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Part of The Cooper Point Journal (April 18, 2018)

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the cooper point journal
The Evergreen State College Newspaper Since 1971|April 18, 2018

SHOOTING AT LOCAL CAFE
DETAILS ON THE LETHAL
INCIDENT AT BURIAL GROUNDS
3

INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE
TESC PRESIDENT TALKS EQUITY,
DOA/ DOP, EXTERNAL REVIEW
4

LITERATURE + CRITIQUE
A REFUTION OF THE HAMMER
AND SICKLE
10

The Cooper Point Journal

STAFF

Editor-in-Chief

J a s m i n e K o z a k - G i l roy

Business Manager
April Davidson

News Editor
Mason Soto

C o mm u n i t y E d i t o r
Georgie Hicks

A r t s & C u lt u r e E d i t o r
Sally Linn

Comics Editor

Morrissey Morrissey

Writers

S eb a s t ia n L o p e z

FROM THE ARCHIVES “Ellie of Liberty” at The Evergreen State College, 1983. Photographer unknown, courtesy of The Evergreen State College Archives.

CONTACT
O f f i ce

T h e E v e r g re e n S t a t e C o l l e g e
CA B 3 3 2
2 7 0 0 E v e r g re e n P k w y N W
O l y m p i a , WA

Email Us

cooperpointjournal@gmail.com

Call Us

(360) 328 1333

Visit Us

O u r We e k l y M e e t i n g
We d n e s d a y s a t 2 p. m .

C o ve r A r t B y

M o r r i s s ey M o r r i s s ey

WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM
© 2018 the Cooper Point Journal

02 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

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 The 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,
but we’ll do our best to consult with you about any major changes.

News

The Burial Grounds storefront in downtown Olympia. MARA CURRY VIA GOFUNDME..

SHOOTING AT BURIAL GROUNDS
LOCAL COFFEE SHOP MET WITH TRADGEDY
By Mason Soto
Windows were boarded up
at Burial Grounds coffee shop
in downtown Olympia after
an altercation on the evening
of April 3 ended in gunshots.
Police reports explain the incident as a tumultuous moment of strangers together at
just the wrong time. The alleged shooter was Jon Harding, a thirty-one year old white
veteran who died at the scene
from an allegedly self-inflicted
gunshot wound after firing
shots that injured one other
person. Those who were there,
the veteran communities in
town, as well as mental health
groups and other networks
Harding was connected to are
reeling in the aftermath of this
tragedy.
It was before ten at night
on Tuesday, and a crowd of
folks were socializing around
the coffee shop as people do
most nights. Witness accounts
in reports released by Olympia Police Department differ,
but some things are clear. A
group of people were involved
in an argument or altercation
outside the coffee shop, but

neither Harding nor the victim were a part of the initial
fight. Harding apparently approached the group to intervene, then the other man did
the same, either to break up
the original fight or to stop
Harding from escalating the
situation, depending on report. Testimonies show that
things turned chaotic quickly
as Harding and the other man
attempted to break things up,
and Harding fired his gun in
the direction of the group
of people about five or six
times. The other man that had
walked up, a black man who is
a recent transient to Olympia,
was the only person that a bullet hit, and after he suffered
multiple gunshot wounds he
left from the scene to seek
help, riding with a friend to
a local hospital. Some reports
say that Harding was firing directly at this man, but it is unclear. After shooting, hitting
and shattering the windows
of the coffee shop storefront,
most reports say that Harding turned the gun to his own
head, shot once, and slumped

to the ground. Another couple
reports conflict, saying that
Harding was shot by another
shooter from somewhere further away, but these accounts
offered no description of a
shooter, just where the sound
of the gun seemed to come
from. Information from the
Thurston County Coroner’s
Office stated that the fatal
shot was self-inflicted. Friends
of his say that Harding was
an avid gun-carrier and let
it be known. He was part of
a group dedicated to suicide
prevention for veterans called
Twenty22Many, getting its
name from the statistic found
in a 2012 Data Report by the
Department of Veterans Affairs stating that twenty-two
veterans commit suicide each
day in the United States.
Numbers like this are on
the mind of local veterans now
more than ever. As an Evergreen student and veteran who
asked to remain anonymous
said in an interview with The
Cooper Point Journal, “I’m intrinsically connected to houselessness and mental health

issues if only from the stats I
face.” This student shared how
the veteran community can be
isolating, and that they find resources hard to realize through
all the procedure. “I feel like
most of the services here that
claim to be for veterans are really just collecting checks and
shuffling people who need care
from one bureaucracy to another. I don’t see any accountability or real effort to care for
veterans as individuals.”
Accountability and intersections of identity are parts
of many of the conversations
around this shooting and how
the story is being told. Olympia City Council Member Reneta Rollins made many posts
on her Facebook about the
event, where she first described
how she knew Jon Harding
and mourned his loss. Her
next post responded to comments that she had ignored
the other victim and the issue
of race in her earlier discussion
of the shooting. She emphasized the importance of giving
space to such a discussion especially as a person in a posi-

tion of power, and she wrote,
“I believe the unnamed Black
man who was shot has humanity and trauma worth centering…. To the Black man who
was injured, I apologize to you
for minimizing what you went
through and I am glad you are
physically ok.” Another post
said the victim was “on a long
road to recovery.”
In a post on the Burial
Grounds Facebook page announcing the shop’s temporary closing after the shooting,
these issues and others came
up. People discussed how
downtown has “changed” in
terms of communities on the
street, guns, and crime. Burial
Grounds offered replies, calling for people to get involved
with resources from the city
government. One comment by
the page read, “Gun ownership
is assuredly apart of this conversation, however, we do not
want to dismiss the problems
surrounding a lack of dependable resources for not only the
street community, but also for
patrons and other businesses
who are downtown.”

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 03

News

George Bridges speaking at the TESC Latinx Summit. SHAUNA BITTLE.

