - Noctiluca (Loud)
25 Charly Bliss - Young Enough (Rock)
26 Rare DM - Vanta Black (Electronic)
27 Relove - Music On A Mission! (Reggae)
28 Pow! - Shift (Punk)
29 Greys - Age Hasn’t Spoiled You (Punk)
30 Joanne Broh - Live (Blues)
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 13
Opinion
In which our wasted and
collectively graduating (!!!)
editorial board attempt
to answer your advice
questions one last time!
What’s the best tinder bio?
This girls tinde bio — and she’s already —
listen, it’s just “I’m a top.” That’s it
What’s the question?
What the fuck is the question?
Oh. I’m a top. Period
My favorite is — “wife, mother, veteran.”
That’s my tinder bio.
Wife mother veteran
Mine is similar but that’s not it—
Wait!
“No cops but yes ROTC.”
Fucking me
No cops but- no military yes rotc and
cops. I was like WHAT we tried to swipe
so we could be like what???
I just want to engage
My favorite are the ones that like really
send me to existential dread they stare of
the word.
@ symbol eating asshole
“Love cats Nintendo switch. Switch is the
best.”
Should I get on Grindr right now?
The best tinder bio: should I get on grindr
right now?
Let’s see - “wildflower. Namaste.” ThTs
there own profile
Did you already get it?
What do you mean I already had it
“5’’ 11” cuz man.” You can pick man but
if you pick cis man— that means they’re
trying to fuk
If they put their pronouns im fully erect,
not to use the h word. — That’s going to
get me horny
Are you ready for this bio? Sub-vers-I’ve.
It’s a full paragraph — “I’m broadly
looking for sexual contact.” THE FACT
THAT THEY USE A SEMICOLON.
“Tell me what you’re into” - SEMICOLON - “I have tried it. Probably can’t
host. Trans-friendly-SLASH-competent”
They read that bustle article
Pics available
thats a good oen
stop. whats (redacted)
dont know what the top was but we went
on grdiner its tinder but for people who
are serious
tlet me see who this is so i can roast them
into my mind
lets move on
seminar q
I have attended (over 9000 seminars)
my question is you cannot graduate evergreen if you didn’t keep
count
thats not a question.
can i tell you something very impressive
-- i passed up to algrebra with applied
questions.
period. im not done. ive done up To foundations to calculus.
NOT TO RAIN NOT TO RAIN ON
ya’ll BUT LISTEN BUT LISTEN BUT
WAIT THEY DUMBED YOU DOWN
THEY WERRENT READY YOU
WERE READY LISTEN LISTEN I
FOT TO CALC TWO BITCHES!!!
NO!!!
i was going to be a Math Major!!!
straight girl right here
i got to calc 2!! and i failed out of Calc 2!!!
no gaze !no gaze. no!! no!!
i xan say that i have had sex. with someone
who has been thru multiple calc
shut up you fuck tech bros
i fucked a tech bro who ourside of his
apartment said go home tech bros
(clarifying) he took a picture of the tech
bros sticker
woods party saturday the 15th in the
woods follow the sound s this is official
announcment
WHATS THE NEXT QUESTION
BITCHEZ
im having a sappy movmsnt give me a
second
go ahead an like that one. like that photo.
like that video. thanks.
first question!
FIRST QUESTION. question time. que
triste
Should I go back to evergreen?
no.
dont say no
should i o hack to evergreen
a nuanced answer is what this deaervees
my answer: you have to say the words
hashtag meditate on it
#MEDITATEONIT. hashtag period.
dont listen to all the jaded senior.