INTERVIEW
WITH
GEORGE
PRESIDENT DISCUSSES
DOA/DOP, EXTERNAL
REVIEW OF EVENTS
LAST SPRING
By Georgie Hicks
On the morning of April
10, George Bridges sat down
with the Cooper Point Journal
to talk about Day of Absence
/ Day of Presence (DOA/
DOP), the changes in campus communications, where he
hopes to see the school going
and the release of an external
review that came out on April
1 of this month.
The interview opened with
a question regarding Bridges
involvement in the planning
of the new equity events occuring this Spring and again
in Fall. “I’m not playing an active role”, he said, explaining
that though they had worked
closely together, Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion Chassity
Holliman-Douglas had been
recruited for the exact purpose
of planning these events, and
she has been working with a
group of students, faculty and
staff for the planning. Bridges
is optimistic about HollimanDouglas’ position, saying, “I’m
very supportive of her and her
work… I’m excited about the
possibility of more events that
include more people on these

issues.”
When asked about whether no longer having DOA/
DOP is a decision that is go-

ing to benefit the school and
the student body more than
having it, Bridges specified
that he did not see the events

“It is not the fault of
DOA/DOP, it is the fault of
extremist groups using us,
and I put the burden on
them.”
Holliman-Douglas was planning “as a replacement for Day
of Absence/ Day presence”.
He said that no longer having
DOA/DOP this year, “was a
very hard decision to make. I
participated in [DOA/DOP]
last year. I learned from it, I
learned about all manner of issues pertaining to race and bias
and I enjoyed it. Continuing
on to say, “[DOA/DOP] will
always have an important part
in Evergreen’s ongoing history
of dealing with race issues and

04 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

with power and privilege, but
right now, the risk is, in my
opinion, too high.”
The risk in Bridges opinion
was twofold, the first of which
being, “concern about the likely cost to people, to the reputation of the college and to the
financing of the college.” He
said that last year’s event was,
“taken hostage and held hostage by external groups misrepresenting it and then using,
exploiting it, to advance their
own causes and in the process

incurred enormous costs on
the people here, on the college’s serious academic reputation and financially, hundreds
of thousands of dollars, changing the venue and commencement, those kinds of things
and law enforcement, given
the Patriot Prayer [rally on
campus]...,” continuing to say,
“My concern is if we were to
have another Day of Absence
/ Day of Presence event this
year, the people who incurred
those costs are still looking at
us, focusing on us and want to
use us for their own purposes.
I just think the risk of having
those cost incurred again hurt
the statement.”
The second factor involved
making sure the title of DOA/
DOP didn’t hinder the work
that needs to be done. “The
fact that we now have Chassity
Holliman-Douglas here, who
has a big vision for how we can
advance the work… the work
on equity in a broader sense, a
more aggressive sense, assertive sense… multiple events
during the year to build community around these issues
are very exciting and it was a

combination of those factors
that said, [we] don’t wanna incur costs and harm having an
event named Day of Absence.
The work must continue, and
let’s move to a different model.”
About whether there would
be a public statement in an attempt to combat national and
other perspective that may take
the ending of DOA/DOP as
the school admitting fault in
the program, Bridges said:
“It is not the fault of DOA/
DOP, it is the fault of extremist groups using us, and I put
the burden on them.”
On October 5 2017, the
formation of The Independent
External Review Panel, was
announced by Bridges.
The resulting document
states, “President Bridges provided the Panel with a charge
to conduct a review of the
College’s response to campus
events involving student protests and unrest in the Spring
of 2017. Our objective was to
gather information about the
campus events and incidents,
collect data, review actions
taken, and prepare and submit

Community
a report on our findings and
recommendations...”
The external review titled
Report of The Independent
External Review Panel on
The Evergreen State College
Response to the Spring 2017
Campus Events was presented on April 1 to Hon. Keith
Kessler, Chair of the Board of
Trustees and President George
Bridges.
A link to a PDF of the
document can be found on the
Evergreen Website under Reports and Statements.
Under the section “Deeper
Communications” the review
states, “Despite some administrative efforts in this direction, a general desire was
broadly manifested on campus
for more clear communication and opportunities for the
campus as a whole to engage
in deliberate and meaningful
ways with the circumstances
of these events, clarify the lessons learned, establish trust,
and craft a clear path forward
from them.”
It continues, saying, ”We
learned that traditional communication patterns were disrupted after the incidents due
to apprehension about ‘outside’
interaction from unknown
sources that were personally
and institutionally threatening. The resulting lack of visible communication activities

during the Summer of 2017
contributed to the anxiety on
campus with the opening of
the Fall quarter at the College.
Campus constituents indicate
that these communication gaps
on the issues have persisted
into the current academic year,
though we note some new efforts have been introduced by
campus leadership.”
In response to anxieties
around lack of visible communications over the summer he
said, “Part of the problem with
the summer, why we didn’t
communicate as well was because we were communicating with the legislature that
was hugely demanding and I
didn’t anticipate that to be so
demanding so we could have
done better and we’re trying to
do the best we can now.”
On the subject of new efforts, President Bridges responded to a question asking
him to expand on what those
efforts are and the ways the
gaps are being closed.
He named three strategies
that as he said, “weren’t being
used last year.”
“We have a biweekly newsletter that comes out, called
Evergreen Forward that just
talks about the activities going
on on campus, and issues we
are facing,” he said of the first
effort. This publication which
is only sent to staff and faculty

included “a special issue that
went out early on, that talked
about the work we’d done in
response to Spring events.”
Another is, “a series of gatherings called the Community
Forward… lead by the Deans,
that have involved conversations and discussions.”
Thirdly, “every
month
there’s a gathering of managers, supervisors and academic
deans, about 70 to 80 people
show up, just for transmitting
informations about the budget,
enrollment, how we’re adapting to the unrest last spring.
All of those are ongoing and
they didn’t exist last year. And
there’s more on the way.”
He said, “I think what’s
most important is that there
be more face to face contact.
So this quarter every Wednesday at noon I’m going to be
sitting in the Marketplace and
anyone can approach me with
a question.”
As per an email send out by
Wendy Endress, VP of Student Affairs on April 9, there
will also be a Q&A session
with Endress and other members of the Student Affairs
Senior Team, every week from
April 10 through June 6 in the
Marketplace on the 2nd floor
of the CAB, Tuesdays 8-9 am
and Wednesdays 3-4 pm.
About having these upcoming conversations George said,

“We must and I’m excited
about it. Is it enough well, we’ll
see, but we have to do more.”
On page sixteen of the review it talks about developing a strong and “integrated
internal Evergreen campus

communications, that restores
a sense of trust and transparency”, then near the bottom it
goes on to talk about concerns
“by senior admin that internal campus communications
may be shared with or visible

“[Last year’s event was]
taken hostage and held
hostage by external
groups misrepresenting it
and then using,
exploiting it, to advance
their own causes and
in the process incurred
enormous costs on the
people here.”
to hostile external audiences.”
When asked about any specific plans in place to deal with
external threats, Bridges responded,
“I think the concern we
have, and it’s something that’s
been really challenging this
past year, is whenever I send
out an email, to all campus or

even just to the staff and faculty it ends up going to extremist groups… and there’s
really no way we can stop that
without crushing someones
first amendment rights and
so as much as I dislike it, the
challenge is we just have to be
aware.”
“We’re trying to be more

Photos from Day of Absence/Day of Presance, 2017. SHAUNA BITTLE.

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 05

Community
aware in our communications,
where it might go and how
we will respond. I wouldn’t
say there’s a strategic plan for
dealing with that piece of it
but we have an overarching
umbrella of ways in which we
are communicating internally
and have pretty much decided
that our internal communications are much more important than the critics out there”
Lastly, when asked what he
would personally like to see
happen to get the campus to
a point where moving forward
is possible, he said, “I think
one of the things we must do
is have continuing dialog. It
needs to be face to face and
it needs to be campus leaders,
not just me… leaders, students,
faculty, [engaging in] more collaboration, and work together
on the college. When I came
two, two and half years ago, I
came with a view that students
should be involved in almost
every aspect of the college and
administration and it’s been a
hard transition for Evergreen.
Given the nature of classwork,
program work, students are really focused on their programs
and study, and I think that by
working together on issuesand this sounds like President
speak, I really mean it, we
work together on problems
because I believe our students
have great ideas and they care
deeply about the institution.
So how do we bring them into
the dialog? How do we bring
them into the conversations
about the future of the college?
I think that’s the way in which
I would hope we can move,
acting like a real community.
And on some issues that’s
easy and on some issues that’s
harder but I believe that students need to have a voice and
we, administrators and faculty,
need to listen more carefully
and bring students into the
dialog, rather than keeping
them away. So if there’s anything, that’s what I suggest we
do, and I’m hoping that we can
find ways to do that. I want us
to find ways to do that.”
The external review can
be found at: https://www.evergreen.edu/trustees/reportsand-statements.

Students wander across Red Square. SHAUNA BITTLE.

BUDGET CUTS AT
EVERGREEN
By Sebastian Lopez
On March 2, Evergreen
Academic deans sent out an
email to all students with information of the budgetary
cuts happening next year. In
their email, they inform students that due to a continuing
fall in enrollment for next year,
which adheres to the trend of
falling enrollment over the
past decade, 10% of day time
and 3% of evening/weekend
classes will be cut as well as
24 faculty full-time equivalent
(FTE) positions.
The administrative decision
to cut programs and faculty
has riled many students and
faculty. After being informed
that their area of learning
would be dramatically reduced
with the cancellation of evening and weekend classes and
the loss of half of their faculty,
one student who chose to remain anonymous has begun
a petition signing and education campaign that seeks to let
students know what is coming.
They implore students to consider their own voice in these
top-down decisions. Though
the student’s focus is on the
photography area of learning,
which is seeing cuts to two out

06 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

of three of their faculty members, they want students from
all departments to stand up for
their voices to be heard.
The anonymous student
tells the Cooper Point Journal, “My vision [is] for a more
democratic process. It’s for the
administration and students
and faculty to have the opportunities to be in open [transparent] dialogue...”
This student feels that the
decision to cut faculty and
programs is short-sighted and
will only hurt the college, and
says, “... if anything we should
be adding more classes in order to get more student but we
don’t have the funding so it’s
sort of this downward spiral
and by eliminating the programs we have we’re sort of
shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Already enrolled in a daytime 16-credit program, the
student said, “taking an evening [4 credit] course is really
important to me because those
are two aspects of my degree,
but if they cut those evening and weekend classes I’m
forced to choose [between the
two areas of learning]. I think
that’s really harmful for a lot of

students… Right now, the decisions have been made based
on [numbers] but not weighing what these decisions mean
for current students, what that
means for faculty who teach
those classes, or what it means
to future students who are
looking at those courses.”
The decisions the administration is currently enacting, according to this student,
are decisions that could hurt
enrollment and retention by
focusing on the budget rather
than the needs of students,
both current and prospective.
The community is looking for other ways to tackle
the issues, and the student
we spoke with shared, “One
thing that has been mentioned
quite a lot is better community outreach in the Olympia
area specifically. We don’t go
to high schools like Capitol in
Olympia or Tumwater High
School or North Thurston… I
was an SPSCC [South Puget
Sound Community College]
student before and SPSCC
really prides itself on having
this relationship with Evergreen. I think we could build
a better reciprocal relationship

with SPSCC where we do visits over there or go advertise
these amazing programs and
opportunities available at Evergreen.” Other proposed solutions to the current budgetary crisis brought on by falling
enrollment are an increase to
tuition and stronger legislative
pressure to increase budgeting.
“[Last spring], students
wanted to be heard and so
they went to extremes... but
it wasn’t well received by administration and [students]
are still really mad about
that,” the anonymous student
shared. Continuing, they said,
“Administration needs to recognize that students are upset
with not feeling like they have
a say. Nobody had any idea of
these issues [and decisions]
and nobody has asked, what
can we do as a school? What
can we as students, what can
we as faculty, what can we as
an administration do to improve the situation and make
sure opportunities are still
available and make sure students want to come to Evergreen? Because it is a great
place with great opportunities
that are available.”

Arts & Culture

Some folks gather to dress as their favorite star duellers! PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN, COURTESY OF WIKICOMMONS

&

UP
COMING

WEDS. APR 18
Gallery Boom
11 a.m. All Ages.

Pets Themed Arts Show

THURS. APR 19
Capitol Theatre
7 p.m., All Ages.

Oh Lucy!

FRI. APRIL 20

STUFF 2 DO

Last Word Books
6 p.m., All Ages.

Rebellious Mourning, The Collective
Work of Grief

By Morrissey Morrissey

SAT. APR 21
GRuB

10 a.m., All Ages

Planting a Hedgerow with Pat

SUN. APR 22
South Sound YMCA
10 a.m., All Ages

Earth Day Clean-Up

MON. APR 23
First Peoples Multicultural
Advising Services
10 a.m., All Ages

Trans Support Group

TUES. APR 24
Le Voyeur

7 p.m., All Ages.

Speck / Bacteria / (Women of the)
Divine Orgasm

THURS. APR 26
Le Voyeur

6 p.m., All Ages.

Lawn Chairs [CA] // The Co Founder
// Itemfinder // Jay Levy

SAT. APR 28
Track Hourse
7 p.m., All Ages.

Open No Mic

SUN. APR 29
Ghost House
7 p.m., All Ages.

Anna McClellan / Staffers + Cedar
Sap / the Washboard Abs (solo)

THURSDAY 4/19

INTRODUCTION TO BABY WEARING
North Star Boutique. 6:30 p.m.
Free. All Ages.

Man, babies are so weird. I always forget that they exist
but do you ever think about the, like, logistics of a baby? They
can’t walk and you have to take them everywhere, all the
time. Sometimes I’ll forget my bag on the bus or something
and totally freak out, can you imagine if I had a baby? That
would be a wreck. Luckily, North Star Boutique gets that
and is continuing free and accessible baby classes for people
who want to be better at doing things for the baby (like not
leaving it on the bus). You can come by on Thursday, April
19th to catch a class on three different methods of wearing a
baby. The class is open to the public and welcomes everyone
with a V.I.B (Very Important Baby) in their life whom they
wish to wear.