BUT WE’aRE RIGHT. FULLCAPS
dont ask the deadbeats
i want to ask the asker: DO YOU
THINK THAT BEES ON THE
AMERICAN SPIRIT CASE IS
BROKE OR WOKE. its shoking me
to death
i feel like i wpuld not be able to say
the answer to the qusstion if i should
14 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
go to evergreen if i had not gone to
evergreen
wwu, whitman, western, centeal, uw,
where is whitman? south pugetsound
i have friends, university of puget
sound, university is that not a college,
university of washingyon PUS its pronounced UBS but heres the thing as
much as i hate wvergreen but i know
people who went to other colleges and
theyrw all dumb and they suck and are
hompphobic and suck
everyone who doesnt go to evergreen
is homobphobic peripd hashtag peeriod
you arw joking you dont know
you know
you know these people?
i know
How does -- are you listeninf-how to stop being embarrsezd
about things in the past
[says question again in sarcastic accent]
dont type this down
(delte delete whos fot BOY PROBLEMS
. ive got them too!! dont tell me why this
is the most ally song)
youre like fuck men
you have to make wnough good
memories that tou dont care anymorw
understand that the orld is ending
i have for years now have the answer-the answer to not being embarresses.
keep being embarresed. GETTING
BEALTHFUL -- the real answer is
kust prentwnding that toure better
than everyone else . and sum of us
dont even have to pretend
i didnt apill anything. youve asscended. youre above us.
ive been there in thae stratosphere.
bitch. the stratosphere. im going to lill
you.
opps i did that on purpose and then
you sit down cross tour legs and cross
your arms and say “yeah, ok”
yeah thats literally the answer
cross your lega, cross your arms, and
aay “yeah, ok.” happy pride bit h
dix years 5 monthst 10 days and ive
been doing this for six years and they
said “WHAT THE FUCK”
oh fuck oh fuck ofh cuck
that cant be your reaaction to thid
that is how you get over it l
well thats good
mwell can i eat yoyr orange
should we go to the reef ?
thats true fire sign advise.
i wrote spiderman
i heard that spiderman is gay and thats
fire sign
spyro is an aires accept it
not about aires signs idiots
well then why does it say aires idiot
can i say something
leos are the only fire sign.
i dont wnat to say it even tho i dont
believe in horoscopes i believe there is
only one fire sign and its leo
only
a LEO is a sag but they wont say
theyre shit outloud
-- wait wait wait holdup- thats LIES
LIES LIE.
a sag walks into a party and goes lets
fuck it up
. LIES LIES LIES LIES.
a leo goes im going to fuck this shit up
silently, then fucks this hit up
MY WHOLE BEER TOU KNOWCKED MY WHOLE BEER OVER
try being best frienda with a leo
WAIT i have the answer: all along the
clsrcond front
(crawls on roof ) “admit that leos are
the only fire sign!”
(looks at friend on roof ) this is what i
mean- a leo just fucks it up.
Opinion
A column where we ask folks at Evergreen an uncomfortable question and publish the answers. We
hope that sharing those less-talked-about things here, with each other, can be cathartic. Be warned,
some content may be triggering.
When my parents
sent me to a residential
treatment facility.
Celeste, junior
Realizing that my childhood
idols are just humans, with all the
flaws and contradictions that come
with humanity.
My hamster dying when
I was five. Rest in peace,
Thunder.
Chase, junior
When I was a kid, I kept
asking my dad to take me to
Disneyland and he said they were
going to open one in Seattle, so I
told my all my friends for weeks
and weeks. When I finally found
out he was messing with me, I was
crushed.
Hali, junior
The worst
disappointment
I’ve ever
experienced
was…
Kristoff
The complete lack of the writing and arts programs that I was
promised as a high school senior
going into Evergreen.
Not having enough money to
pay for my tuition, so now I have to
work a bunch of jobs to pay for it.
Aidan, senior
Losing a soccer
championship.
Alvero,
alum
Bombing my
candidacy paper.
Gavin, MES student
Aurora, freshman
Not being there for my
sister when her friends were
killed in a mass shooting.
Gavin, junior
My birth.
S, senior
Getting let
down on my
final high school
project.
Probably the
2016 election.
Carly, junior
Nathan, junior
The first time I ate at the
Greenery.
Kate, junior
Spending my whole spring
break texting a local radio station
for concert tickets, then being unable to claim them because I was
in class when I would have won.
Mariana, junior
My grandfather not getting to see me get married.
Janie, senior
My dad.
Eli, junior
MAY 15, 2019 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 15
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cpj_20190605.pdf