SATURDAY 4/28

THE PROCESSION OF THE SPECIES
Downtown Olympia. 10 a.m.

It’s that time of year again, pals! The rain is getting marginally warmer, the days are getting ever-longer, and hundreds
of people and children are marching through the streets
dressed in garb to resemble their favorite fauna! Isn’t spring
beautiful? Every year, groups of locals don costumes they’ve
been working on all year and hold a little parade through
downtown for no reason other than good-old-fun. On this
upcoming Saturday, April 28th, it’ll be happening again
and boy, am I excited! Catch me at 10 a.m. in a mini-lawnchair, umbrella in my hand and glass of public-appropriate
non-alcoholic Four Loko in my CPJ beer-koozy™ taking
in the beautiful spectacle.

SATURDAY 4/21

YU-GI-OH TOURNAMENT!
Greener Organization. 5 p.m.

Do you know why Yu-Gi-Oh is called that? It’s a weird
romanization of “Yugi-Ou” which, when translated from
japanese, means “King of Games”. But.. why would they
call the game the King of Games? And the little guy in the
show who plays the game is called Yugi, derived from YuGi-Oh, I guess? Why isn’t he called Yugi-Ou? I guess I don’t
know if he’s particularly good at the game, but I assume he is
because he’s the main character. What is Yu-Gi-Oh about?
Did the show come before the card game? As I understand
it, it was originally a manga which featured many games
(like “Duel Monsters” which later became “Duel Kingdom”)
but eventually it focused in on just the one card game and
ultimately became the monster of a franchise that it is
today. Is it like Pokemon? Why aren’t there cuter Yu-Gi-Oh
monsters? Is Digimon a card game? If I go to this event, do
you think people would answer my questions? I guess I’ll
find out on Saturday, April 21st (after mastering Yu-Gi-Oh
this week) when I compete and inevitably win the laundry
card that is being offered as a prize. I have my own washing
machine, though, so if you need a laundry card after the 21st,
hit me up.

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 07

Arts & Culture

M OMORRISSEY
RRISSEY

Artist interview by Jasmine Kozak- Gilroy

08 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

Arts & Culture

How did you end up doing the cover art? Why are
you excited about this? We both know it’s because
we couldn’t find anyone else, but…. there was that
one time last year when I wasn’t even going to Evergreen when I tried to be the cover artist [laughs]
and it didn’t happen, so, I guess it is [working out]
now.
What do you do for the paper? Formally I do the comix editing and the web managing, making me the
Comix Editor and the Web Manager. I think I do
less of those things than expected and more of other things than expected, you know? I draw pictures
sometimes.
What else do you do? I feel like I am in my eval right
now. Like, what do you do here?
You write Stuff 2 Do! Oh yeah, I do write Stuff 2
Do.
And it is really fucking funny. I do comedy writing.
I’m a comedy writer for Cracked.com– no not really,
but I’ve been telling people that.
How did you get tricked into working for the CPJ?
Cause I liked hanging out. And I thought it would
look good on a resume. And, I don’t know, you said
you needed help, right? I think that’s how it happened is because I know you and I wanted to help
out… I don’t know if I’m necessarily a lot of help,
but I am a lot of fun.
I am interested, as a reporter and a friend– I was
going to make some bad joke about being your boss,
which I think is very funny but also terrifies me. People always think that you’re my boss and like never
once have I ever thought that, not because your my
friend but because I’m disrespectful... You’re the
Editor-in-Chief, I am the Comix editor, you’re the
best one at Editing-in-Chief and I am the best one
at Comix, so as much as we couldn’t make it without you, I think if I stopped right now... something
would happen. I don’t feel like you’re my boss, no
offence.
That’s fine, I don’t want to feel like your boss– I’m not
trying to lean in. In a moment of vulnerability, I’m
going to tell you this- I don’t know what that means.
Can you explain it to me?
There was this book that was written by this lady
about being a boss and having it all, it all being having a career and having a family. It is called lean in
and her version of feminism is like, leaning into and
succeeding in capitalism and having the most intense
version of a conventional life. Yeah I have been interpreting it as like “fuck it up”. I feel like going hard
and fucking it up is morally good but lean in is kind
of like… dark. I think it means what I thought it
meant, but its like its dark twin. Dark fuck-it-up,
take the fun out of going hard and fucking it up.
That sounds right to me. And it’s like, how dare you…
take the fun out of going hard and fucking it up.

Literally, how dare you be so hetero about it. Yeah, I
guess that’s just what straight people do, even your
passion has to be boring.
Segway: is art your passion? I hope not. If this is
how I treat my passion, that’s sad. I was thinking
about this is the shower today. I refer to myself as
a professional artist a lot, like jokingly because I do
technically get paid to make art, but I think the joke
is, I don’t put nearly as much, like, care into my work
as others might? It’s just like fun and nice. I just
really like drawing and I don’t know if I am passionate about it but it is something that’s been a
constant in my life. Like earlier I was saying, I don’t
think I would say that I am an artist but I do think
it is a central part of me that I draw. Me and my
friend were having this conversation the other day,

and in way or another creation is something that I
hold really close to myself, really close to my heart.
And just this idea that I’m doing something and
creating something whether or not its for someone
else, and I don’t do it for other people– and I know
that sounds silly and really corny, but I just do it
because I really like to create things, and not necessarily make art but make something...
You say that you don’t put a lot of care into it but we
were talking earlier about not connecting with people
who say their art isn’t about anything even though
when we talk about it you say you just make art for
fun. Personally, having some relationship to the way
to the way that you create stuff, you do seem to put a
kind of care into it– enjoying it is a kind of care.
Interview continued on page 13.
APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 09

Literature & Critique

The Societ Red Army attacking Kronstadt rebels, March 1921. Photographer unknown.U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVE AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION.

A JEWISH ANARCHIST
REFUTION
OF THE HAMMER
AND SICKLE
During the Russian Revolution, the
crossed hammer and sickle became a
Communist symbol, representing the
union of the industrial proletariat and
the agricultural peasant. Despite this
relatively innocent origin, the symbol
has come to represent the totalitarian Communist state… and, we argue, anti-Semitism. Stalin’s Terror, the
gulags, the executions of those who
fought alongside the Bolsheviks in
the revolution but did not share their
exact political vision, the USSR’s active cooperation with Nazi Germany-the USSR was, arguably, not ethically
superior than any given fascist state.
Nevertheless, one hundred years later,
the Communist flag continues to fly at
Leftist and anti-fascist demonstrations
across the world as if this history did
not matter. This is troubling to those
of us for whom the Bolshevik betrayal
remains fresh. Individual Communists
have long fought against fascism, many
of them in good faith… but, writ large,
anarchists and Jews have never had reason to trust the Communists at their
backs.
The Bolshevik Party persecuted
many different ethnic, cultural, and po-

litical groups; here, we will mainly discuss its warfare against Soviet Jews. Although Lenin publicly denounced the
frequent pogroms in pre-revolutionary
Russia, they continued throughout the
revolutionary and war years. Yet even
within the ranks of the Bolshevik army,
anti-Jewish violence was rampant
as the “hatred of the Hebrew was of
course common ... it was not eradicated
even among the Red soldiers. They, too,
have assaulted, robbed, and outraged
Jews.” Many people of that time noted
that there were “two kinds of pogroms:
the loud, violent ones, and the silent
ones.” The latter is what the Bolsheviks
excelled at. The Bolsheviks made a tactical, not ethical, choice to move away
from the open anti-Semitism of the
Tsarist era and instead waged a covert
war to uproot and destroy Jewishness
in the Soviet Union. The anti-Semitism propagated by the Bolsheviks was
not dissimilar to the anti-Semitism
that many Jews still encounter on the
Left. Today, it is often masked and
veiled by the words “bankers,” “the
media,” “neocons,” “Westerners”... and
even “Bolsheviks.” This is due to the remaining influence of The Protocols of

10 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

the Elders of Zion, the false document
used by Tsarist loyalists to blame Russian Jews for fomenting political disruption, and, later, the Revolution. The
layered history of anti-Semitism turns
back upon itself.
During the year in which Lenin
publicly denounced the traditional Russian pogroms, 1919, he also
wrote a directive of the Communist
Party known as “The Policies on the
Ukraine,” stating in part that “Jews and
city dwellers on the Ukraine must be
taken by hedgehog-skin gauntlets, sent
to fight on front lines and should never
be allowed on any administrative positions (except a negligible percentage, in
exceptional cases, and under [our] class
control).” Stalin, too, shared this antiSemitic stance as early as 1907, when
Stalin differentiated between the “Jewish faction” and the “true Russian faction” within Bolshevism. Even in this
alleged Communist utopia, Jews were
to be forever outliers, never fully to
be allowed into Russian society. These
Communists shared a goal with the
monarchists they opposed– the death
of Jewish culture. Even when they did
not intend physical death for Jews,

we should always read assimilation as
a violent hegemonic social force bent
on the destruction of a culture. This is
not a new analysis. From a Soviet Jewish response to the 1952 murder of
thirteen Jews in the USSR: “We who
have signed this appeal firmly declare
that we will never take the painful and
shameful path of national self-destruction: we declare that forcible assimilation is genocide pure and simple.”
On a 1920-22 visit to a shtetl in
post-revolutionary Russia, Jewish anarchist Alexander Berkman spoke with
a peasant Jew who expressed this sentiment; “They [Bolsheviks] also hate the
Jew. We are always the victims. Under
the Communists we have no violent
mob pogroms... But we have the ‘quiet
pogroms,’ the systematic destruction of
all that is dearest to us — of our traditions, customs, and culture. They are
killing us as a nation. I don’t know but
[which] is the worst pogrom. Just as
today, the Soviet government preferred
to use codewords to signal its antiSemitism: “petty bourgeois,” “banker,”
or “Zionist.” Terms such as “internationalism” (despite the internationalist
roots of Communism!) and “Zionism”

Literature & Critique
were seen as signals of Jewish loyalty
to other countries, and marked Jews as
“untrustworthy.” Jews who maintained
a feeling of solidarity with other Jews
living abroad were seen as enemies of
the state, as a fifth column. “On September 21, 1948, Ehrenberg writing
in Pravda [official newspaper of the
Communist Party] delivered the opening blows of the new [anti-Jewish]
campaign. He warned Soviet Jews that
their identifying with Jews in other
countries would prove their disloyalty
to the Soviet Union.”
Anarchists of the time, who were
often but not always Jewish, were also
accused of anti-Soviet activities; many
were imprisoned, exiled, or executed.
Trotsky’s campaign against anarchists
used words such as “bandit” or “dissident elements” to demonize them.
These accusations resulted in scores of
executions and the imprisonment of
thousands; others were exiled to camps
in Siberia, and few of these were ever
heard from again.
European Jewry was quite diverse,
and, within the Soviet borders, Jews
took part in many aspects of Soviet
life, from engaging in various political
movements to continuing to practice
traditional Jewish community life. At
the time of the revolution, Jews had
been stateless and in exile for nearly
2,000 years, and made homes wherever necessary. Anne Frank wrote in
her diary a then-common view of Jewishness: “We can never become just

thors, and intellectuals, made a similar
statement: “There are not two Jewish
peoples. The Jewish nation is one. Just
as a heart cannot be cut up and divided,
similarly one cannot split up the Jewish people into Polish Jews and Russian Jews. Everywhere we are and shall
remain one entity.”
However, Jewishness is not monolithic. Jews have been spread across the
earth, and adapted accordingly. Jews
have different histories, stories, languages, skin colors, and experiences,
but often share a similar experience of
anti-Semitism. When Feffer speaks of
a “nation,” he is not calling for nationalism, but referring to a common ethnic and cultural tradition.
Having already dismantled the Jewish Bund, a group that fought alongside the Bolsheviks during the revolution, Lenin continued the destruction
of Jewish cultural life. The Bolsheviks
were opposed to any form of religion,
seeing the dismantling of all religious
structures as necessary for utopian hegemony. Synagogues were shut down
and rabbis were put out of work; any
priest, rabbi, or other religious leader
who kept preaching, teaching, or practicing were sent to the gulag, where
many people died. Whatever one’s view
of religion, this is deeply terrible. For
Jews, this forced secularist hegemony
and repression was particularly painful.
Jewish life, both, secular and religious,
is deeply tied to its religious stories and
traditions; even the Yiddish language,

“Even in this alleged
Communist utopia, Jews were
to be forever outliers, never
fully to be allowed into Russian
society. These Communists
shared a goal with the
monarchists they opposed–
the death of Jewish culture.”
Netherlanders, or just English, or just
representatives of any other country
for that matter, we will always remain
Jews...” Around the same time Frank
wrote this, the famous Yiddish Bolshevik poet, Isaac Feffer, who was eventually tortured and murdered in 1952 by
Stalin in a roundup of Jewish poets, au-

which was mostly spoken by European
Jews, is deeply influenced by Judaism.
(After the Revolution, Yiddish was
momentarily recognized as a language,
but was “cleansed” by the Bolsheviks of
any reference to Judaism or to ancient
Hebrew-Aramaic. Hebrew, meanwhile,
was banned.)

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVE.

Amidst this repression, the AllRussian Zionist Congress was broken
up by the Bolsheviks in April 1920; its
leadership and ranks included many
self-hating Jews. The Yevsektsii was the
mainly Jewish section of the Bolshevik
party that dealt with issues of dismantling Jewishness. After betraying their
fellow Jews by co-operating with the
state’s plans for Jewish cultural extinction, this section was disbanded in 1929.
Many of its leading members were sent
to the gulag, or exiled, or murdered in
the Great Purge (1936-1938) because
of their Jewishness. Collaboration with
the state saves no one in the end.
Nearly as soon as the Bolsheviks
took power, they began to execute anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries,
most of whom had fought alongside
the Bolsheviks in the Revolution. They
also purged elements of their own party deemed “anti-Soviet” or “counterrevolutionary.” This state repression
was well documented by the Soviet
government, but here we have chosen
to use journals and letters of those affected. Lithuanian-American Jewish
anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman describe the Bolshevik
betrayal: “The systematic man-hunt of
anarchists… with the result that every
prison and jail in Soviet Russia filed
[sic] with our comrades, fully coincided
in time and spirit with Lenin’s speech
at the Tenth Congress of the Russian
Communist Party. On that occasion
Lenin announced that the most merciless war must be declared against
what he termed “the petty bourgeois
anarchist elements” which, according
to him, are developing even within the
Communist Party ... On the very day
that Lenin made the above statement,
numbers of anarchists were arrested
all over the country, without the least
cause or explanation. The conditions of

their imprisonment are exceptionally
vile and brutal.”
Another letter in the same collection
gives us a first-hand account: “In 1919
I was arrested at home, in the daytime by order of the Moscow Tcheka.
Kept in a cellar of the Moscow Tcheka
(called “the ship”) where 70 prisoners
were sleeping on boards or on the floor;
among them were menshevists, left
socialist-revolutionists, bandits [anarchists], peasants, officers, and the former Minister of War, Polivanoff. Each
night men were taken out to be shot--mostly bandits... A youth of about 17,
whose name I have forgotten, was thus
carried away to his doom in my presence.”
Finally, from a 1924 letter published
in the same collection, collectively written against the murder of prisoners who
were protesting prison conditions: “The
troops of the “G.P.U.” and the keepers
shot at socialist and anarchist prisoners
who were peacefully promenading. The
shooting was done in volleys, wholesale, shots being fired at those who fell
to the ground as well as at those who
were carrying out the wounded. We
know that the conduct of the “G.P.U.”
towards the socialists and anarchists
imprisoned on the Solovetz Island is
an inevitable result of the entire policy
of terror applied by the Soviet Government to socialists and anarchists. And
we therefore have no doubts that new
sacrifices are in store for us.
During the Revolution, the Bolsheviks tactically used the language of solidarity and political diversity to attract
these allies they later murdered. Even
in the Revolution, however, anarchists
were being indirectly murdered by Bolsheviks, who often used anarchists for
the hardest and most dangerous work;
later, these once-allies were often criminalized as “bandits.” From an anony-

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 11

Literature & Culture

mous Jewish anarchist; “As long as they
were revolutionary we cooperated with
them… The fact is, we Anarchists did
some of the most responsible and dangerous work all through the Revolution. In Kronstadt, on the Black Sea,
in the Ural and Siberia, everywhere
we gave a good account of ourselves.
But as soon as the Communists gained
power, they began eliminating all the
other revolutionary elements, and now
we are entirely outlawed. Yes, the Bolsheviki, those arch-revolutionists, have
outlawed us.”
The disillusionment of anarchists
and Socialist Revolutionaries (SR),
who had fought alongside the Bolsheviks, seemed endless. Anarchists and
SRs all across Soviet lands bore witness to this treachery and betrayal. The
people of Kronstadt, a naval fortress
on Kulin Island, experienced arguable
the greatest Bolshevik betrayal of all,
next to the Bolshevik betrayal of anarchists fighting fascists in Spain. In
March 1921, an anti-Bolshevik rebellion erupted in Kronstadt. Stationed in
Kronstadt were two war ships, mainly
consisting of anarchists and SR sailors.
From those ships the rebellion spread
into the town of Kronstadt.
The terror against the people of Soviet lands continued after the deaths
of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, and Jews
continued to be persecuted. Although,
Lenin had condoned pogroms, the
long tradition of anti-Semitism could
not be undone with his one sentence,
and the Bolshevik goal of “uprooting
Jews” from their Jewishness was still
anti-Semitic. Just as the Jewish intellectuals had foreseen, that with each
Jewish generation that passes, each one
is more mute than the next, without
poem, without song.
Under the banner of Communism
and the hammer and sickle, millions of
people– Jews and anarchists, but many
many more besides– were persecuted,
jailed, silenced, tortured, repressed, and
murdered. We write in hopes that this
information will demonstrate to antifascists the importance of refusing to
tolerate the presence of statist Communists in our movement, no matter
their specific affiliation. Perhaps people
who identify as statist Communists
will also be moved by this material to
renounce their politics and join us in
our struggle against domination, racism, and oppression of all kinds… but
we do not have any great hopes of that.

“WE HEART
EVERGREEN”

THE CPJ DISCUSSES
CRITIQUE OF CRITIQUE
By Georgie Hicks
As a newspaper, it can sometimes
feel and look as if everything produced
here is critical, but there is a difference
between being critical and being bullies. While critique can be difficult to
stomach for those on the receiving end
it is, in fact, our job, to interrogate, critique and search for answers to hard
questions. Since the beginning, this paper has been a place of declared “advocacy journalism”, and as such over the
past two years it has seen its fair share,
if not more, of controversy, national intrigue and outright hate mail.
We believe, especially in this current
political climate and being a newspaper
in the era of fake news and attacks on
media, it is paramount that we stand
clearly and proudly for what we believe
in and the ethics we hold. Writing is
an inherently critical practice, and the
kind of writing done for this newspa-

This is an abridged version of a zine that
can be found in is completion at
tohuvabohujournal.wordpress.com

12 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

per– writing for the sake of creating a
public dialogue surrounding topical issues– demands an approach that looks
explicitly at what is not being discussed,
revealed or done.
Forgive us for not being a, “let’s all
just come together, hold hands and
sing around a bonfire” type of crew, and
though we may not live up to the neoliberal peace, love and happiness, Evergreen stereotype we do believe in the
students and the school, we are some
of the students who choose to go to
this school. We hope to get out of this
institution as much as we put in. If we
couldn’t hold this belief we would have
left this place a long time ago.
It is the nature of organizations to be
self congratulatory, and we know that
there will always be plenty of fanfare
and horn blowing regarding the work
that is and will be done to improve

NOW HIRING
+ BUISNESS MANAGER
+ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
+ MANAGING EDITOR
+ COPY EDITOR

equity on this campus. It does not feel
necessary nor useful to participate in
those congratulatory efforts. As writers we remain uninterested in producing work that simply regurgitates easily
accessible information to students, or
that self aggrandise the actions of the
College or community. No matter what
the school, the government, or our fellow students do to remedy disparity
and inequalities, there will always be
more work to be done, and this is the
work we focus on. We know achievements have been made, but we also
know it is important to keep pressure
on to always push further forward. In
activism, the work is never done.
Although our critique is misconstrued by some as malicious, it is borne
out of a real affection for this College.
Continued on page 15.

send your applications to cooperpointjournal@gmail.com

+ NEWS WRITERS
+ NEWS EDITOR
+ ARTS EDITOR
+ NEWS WRITERS

Opinion

Continued from page 8.
Totally. It is not meaningless to me. It
is not something I would want to do
as a job, the second that it turns into
that realm, it is not fun anymore. I have
always done art for myself and I think
that shows a lot in my art. I am always
trying to stop myself from doing this
thing... drawing exclusively self-portraits, I have always just drawn myself
over and over again, or I will draw a
comic of me doing something, and
I have always done that since I was a
little kid, I have always drawn myself.
I don’t think it’s out of vanity… I was
thinking about this in the shower too,
I think I’ve drawn throughout my life
as this way of self reflection and especially as a queer and trans person, or
someone who growing up felt really
weird, or like not normal, not human,
and definitely not seeing myself in the
media, like, making my own media of
myself, and like making myself real in
this way, and drawing myself looking
however I wanted to
I think coming into transness for me
had a really big relationship with me
drawing, and drawing myself how I
want to look or whatever… it has always been important for me in that
way.
What else shows up a lot in the work you
do? Are we talking about furries? Ugh,
furries. I guess there’s another word for
it. I was thinking about when I started
drawing furries, I just started drawing
animals a lot as a kid because I was always really into animals, and I would
like pretend to be a dog, a lot of kids do
that, and especially queer kids pretend
to be a dog, which is kinda weird. I
think that has to do with this denial of
humanity and media reflection in children. But I do draw a lot of furries, and
I think maybe it’s related to that. As
someone who doesn’t feel like a man or
a woman, part of gender for me is feeling feelings that don’t necessarily feel
like a man or a woman, but definitely
I relate it to my gender. In the past,
I’ve related it to different parts of the
world.. and relating with non-human
things, that’s really important to me,

like being able to see myself in nature
and in everyday objects, where I can’t
see myself in other people and not feeling connected to other people in that
way. Not to say that I feel particularly
connected to dogs, but they’re very cute
and very fun to draw. But like furries
are gross, so i wanna distance myself– I
want to lean out, step away.You know?
I think there’s a theme of like plants
and monsters. I used to draw dead
things a lot. I think that’s in the same
vein of feeling denied community.
I do not know if this is rude to say, but
all of your art is very cute, there is something very endearing about it. Is there
maybe a connection between representing all of these things that are denied humanity, and thinking about queerness
and making those things fun and cute?
Even when you are drawing things that
aren’t self portraits you are very kind
to them, they are all so sweet. I don’t
know if I could draw something ugly
even if I tried, just because like, I love
my little guys, ya know? Even if I did
draw something that was ugly I would
still be like “it’s cute”. I really have a
soft spot for ugly things, or things that
kinda look weird or wrong. I just like
drawing soft little things. As someone
who makes zines and comics and stuff,
a lot of that art is oversaturated with
the grotesque and masculine, and this
like cutting edge sort of feeling of– especially alt comics or whatever– of like
‘Isn’t life so grimy” and stuff, and so it’s
really important for me when expressing the griminess of my experience is
also continuing to hold tenderness
and softness in with it. This idea that
within and despite the harshness of
reality, there’s always kindness, maybe?
You know? And I just like to draw cute
things. I love ‘em.

RE: ALL GENDER REST ROOMS
ON CAMPUS
By Alexander Butler
One year ago in February of 2017, I
submitted a letter to the Cooper Point
Journal concerning Vice President
John Hurley’s memorandum stopping
the Space Committee’s approval of the
all-gendered bathrooms in Seminar II.
The Space Committee had approved
the switch of the bathrooms in May of
2016, with the memorandum stopping
the change submitted by John Hurley
in June. The memorandum stated that
the change of the bathrooms “warrants
further study” and that “building occupants need to be consulted to determine if they have objections, I would
also like for the committee to consult
with Conference Services as many conferences are booked in Seminar 2”.
The “further study” has finally occurred under the combined Space
and Land Use Group now named the
SLUG. This group created a survey
detailing different options regarding
all-gendered bathrooms in the Library
Building and Seminar II. The results of
the survey showed that for the Library:
“66% voted for the proposed option,
which includes equitably distributed
multi-stall restrooms for women, men,

and all genders on the 1st and 2nd
floors.” With Seminar II having “46%
of the survey respondents voted for
making all restrooms all gender.” 504
students (13% of the student body)
gave their opinion out of the 901 total
submissions, with the other submissions coming from faculty and staff. As
a result, the SLUG “recommended the
integrated Option 2 for Seminar 2. Of
the 18 multi-user restrooms at Seminar
2, 6 will be women only, 6 will be men
only, and 6 will be all gender. These will
be equitably distributed throughout
the facility.”
I wanted to first and foremost thank
Jeanne Rynne, David McAvity, and the
SLUG committee members for their
continued work and support on making these all-gendered bathrooms a
reality. Thank you to the students that
both worked on this project and those
that submitted survey responses. Lastly,
I also want to thank John Hurley for
his approval of this change. I am delighted that Evergreen has taken a step
in the right direction and look forward
in seeing the new bathrooms forthcoming installation.

Morrissey’s art work is featured in every
single issue of The Cooper Point Journal in the Comix section. To be featured
along their great work, you can submit
your own comix (or memes!) to
cpjcomix@gmail.com

the cooper point journal
COME WRITE FOR US!
meetings wednesdays at 2 p.m.
CAB 3200. bring your pitches.

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 13

Opinion

COMIX

Pansy Liuxing Jay

Not a Comic Morrissey Morrissey

WANT TO HAVE YOUR COMIiX

PUBLISHED IN THE CPJ?

14 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

The CPJ is always taking comic submissions. Just send your comics to CPJcomix@gmail.com at at least 300 dpi or drop off a hard
copy to the CPJ office, CAB 332 across from student activities.
For more information, as well as submission guidelines and sizing requirments, visit us at http://www.cooperpointjournal.com/submit/

Opinion
Continued from page 13.
We are critical because we want this
campus to be an environment in which
students, staff, and faculty can thrive
regardless of whether or not they grew
up well-off, well-read, or white. The
Evergreen State College is one of the
only public liberal arts colleges in the
country, providing a kind of education
that is often inaccessible to students
who did not grow up affluent. Evergreen’s creation as a low cost public college that emphasized the importance
and efficacy of a broad, creative education was inherently an act of equity,
but lack of explicit attention to such
pursuits by the administration for the
past several decades has led to crashing
retention rates.
If we wanted the school to crash and
burn we wouldn’t be spending hours
and hours writing, researching and
editing to make sure that the student
body and the community has accurate
information. We wouldn’t stay up until
all hours of the night laying out a paper
for a place that we hate. We may not be
the biggest fans of every single person
in the student body, the administration,
the staff or faculty, and likewise they
may not be the biggest fans of us, but
we are all here because we find something in this institution worth supporting, be it the interdisciplinary ideals
or the opportunities this school offers
our own educational paths. We do this
work because though Evergreen may
not be the place we want it to be right
now or ever, we still think we should
have some sort of hope that it can be
the place we want to see, with a constant commitment to criticism and a
lot of work.
From our perspective, this campus
is in many ways still thriving. Students
and faculty are working to develop creative ways to engage with one another
and academic material, but instead of
thriving because of support from up
top, people are finding ways to thrive
despite the weight of administrative
pressure to conform to models that are
not working. Independently, folks are
doing work within constraints to develop active models for education that
produce the results they want from
their academic experience.
We appreciate this school and we
value the education we have received
and continue to receive here. We believe the best way to show our appreciation to and care for our community
is through a commitment to critique
by questioning, and uplifting voices of
activists and minority groups in the belief that there are always more voices to

RUBY THOMPSON.

by April Davidson

ARIES 3/21 - 4/19

LEO 7/23 - 8/22

SAGITTARIUS 11/22- 12/21

TAURUS 4/20 - 5/20

VIRGO 8/23 - 9/22

CAPRICORN 12/22- 1/19

If there is chaos and instability in your relationships, it will end soon. No doubt you’ve known
upheaval and heartbreak; the harmony and kinship you crave is on the way, but you’ll only get
what you give. You have received so much love,
how much of it have you been open to take?
How much have you given? In relationships
there is always compromise; You want to feel
like a priority to the people you love but you’ll
need to show them they’re a priority to you.
Quality over quantity. It’s going to be an uphill battle and you aren’t going to need any dead
weight. No compromise is necessary, if there is
an instinct to defend yourself or say “no” then
you need to honor those gut feelings. Your defenses are there to protect you, your boundaries
are set so that any relationships you have will be
able to go the distance. Trust yourself first.

GEMINI 5/21 - 6/20

At this point, you’ve done everything you can
think of in order to make things right. If you’re
still confused about what to do, I’m going to
suggest that you do nothing at all. The issues
you are facing may not be able to be resolved at
all, and accepting this is the only way through.
Don’t blame other people. Your health and contentment depend on your ability not to take
new action but to accede to a lack of closure.

CANCER 6/21 - 7/22

Things are building up to a moment of intense
creative energy but there’s something in the way
of your ability to express yourself. Problems with
your business or partnerships have negated any
sense of stability they could provide. Material
fulfillment can only provide physical comforts,
but what about emotional or self-fulfillment?
I’m not saying you need to abandon your foundations, but you are encouraged to go exploring
for some fun and romance.

What kind of person do you want to be in the
world? I’ll tell you how people already see you;
strong, compassionate and patient. You will now
have the opportunity to prove these qualities to
yourself by how you handle demands coming
from home or private life. You’ve only gotten
this far because of your foundations. It may be
frustrating or not exactly what you want to be
doing, but you must prioritize holding space for
those who feed you.
You’ve been looking for messages, a sign of life,
and you’ll soon be up to your ears in information. When the time comes, you’ll want to be
a lot more connected to your emotions and
spirituality than you are now. When the cure
for your anxiety arrives, you’ll need to be able to
greet it with tenderness. The way to find balance
and to get what you need is to turn your joy in
communion to not just one person but to whatever is most holy to you.

LIBRA 9/23 - 10/22

The thing about setting boundaries in an intimate relationship is that, while you’re making
them to protect yourself, the boundary will most
likely cause pain. More pain than what you’re
attempting to protect yourself from? That’s hard
to say. I do know that you deserve to feel comfortable and respected. Right now I am recommending that you take care of your own needs
first and place no expectations on anyone other
than yourself to fulfill them.

SCORPIO 10/23 - 11/21

Everything will become so much about other
people that it will become necessary to figure
out your personal needs. I’m sorry to say that
things are going to get quite a bit more confusing before they become clear and you’re going to keep feeling powerless as long as you are
unwilling to assert some level of dominance or
self-sovereignty. Don’t wait for someone else to
save you. If you’re stuck, don’t try to change the
situation, change how you think about it.

Even adventurers need time to rest, to retreat
and withdraw from the world. It’s necessary in
order to prepare for new journeys ahead of you.
Something going on in your life, ill health, rejection, is going to demand that you take a time
out. If it’s a failure, good, you will learn something. Don’t think of isolation as cutting yourself off; think of it as a different way to invite
insights you couldn’t get if you stayed locked in
what you know.
A renewed sense of self-confidence and validation is coming to you. A moment is coming
where you will look around at all the brilliant
individuals who make your community and realize that you are one of them, that your role is
indispensable. As you know, clarity and triumph
are often fleeting, so toot your own horn while
you have the wind.

AQUARIUS 1/20 - 2/18

You’re in a position of importance, whether you
realize it or not. Don’t underestimate the impact
that you have on others right now. With all this
attention it will be helpful to review your goals
and recommit yourself, so you know what actions to take when you are called. Give yourself
a break on getting all the details perfect, focus
on the big picture for finding the plan that really works.

PISCES 2/19 - 3/20

Sometimes logic and reason can help, but oftentimes they are useless in the face of strange
disagreements and frustrations. Conflict doesn’t
always make sense, but don’t forget that it isn’t
always bad. Trust your instincts towards faith
and fun. The less you avoid the discord in your
life and the more that you just accept facts, you
will be able to open up to gaining new kinds of
wisdom. Look at the problem like a hurdle, not
a barrier.

APRIL 18, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 15

16 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM