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Part of The Cooper Point Journal (October 03, 2018)

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the cooper point journal
The Evergreen State College Newspaper Since 1971| October 3, 2018

REFLECTIONS ON A LIFE
INTERVIEW WITH YVONNE
MCDONALD’S NIECE

3

ARTS INTERVIEW
NASHESHA ROWBURG: “YOU
CAN’T STRUCTURE ART”
8

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
FLAMING EGGPLANT
CELEBRATES 10 YEARS!
: @cooperpointjrnl

10

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 1

The Cooper Point Journal

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Editor-in-Chief
Georgie Hicks

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Mason Soto

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O l y m p i a , WA

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© 2018 the Cooper Point Journal

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Canine caught in indecent act courtesy of Cooper Point Journal archives

Vol.3 No. 24 May 1, 1975. Photo by Doug Buster

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

Memorial display at Aug. 23 vigil for Yvonne McDonald BY. MASON SOTO.

YVONNE’S NIECE
TALAUNA REED
REFLECTS ON HER AUNT’S LIFE AND A
TUMULTUOUS
INVESTIGATION
By Mason Soto
Talauna Reed is the eldest
of Yvonne McDonald’s nieces. I
sat down with her to talk about
growing up with her mother’s
sister, and the daunting events
surrounding her aunt’s death
in Olympia on August 7. She
offered an invaluable account of
the love that surrounds Yvonne,
as well as the struggle to hold a
community and it’s institutions
accountable amidst tragedy.
“We’ve been close since I
was a kid [...] If Yvonne and
I were in the same room my
mom would be calling me
Yvonne and her Talauna, I
mean she just, she can’t separate
the two [...] She was always
interested in what us kids were
doing [...] She says she raised

all of us [...] I remember when
I was young, she used to take
me shopping all the time,
I mean Yvonne was a little
diva [...] I used to want to be
like her [...] She didn’t end
up having kids but even then
she wasn’t like my other aunts
who already had kids [...]
Yvonne was, you know, chill,
she was like a big kid at heart.”

“My grandma worked
for the Human Rights
Commission, so her kids
were very connected [...] I
think that’s what got Yvonne
into the type of person that
she was, what she wanted to
do, you know [...] Yvonne’s
passions were independence,
financial
independence,
her passions were equality.”

Born in Houston, Texas,
and raised in Louisiana and
Washington,
Yvonne
was
always close to her family.
She made a point to maintain
connections to her community.
This inclination, her passion
for getting involved, started at
home in the hilltop neighborhood
of Tacoma, with her mother.

She was always trying to
“bridge the gap” between far off
relatives and herself, connecting
with distant family in New
Orleans and making sure to
always know how the kids in the
family were doing. As she tried to
keep everyone connected, Yvonne
always stood out in her family
for her love for education and

how she shared it with the kids
around her. She would gift books
to her nieces and nephews instead
of toys, including Talauna’s
twins, and the teenage brother
and sister still have boxes full.

to to do good for ourselves
and for the community, and
unfortunately, the community
loses out not having her here.”

Yvonne worked from the age
of 14, and attended both the
“I just remember the University of Washington and
stories where I hear people in The Evergreen State College,
the family say, ‘Oh my gosh, where she studied Public AdminYvonne has gone nuts, all she istration. Eventually she worked
does is talk all these big words,’ in a number of state jobs at
and my response to that was, the Department of Ecology,
she’s trying to challenge you Employment Security Office,
intellectually [...] You should and Sentencing Guidelines
always challenge yourself to Commission. It was in the
go up a level of intellect. And latter job that she witnessed
I have that conversation with imbalances in the sentencing
her all the time — I had that of marginalized groups that
conversation with her the affected
her
world-view.
Saturday before she passed.
You know, she just wanted us
Continued on next page
OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 3

News

“That is when she really
got passionate about social
injustice [...] I remember
her
constantly
spouting,
spewing out stats to me, and
although I didn’t always quite
understand them, I listened
because I felt like she was
teaching me something [...]
Yvonne
was
pro-healthy
existence, informed existence,
pro-people. And you know,
flip that, she was anti-racism,
you know, those things. It
wasn’t that she just wanted to
be a better black woman, she
wanted to be a better person
[...] She was spiritual, she
believed in God, and I know
in probably the last two years
she really spoke about how she
wouldn’t let anybody take her
joy away. You know whether
she went through a job loss or
something she just shrugged it
off as, you know, ‘Their loss, not
mine, I have bigger and better
things to do in this world and
I’m going to do them.’ [...] She
was beautiful and she was her
own person, and she was on her
own planet. I mean sometimes
I felt like, ‘Yvonne can I join
you?’ In the sense that she was
really focused. It’s so scary to
think that maybe somebody
targeted her [...] She was
very private and that’s kind
of hard in this whole thing,
too [...] I mean everybody’s
private to a certain degree, but
I think that’s a component
that maybe has something
to do with what happened to
her. I mean maybe somebody
she knew that we didn’t know.”
Theories and speculation have
surrounded Yvonne’s death more
than answers. She was found
unconscious on a lawn only a
few blocks from her home, with
her shoes and purse placed beside
her and her pants down. While
the family wanted to have faith
in the capabilities of Thurston
County and Olympia Police
Department (OPD) to deliver
justice, Talauna explained how
lack of communication, false
promises, and running into
walls when seeking answers
has cast doubt onto the state’s
intentions to solve this case.
When Talauna arrived

at the hospital, her aunt was
on life support, and Detective
Al Weinnig from OPD was
already consulting the family.
“He was very vague” when
describing what happened, she
says, perhaps to see what the
family would assume. It was
the assumptions that Weinnig
seemed to make himself that first
worried Talauna. He described
a laceration on her chin, and
bruising on her face, which he
said could have been from a fall,
and when he mentioned that she
was only partially clothed, he
avoided confirming an attack.
“He said she was found
with her pants down, and I
said so somebody hurt her?
[He says,] ‘Well, no it doesn’t
seem that way, you know, it it
looks like she just walked off,
we found half a bottle of vodka
on her in her purse.’ I said my
aunt didn’t get down like that
[...] She wasn’t out there, she
wasn’t a partier, you know
what I mean? [...] Yvonne
was so little, Yvonne didn’t
even have anything big in her
house [...] She didn’t carry
nothing big because she was a
little person, and so I said how
big is this bottle and he said
maybe like a pint-size. First of
all he’s a police detective. You
know your pints, your quarts,
you know your measurements
[...] Even if she had alcohol in
her system that doesn’t mean
she deserved to die, and that’s
not how she died. Period.”
Talauna
said
Weinnig
continued to offer murky answers,
saying the bottle was maybe
halfway gone, but not explaining
whether there was alcohol on
her breath or any tests done
to determine her blood alcohol
content. The initial explanation
he offered that she stumbled while
squatting in a yard two blocks
from her own home to urinate
did not convince the family.
“Yvonne’s a scaredy-cat.
If you didn’t call Yvonne first
and you knocked on her door
she wouldn’t open it for you
[...] She was single, petite, and
she needed to guard herself,
I mean against predators

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or whatever [...] And she’s
definitely not going to walk
off to the bushes two blocks
from her house to go pee [...]
I was still listening to him talk,
and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, one
more thing, the paramedics
say they found what looked
to be track marks on her
arm.’ I came out of my zone.
I said, ‘Now, you’re wrong.’”
Talauna expressed her own
belief, which aligns with the
response from the campaign for
justice, that statements from
investigators about alleged signs
of alcohol and drug use were
made to imply Yvonne was
“somebody unworthy of life”
and unworthy of a thorough
investigation. An uneasy start
would only lead to more direct
affronts to the family’s trust.
“I said, are you going to call
us to get information because I
talked to Yvonne on Saturday,
I know where she was going,
I know who she was going to
be with [...] I mean I’m just
trying to help this man solve
this murder. He said, exactly,
you guys will be the ones to
give us the most meat, the
evidence for this case probably
because you’re the people that
knew her the most [...] So
he gave us all a card [...] He
didn’t call me though. He still
hasn’t called me. He still has
not called me one time. To this
day, he still has not interviewed
one person in this family. Not
one person. Hasn’t interviewed
one person in the family, not
one person, and it makes me
so angry. How the — are you
doing an investigation and
you have not interviewed
the
family
individually?”
Talauna said that despite
pushback due to protocol about the
family wanting a rape kit done as
soon as possible, investigators and
police told her that extenuating
circumstances allowed them
to search Yvonne’s home and
download data from her cell
phone without a search warrant.
“Initially my mom was
the one contacting Al, and
it was fresh, we wanted to

give him everything we had
[...] [Weinnig] said, ‘Well
the prosecutor says this is
extenuating
circumstances,
they don’t need a search
warrant, they’re going to search
through her apartment,’ it’s
like he went to her apartment
the next day and he did all
these things that normally
you need warrants for, but he
said because it’s extenuating
circumstances they were going
to go ahead and go through
with it. Oh and they were
downloading the messages
for her phone [...] and he says
they were able to download
the messages right away,
the next day, and we were
like, ‘They’re working on it.”
At this point Yvonne’s family
members were trying to piece
together their own information,
and they offered theories to
investigators. There was a friend
they knew Yvonne was hanging
around with around the time of
her death, whom the family did
not know personally, but she
says that investigators have yet
to explain who this person was.
“I know she was going to
meet up with that friend, and
when [Weinnig] said they
went through the phone [...]
I said did you find out this
friend, he goes, ‘Oh we really
didn’t find anything.’ You’re
a f****** liar [...] He said ‘We
only found one friend’[...]
and I said I’ve known [the
friend investigators found]
since before I was born, that’s
a childhood friend, that’s not
the friend I’m talking about
[...]. [Yvonne] doesn’t own a
car, she has to use a phone to
connect [...] I think they know
who [the unknown friend] is,
I’m not kidding[...] I think
they know[...] They don’t want
to pursue it and they want
to cover it up and definitely
because the prosecutor, he
hasn’t said one word since
this thing popped off.”
Thurston County Prosecuting
Attorney Jon Tunheim nor
his office have made public
statements about Yvonne’s death,
and Al Weinnig is still the only

detective assigned to the case.
After a rally at Thurston County
Coroner’s Office on September
18, in a meeting with Coroner
Gary Warnock, Talauna was
told the investigation of evidence
was stalled from the beginning.
“The coroner, when I met
him last week told me specifically, I said why did it take
so long for her evidence to
get sent out and what did you
collect [...] I mean what are
you waiting for? They kept
saying toxicology reports. For
what? [...] So he goes, we
turned it over to the police, to
the detectives [at OPD] that
Friday, or at least by Monday
[...] He said the evidence has
been out of their hands since
the Friday after her death
and the police sat on it. [...]
[The] deputy coroner [...]
he said something about the
prosecutor. He was explaining
something and he says, ‘Yeah
I report to the prosecutor.’ I
said ‘excuse me’ [...] and he
never said it again, God as
my witness [...] I said who
do you answer to again?
Who do you directly answer
to? He would not answer
that. It was the prosecutor.
I know that I heard it.”
Talauna was also told by her
advocate at the Crime Victim
Advocacy Office of a previous
meeting that Al Weinnig had
with the prosecutor early in
the investigation, followed
by what she has explained as
lack of communication and
apparent stalling. She would
eventually find out that the
evidence in her aunt’s case was
not sent out for testing until
25 days after Yvonne’s death.

For the full interview
visit our website:
cooperpointjournal.com

News

2017 fall drone aerials BY. Justin Roberts. Courtesy of the TESC archives

By Samantha Luna-Patterson
On Sep. 18, the revised Student Conduct Code — now
titled the Code of Student
Rights and Responsibilities
— came into effect. Over the
course of the summer several a committee held several
meetings in order to finalize the language and technicalities of the revisions
to the 2017 code. These revisions have been finalized
after corrections and changes were discussed by a code
committee for over a year.
The additions to student
proceedings — the rights
of students and procedures
concerned with code violations — were extensive. The
previously eleven page document became thirty pages by
its implementation.
Although the revisions
were first inspired by a need
for updated definitions
and a scheduled review,
the on-campus protests in
spring of 2017 also played
a part in the expansion of
the student procedures section of the code. Lori Johnson, the Director of Student
Conduct and Conflict Resolution since last year, stated
in a CPJ interview that, al-

though the revisions were
not directly caused by the
protests, the “circumstance
of that academic year did
impact, I think positively,
the work on the code by getting students involved with
the revision process, and to
think critically about how
we can get our code to be as
equitable and fair as possible.”
The revisions were overseen
by a committee made up of
faculty, Title IX coordinators, administrators and representation from the Attorney General’s office. There
was also a panel of students
involved, with a total of eight
students hired by a separate
committee of students and
staff. Faculty members were
chosen to give input by the
Vice President of Student
Affairs, Wendy Endress,
and Student and Academic
Support Services (SASS).
During the meetings, changes were formally established
through consensus.
Student Brandon Ellington
was on the board for revisions. They said the voting
process was a “loose consensus, and I say loose because

I don’t think we officially made motions that had
votes, but when we were discussing changes and dissenting voices we worked to get
everyone comfortable with a
change going forward.”
After the revisions were
agreed on, the board of trustees took a vote this summer
to put it in place.
One of the biggest expansions made involved the
section regarding procedures, or the actions that are
performed by the school in
regards to breaking of the
code. The first major revision
made to the proceedings is
now if a student is accused
of breaking the code, that
student has a right to request a new conduct official
to review their case with
them. If a student suspects
any bias or for any reason
suspects that their case will
not be fairly handled by the
conduct officer their case is
assigned, they have the right
to submit a complaint that
requests a new officer.
Another major addition
to the code is called a procedural review complaint.
When a student is in a con-

duct process they have the
right to have a neutral party
review their case to address
any suspicion that some part
of the process is not being
done fairly or properly.
“What is really great about
this is instead of a student
having to go through a
conduct process, and then
appeal, which was the old
procedure, they can time out
the process and say, ‘Hey,
I think there is a problem
here,’” explained Johnson.
Since this is the first year
the new procedure has been
put in place, it is still unclear
what the process will be to
either approve or deny either
of these requests.
“Most conduct meetings
are for things that are more
minor,” said Johnson. Minor
offenses are offenses whose
associated
punishments
result in ten days of suspension or less. Some examples
given of minor events include noise violations and
drinking in the dorms. These
added processes have been
structured for more serious
cases but they also apply to
these minor processes.
The new code also includes

two different types of appeal
in cases when a student is
given a punishment they do
not agree with for a violation
for which they have not admitted guilt. If the student
is given a suspension of ten
days or less, they will have
the option to have a brief adjudicative proceeding. This
will be a meeting between
a student and administrator where the administrator
will come to a conclusion
on the students punishment.
The other type of appeal is
similar, but for more serious sanction. In this case
the process will take place
in front of an appeals panel.
The makeup of the appeals
panel has also changed, limiting the number of students
required. Instead of having
three students along with
a faculty member and one
staff member, the number
of students on the panel has
been changed to one.
Definitions such as sexual
violence and harassment
have been updated and
added. Previously, the code’s
definition of consent took
up only one line. It is now a
Continued on next page

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 5

Community
two paragraph definition,
including the addition of
a line stating that “Intoxication is not a defense
against allegations that an
individual has engaged in
non consensual sexual activity.”
The code also has added
“relationship violence,” defining it as “the infliction
of physical harm, bodily
injury, assault, or the fear
of imminent physical harm,
bodily injury or assault
committed against a person
who is or has been in a
social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature
with the complainant. The
existence of such a relationship will be presumed
based on the reporting
party’s statement and with
consideration of the length
of the relationship, the type
of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved
in the relationship.”
As the code goes into place
and has tangible effects for
students, there is still doubt
that the code solely or even
reflects the desires of students. Ellington claimed
faculty and staff received
preferential treatment. “It’s
slightly concerning that I
can near guarantee faculty
and staff got the changes
they wanted to see within
the code, while I cannot express the same confidence
for students,” they said.
Although the code is currently an official document,
Johnson says it still can be
subject to change through
communication from students, and encourages students to not wait for formal
revisions before they offer
input. “Our hope is that
the code will be a continual living document,” says
Johnson. “Anyone can contact the Office of Student
Rights and Responsibilities
with concerns.”

Police stand guard across 4th ave. after evicting demonstration from artesian commons twice in one day. BY Daniel Vogel

EMAILS REVEAL DISORGANIZATION SURROUNDING CLOSURE
By Vincent Awkerman & Daniel Vogel
The
Olympia
Police
Department (OPD) continues
to clear camps on city
property and enforce bans on
sitting or lying on sidewalks,
despite a ruling from the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
which found anti-camping
ordinances to violate the
Eighth Amendment.
According to the City’s
Homeless
Response
Coordinator,
Colin
DeForrest, Olympia has seen
a sharp increase in visible
homelessness
in
recent
years, leading city officials to
work with both community
members and stakeholders
to plan out “innovative and
sustainable strategies” to
address the epidemic.
A protest at The Artesian
Commons
Park
(locally
known as ‘The Well’) on Sep.
22 demonstrated a lack of
cohesion between policy and
enforcement. The park was
strongly associated with the
unhoused community in the
area.
As previously reported
by the CPJ, the City’s Parks

6 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

Director, Paul Simmons,
ordered the park closed on
Aug 24.
In an email obtained by
the CPJ, Olympia city council
member Jessica Bateman
expressed frustration with
the
Simmons’
decision
to close the park without
coordinating
with
local
homelessness-focused
charitable organizations. “This
is extremely disappointing,”
she wrote to her fellow
council members. “Direction
was given to communicate
with service providers in
advance of and regarding
the direct impacts of closing
the Artesian Commons and
any encampment trespass
enforcement.”
Emails also show the City
planned to originally close the
park on Wed. Aug. 22nd. Parks
Park Stewardship Supervisor
Sylvana Niehauser began
preparing the City’s press
release as early as August 15.
Local service providers
may have appreciated a week’s
notice. Local shelter nonprofit Intefaith Works co-

director Meg Martin wrote
an email (sent across city hall)
complaining about the lack of
advance warning. “CYS had to
scramble to provide additional
services and handle the crisis
that the youth were going
through in that moment and
the days to follow,” she wrote.
Protestors and Food Not
Bombs organizers entered
the park early Sep 22 to play
basketball and distribute food.
Hours later police arrived and
cleared the park with crowdcontrol devices and batons.
Protesters re-entered the park,
and police once again cleared
the commons, slowly pushing
demonstrators east towards
City Hall.
Internal emails obtained
by the CPJ show that City
employees were concerned
with a “Joker threat” as early
as Aug. 2. After a meeting on
the 2nd, OPD Sgt Amy King
asked Park Ranger Lee Wyatt
to write a statement about an
incident that occured on July
26.
Wyatt wrote “under the
penalty of perjury” on Aug

8 that the threats were made
by an Austin Bartlett. “The
threats were “Don’t ask me shit
ever again or I’ll fuck you up”
“Fuck you city worker, you can
do shit to me, I should knock
you out right now,”’ alleges
Wyatt in an email to King,
Niehauser, and City Program
Aid Charles Rambo. “After
these threats, I informed Mr.
Bartlett to leave the Artesian
Commons. He then began to
make more threats “I’m not
going anywhere, try to make
me leave and I’ll fuck you up.”
Just two hours later (11:14
a.m. Aug 8), Wyatt resent this
statement to King with added
terminology. “I felt like his
threats were plausible. The
way he was posturing towards
me, made me feel really
uncomfortable with my work
environment.”
“I understand there were
some threats,” said Grace
Cox, who identified herself
as an Olympia resident
since 1972. She continued
to film the police as she was
interviewed. “I’m empathetic
to workers who get threatened

-- unnecessarily or necessarily
-- and I think there are so
many other options.”
OPD, Tumwater Police,
the Thurston County Sheriff
and Evergreen’s own Police
Services responded to the
protest. In her case report
Lieutenant Pamela Garland
described the protest as a
“riot,” and noted that “there
was fighting, rock throwing,
and unruly behavior.”
Police shot pepper-balls
and flash-bang grenades at
protestors. Shrapnel from a
flash-bang grenade injured a
CPJ reporter on-site.
Rachel Holmes, who selfidentifies as homeless, claimed
to have been hit in the face
by a flash-bang. “It hit me in
the corner of my eye. If I had
not closed my eye, I would
have been probably blinded,”
she said. “Half of these cops
should be arrested.”
Niir Dragon, who also
self-identifies as homeless,
expressed
indignation
with the City’s incoherent
responses. “If we can’t have
safe access place like this, and
shelters that are fucking full,
tell us, Olympia: where the
fuck are we supposed to go?”
The CPJ has filed records
requests related to the event.
We are currently awaiting
multiple releases.
In a City Council meeting
on September 11, Council
member
Renata
Rollins
moved to amend ordinance
9.16.180,
Pedestrian
Interference, by removing
section “C”. The section bans
sitting or lying on downtown
sidewalks between the hours
of 7 a.m. and midnight,
regardless of whether or
not the person in question
is
actively
obstructing
pedestrian traffic. The motion
failed by a five-two vote.
“If Olympia really wants
to solve this problem, all they
have to fucking do is give us
like two or three hours a day,
at least, at a job.” said Dragon.
“I don’t care if it’s raking up
the fucking leaves on the
fucking sidewalk, picking
up trash in the parking lot,

whatever. Find something
to make someone busy. That
could help them be productive
in the city while giving them
a leg up.”
Rollins
also
brought
forward a motion to designate
City owned property to allow
for temporary camps as part
of the Street Strategy the
Council is developing with
partners in social services.
This motion failed due to lack
of a second.
“They have taken our
homes, our tent homes, they
have taken safe places to
stay, they have taken our well
where we all come together to
play basketball today for the
first time,” said Holmes at the
protest. “I have tents sitting
in the city and they want to
shut us down. I have people
who are young kids who have
nowhere to go cause their
mom kicked us out. They have
run us out of them places.”
Council member Rollins
is expected to bring a referral
to the General Government
Committee regarding the
City’s sit-lie ban during a
future City Council meeting.
Back in July of this year, as
reported by The Olympian,
the $1.4 million dollar a year
price tag of the two proposed
camps gave many people
pause. Proposed funding
sources were an increased
utility tax, money from
Thurston County, and the
city’s own Home Fund. Still,
many questioned the idea of
pouring so much of Olympia’s
resources into temporary
encampments.
The OPD claims there
has been no change in
enforcement, only a change
in the number of officers
on patrol. The nighttime
walking patrols, which were
initially cut in 2016, have
made a return and appear to
be a significant source of the
increased police presence.
OPD chief Ronnie Roberts
deflected the issue to the city’s
legal department. “We rely
on our legal department to
provide us with legal opinion
which we follow.”

Community

Students sit in red square BY SHAUNA BITTLE. COURTESY OF TESC ARCHIVES

SO YOU WANNA WORK ON
CAMPUS
THE CPJ EXPLAINS STUDENT EMPLOYMENT

By Da n i e l P f e i f l e
At up to 900 bucks a month
— not including whatever your
meal plan costs if you have one
— living on campus can be expensive, and even if you’re not
living on campus, some extra
money is always nice. So how
do you find a job on campus?
The most common answer
you will receive is the Community Opportunities Database (CODA). Supposedly,
this is the easiest way to find
a job as an Evergreen student,
but it takes some getting used
to.
CODA is a website that all
Evergreen students have access
to through their my.evergreen.
edu account. When you first
open it up, you’ll find a page
with a bunch of useless info.
Just click on “jobs and opportunities search.” This is where
you’ll find the available jobs.
You will now find yourself on
a webpage with a ton of jobs,
most of which will not apply
to you, so you’ll want to specify
your search.
I’d suggest doing an “Advanced Search”, it makes irrelevant jobs harder to accidentally click on. If you do
qualify for work study, set position type to “Work Study” if
not, select “Student Employment/part time jobs”. Work
study is a type of financial aid
that allows students to get paid
partially by the government,

and partially by their employer,
these positions make up about
a third of available on campus
jobs. If you’re unsure whether
you have work study, leave it
out for now and ask financial
aid later; all students can work
non work study jobs, but only
work study students can do
work study jobs.
You can save your searches to save time, but be careful
about hitting the back button
on your browser. If you use
the browser to go back from
a posting, you will lose your
search. Use the green back
button located in the top right
corner of the page. You know,
the one that is tiny and out of
the way, that you would never
see if you weren’t looking for
it? That one.
Each posting has different
rules about how to apply. Some
jobs want you to fill out their
application, others want you to
email them certain files. Certain jobs on campus require a
generic Evergreen application.
You can pick up copies at the
Student Employment Office (LIB 1102). But, if you’d
like to save some time filling
out the same application 50
times, you can instead scan a
completed copy of it into your
computer and just print it off
when you need it.
When (and if ) you get a job
offer, you will need to submit

an I-9 form verifying you have
to prove you have permission
to work in the US. Thankfully,
once you submit your verification, it will remain on file, so
you just need to get it signed
off by student employment.
When you do finally get a
job, keep in mind that you can
only work 19 hours a week,
and your hours must be logged
to get paid. Logging hours is
done through a secure page
on your my.evergreen account,
which is not unlocked until
you get a job. When you get
one, you will have access to a
whole new section called “employees,” where you can log
hours, request sick leave, see
pay stubs, and so on. For every forty hours you work, you
are entitled to one hour of paid
sick leave. Keep in mind that
your sick leave can be moved
to another job, but only on
campus, and cannot be used
to get out of trouble when you
fail to show up for work.
So that’s the jist of working on campus. Do you have
what it takes to find a job?
Probably, cause about a half of
all Evergreen students have a
job on campus, so if you want
one you can probably find one.
But now you know how, so
you should have a much better
time doing so.

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 7

Nashesha Rowberg

Arts & Culture

artist
interview
by
Brittanyana
Peirro

“Soft, Dreamy and Sleepy,” Nashesha says. “Heal the land, then help the people.”
(And draw when you get the time.)
Nashesha Rowberg is a sophomore at Evergreen, focusing her degree on sustainable agriculture. Rowberg grew up in Arusha, Tanzania, with a local mother from the Pare tribe and
an American immigrant father. Rowberg went to very ethnically diverse local international schools. She says this was nice for her as a mixed person, but very homogeneous in terms
of creativity. “I didn’t really like school. I went to a very traditional very structured school,
and I guess art was just sort of a break from that.” said Rowberg. “I could just like, be more
expressive, and different.
They did try to make art classes, but [...] you can’t structure art. ”

8 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

Arts & Culture

Rowberg was hesitant to even attend college
until one of her relatives told her about Evergreen. “My dad’s godson, he went to Evergreen,
and I was talking to him, while I was looking
at colleges,” she said. “I was feeling really uninspired, didn’t really wanna go to college because
of my experience in high school. I was telling him
about my concerns, and he was like, ‘Oh, why
don’t you check out Evergreen. It’s very unique.’”
The reflective and interpersonal environment of
classrooms here was exactly what she was looking
for. “I’ve been really happy with my choice so far.
It’s really cool how different the approach to education is. It’s really refreshing,” said Rowberg. “You
really engage in what you are learning. I like that
were constantly reflecting on our learning, and I feel
like it helps you reflect in life as well. Not just academics, but where you are personally in your life.”
Rowberg studies sustainable farming here at
Evergreen. Her art and her mentality are both
influenced heavily by her love for plants. “I love
plants, I love plants that produce food. What really disappoints me about people’s attitudes about
farmers is that they’re seen as like the bottom of
all the career paths,” said Rowberg. “You eat everyday, you should be bowing down to these people, they’re amazing. Being in a lot of food justice classes, learning about terrible treatment of
farmworkers, that’s horrible. How did we as a so-

ciety come to that point where people who feed
us everyday are treated like less than even dirt?”
Her home town of Arusha is a big farm town
and is a huge influence on her drive to study sustainable agriculture. “It’s a huge farming culture,”
said Rowberg. “[There is a] big issue is sexism in
the farmworker industry, and also owning land, a
lot of women aren’t able to gain land rights, even
though they’re [doing] most of the farmwork. ”
After she graduates from Evergreen, Rowberg
wants to go back to her hometown and bring
her knowledge of farming with her. “The first vision I had before coming to college was teaching people more sustainable farming practices, because there’s a lot of soil degradation back
home,” said Rowberg. “Soil erosion is a huge problem. First heal the land, then help the people.”
In an evolution of sorts, Rowberg went from
finding art as a solace in a boring school life, to
begin finding art as a way of reflecting herself and
the world around her, as she was doing in school.
Rowberg gains the most creative energy doing simple things, such as being “at the bus stop
just sitting and watching stuff happen,” she said.
“This picture is from a traffic scene in Tanzania, [I like] showing all the chaos. It’s mainly just
things that I’ve seen from observation around me.”
Rowberg’s identity as a Black Tanzanian woman is also a big part of her art. “My art is very

African, as you can tell. A lot of it is derived
from the culture in Tanzania.” she said. “It’s
what’s in my blood, it goes through my veins.”
The nuances of ‘black-ness’ and black people are
varied. Rowberg feels as though she doesn’t fit in
with American POC youth. “Someone asked me if I
was gonna stay in the U.S after i graduated, and I said
no, because I just fit in so much better back home.”
One of the few encounters she had with the
Black Americans back home was coincidentally with Pete O’Neal, the former chair of the
Kansas City Black Panthers. In 1969 O’Neal was arrested for transporting a gun across
state lines. He escaped to Algeria and then later Tanzania, where he still lives. Coincidentally, O’Neal and Rowberg’s dad are close friends.
Rowberg says this connection changed her.
“That’s basically the only experience I had with
Black Americans, and I feel like for him and
his friends it’s different because they’ve been in
Tanzania so long. They’ve just like been influenced by the culture there, and they’ve adapted,” she said. “So I feel like they’re in every way
very Tanzanian now. Just differences in nationality and different cultures ,there’s differences there, but I feel like there’s still similarities.
Like having a sense of community is really big,
in both cultures, and family is really important.”

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 9

Arts & Culture

THEN

Photos of Flaming Eggplant opening day Oct. 10 2008 BY. CHARLIE DAUGHERTY. Courtesy of CPJ ARCHIVES

THE FLAMING EGGPLANT

On Oct. 10 2008 The Flaming Eggplant Cafe opened its original doors in a
trailer in Red square after 2 years of planning
and hard work. First conceived in 2006, the
restaurant was and is made possible in part
by a fee funded by students. The opening
day was celebrated with “$5 all you-caneat falafel, square dancing with the Grizzle
Grazzle Trashdance Band and fire spinning
from The Fire Within Performance Collective” as reported by the Cooper Point Journal,
Oct 19, 2008.

The Eggplant’s opening announcement featured a full section on sourcing food

10 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

that is “ecologically, energetically, and nutritionally sound.” Their vendors included
Olykraut, Kombucha from Quality Burrito
and coffee “From Olympia Coffee Roasters,
the Hottest Coffee company ever.”

The Eggplant moved into its current
space on the third floor of the CAB after the
completion of the Cab renovation at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year.
Mission Statement
“The Flaming Eggplant Café exists to provide
a non-corporate food option to people at The
Evergreen State College located on occupied
Nisqually and Squaxin land, in Olympia,

WA. As a student-run collective, we make efforts to source our food carefully, considering
the impact of our vendors and distributors
– balancing rising food costs and declining
planetary stability while recognizing unjust
treatment of workers and the world-wide
effects of greenwashing. We prioritize our
worker’s needs and education while providing learning experience in food service and
cooperative management. The café is intended to be a safer space that opposes systemic
oppression, where students, faculty, and staff
can hold events, organize, decompress, and –
importantly – eat.”

Arts & Culture

Flaming Eggplant sign. Courtsey of CPJ ARCHIVES

Photos of Flaming Eggplant collective members BY GEORGIE HICKS

“What is your vision for the future of the
Eggplant?”
I want to see the Eggplant build more connections with the Evergreen community. The space
itself is so useful for events and organizing, aside
from its function as a restaurant. -Maya
The Eggplant gives students (collective members) the agency to serve its community the food and
atmosphere much needed on campus. By serving
our community, we serve ourselves. -Zae
“What does the Eggplant mean to you?”
It’s a place where I don’t feel pressured to be perfect
and it’s an environment where I feel safe being myself
which I’ve never had in a workplace before -Yosha

The Eggplant to me means a space on campus
where I feel certain the workers are well-treated
and the food is created with our collective wellness in mind. As a member of the collective I value the Flaming Eggplant as a space that values
and practices collaboration over competition, being mindful of our sourcing and considerate and
aware of peoples dietary needs and preferences, making space for your peers and your self for
expression and growth, and working with your
heart and soul in your hands to serve the community food that is full of vitality.
-Jade

NOW

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Anything you want to share with campus
about the Eggplant?
One of our missions is to serve the campus community. If you want something from the Eggplant,
request it. If you want a meeting space, ask. If you
want us to bring back the Portobello Burger, ask.
-Rhain
The Eggplant is owned by all the students and
managed democratically by its workers. If you pay
student fees, you should consider yourself a member and owner of the cafe! You can get involved by
hosting events there, serving on our board or applying to be a collective member. -Reed

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 11

Letters & Opinion

LaToya Johnson BY. LATOYA JOHNSON

&

UP
COMING

FRI. OCT 5
Arts Walk

5 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Downtown

MON. OCT 8
Tutoring with the QuaSR
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Student Equity and Arts Lounge

TUES. OCT 9
Reproductive Health at Every
Income Level
6 p.m. - 8 p.m., childcare & food prov.

YWCA of Olympia

WED. OCT 10
T4T4Tea

4 p.m., snacks and conversation

Student Equity and Arts Lounge

THURS. OCT 11
Free Bowling!

9 p.m., Greeners Bowl Free

Westside Lanes

Equity Symposium
Multicultural Fair
3 p.m. - 6 p.m.

CRC

FRI. OCT 12
4th Annual Olympia Zine Fest
6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Olympia Timberland Library

Equity Symposium
Workshops
9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Library Lobby

SAT. OCT 13
Zine Fest Expo & Workshops
11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Olympia Center

MON. OCT 15
No Cost Physical Therapy &
Chiropractic Clinic
Recurring Event

Olympia Free Clinic

THURS. OCT 18
Candy Boys, Skrill Meadow,
Seagull Invasion
6 p.m. 21+, $3 cover

Le Voyeur

By Brittanyana Pierro
LaToya Johnson has worked at
Evergreen State College since Jan. 4,
2017. With a multitude of varying
positions, from Assistant to Chassity
Holliman-Douglas to now a record
keeper for Evergreen’s police services.
Johnson says her first position at Evergreen was working for the Equity
Council. With a resume with multiple
degrees and high paying jobs, being as
assistant wasn’t Johnson’s first choice
of work at Evergreen. “The position
supporting the Equity Council was
not the position that I was looking for,
but it was two things: it was allowing
me to put my foot in the door, it was
allowing me to do equity work, and it
was allowing me to still have contact
with students.”
When she first started her assistant
job in 2017, Johnson explained the
discussion at the time was around the
possibility of her getting the position
of Vice President for Equity and Inclusion. “One thing that was told to
me was possibly becoming, or having
that permanent spot supporting the
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion”.
She was expecting changes to her position as a temp for the Equity Council this year, but rather than receiving

12 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

a promotion because of the ongoing
reorganization of administrative roles,
Johnson was not rehired. “That was,
I’m gonna say mostly due to the reorg. I can’t really give specifics because
I don’t know specifics. My last day
supporting that particular role as an
admin was August 31. The offer was
to come [to police services] effective
September 1, for six months. Another
temporary role.”
Being a black staff member and working at police services is somewhat of
a conundrum for Johnson, who has a
history of equity work. “I have police
in my family. My dad was part of New
Orleans police,” she said. “I have it
in my family in a sense that there is
that comfort level being around law
enforcement. Then there is also that
other side of me that, especially given
the recent change of events, that had
a little anxiety. I was worried about,
well, how are students gonna look at
this? Are students gonna look at this
as, ‘oh you can do some good work
over there’ or are students gonna look
at this as ‘are you selling out on us?’
For me, I had to basically bite the bullet.” Johnson continues, “[I’m] taking
the knowledge that I do have around
equity, taking the knowledge I do have

around just administrative assistant
type work, and seeing what type of
good I can do around here.”
Being at police services so far for
Johnson has not been an expected experience. For the most part, the staff
of police services have been equally,
and at times more, welcoming than
the staff of the Equity Council. Of
course with three kids and a husband
in culinary school, Johnson doesn’t
have much of a choice on whether or
not to be content with her current position. However, the salary for a temporary assistant position on Evergreen
campus is significantly less than a permanent support position, and significantly less than one should be making
with the Master’s degree that Johnson
has. “I’m never gonna sugar coat anything for an interview,” Johnson says,
“I waited to see if my prospects were
gonna be good with Evergreen, to see
what was going to happen. Whether
it was another extension, where it was
another position, and I didn’t wanna
leave Evergreen. It was really hard for
me, as August 31st came around.”

Letters & Opinion

By Marta Tahja-Syrett
It is opening night for the film Fahrenheit 11/9. The theater at Century Olympia
is nearly full as many people wait for Michael Moore’s most recently debuted film
to begin. (a) Michael Moore is most famously known for producing films such
as Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 films that share the qualities of a
political forum, with Moore’s perception
of societal violence and government fallacies narrated in a documentary format.
Fahrenheit 11/9 attempts to analyse
and address America’s current political climate. It produces for its audience
a snapshot of the nation’s polarization,
which includes both turmoil and unification. The stage is set for the story to
unfold: a scene of anticipatory people,
awaiting the 2016 presidential election
results, pans across the screen. News
reports flash by, all of them predicting
Clinton’s victory. A woman exclaims,
tears streaming down her face, that she
will get to see a woman become president
in her lifetime.
This scene invoked a feeling of loss
within me. Not because of any partiality
to the candidate at hand, but because it
made me acknowledge a feminist plea to
be represented. The night of the election
continues on, the music of the film shifting in tone. There is something hovering
in the air, something heavy. Then it is
announced that Trump has the majority
vote in several states, and the color of the
U.S. map steadily turns red. Clinton supporters are distressed as they await what
will later be revealed as a Trump presidency.
Moore searches for reasons behind
the results of the 2016 presidential election, while also honing in on recent
events that connect to varying political
sentiment across the United States. Video
footage and clips of news reports all work
to define the potency that encapsulates
this particular time in our history.
The film engages largely with contemporary movements and political
perspectives, but Moore has Yale history
professor Timothy Snyder remind film
watchers of the political past. Although
Americans often prize themselves as
having always been democratic in nature, Snyder notes that the country’s past
was actually not democratic at all. He argues that preventing certain members of
society from being able to participate in
democracy discredits its existence. The
country prevented property-less people,
African-Americans and women from
voting. This concept works as a foundational piece for Fahrenheit 11/9 as it
brings up the topic of deeply rooted systemic inequality, the type that is carried
out not only by citizens but by governing

parties as well. Modern American oppression and corrupt government can be
linked to the systems that have been in
place since this country’s establishment.
Systemic inequality connects to other
points that the film makes, such as those
surrounding the Flint, Michigan, water
crisis. Moore says that Rick Snyder (no
relation to the Yale professor), the governor of Michigan, is largely responsible
for the condition of Flint’s water. Under
Rick Snyder’s administration, the water
source in Flint was changed to the Flint
River. Children in Flint began testing
positive for lead poisoning. In the film,
April Cook-Hawkins, a woman who was
previously involved in Flint’s medical
scene, says she was asked to cover up the
mass poisoning.
She declined the position to skew information regarding lead poisoning, but
many parents were still told that their
children were not poisoned when in
fact they were. In my eyes, this was an
extremely provoking piece of the film
due to the fact that it addressed not only
the damaging and irreversible nature of
Flint’s water crisis, but also the secretiveness that exacerbated the atrocity.
More than half of Flint’s population is
African-American. A contaminated water source was selected over a clean one
and lies were spread in an attempt to hide
severe health conditions. Moore believes
this is genocide.
Moore seems to pose this question
to his audience: How was Rick Snyder
able to gain such debilitating power over
the health of those in Flint? Rick Snyder first declared a state of emergency,
which granted him the ability to select
certain individuals to regulate the state
of emergency. Timothy Snyder (the professor) shares his concern that this same
predicament could end up entrapping
the whole of America. He claims that
those governing our nation could use a
national emergency to gain more power,
potentially overthrowing our democratic
system.
Moore ends the film with the sounding of the sirens from Hawaii’s false missile threat, paired with footage from the
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas
high school, where seventeen people were
killed. The audience was mostly quiet as
the grave scene fled from sight, the deep
glowing lights washing over the room at
last. I myself was silent, trying to process
the severe connotations that the ending
of the film left lingering. A call to action
seemed to be brought into the light; an
urgency that, if not followed, would lead
to great destruction and demise.

WASTED
ADVICE

Wasted advice is a column written by
our editorial staff while legally drunk.
Presented unedited, raw, and uncut.
Send questions to https://ask.fm/
wastedadvice.

Hey what if I like this girl but she likes
girls not guys? And I’m a guy by the way.
It’s called fish, and there’s plenty of ‘em.
Move on, my dude. I would like to complain to facebook, and ask fm. Let me copy
and paste, I’m just trying to plagerize everything I say. [...] I use to steal jokes from
iCarly in middle school and once I got called
out and that was the biggest mistake of my
life. Like, random dancing. Her brother
was a quirky artsit, which lie, that was
really weird because her brother hung out
with children adn like… that was pretty
weird in my eyes. [...] I don’t know why I’m
apologizing. I’m not sorry. I’m the one who
provided the juice. I brought the juice into
this home. I juiced it up. [...] This isn’y good
advice. I wouldn’t advi- well, I would. I
would advise adult watch iCarly. [...] Disney channel had a show called salmon…
Salmon Cat. With Ariana Grande, RIP
Mac Miller. [...] I never really got into
Nirvana. I pretended I did, though. But
no one ever really called me out in High
School [...] How many celeberiteis had
white dreads? [...] American Psycho, that’s
a good bok. I had an ex who was obsessed
wtih them. I had en ex who liked to read
it from a queer perspective. American psycho as like a commentary as misogyney. Its
good. And they talk about huey newton and
the news, which is a good band. And they
talk about five seconds of summer. That is
a bad band. Shawn mendes is band. And
if we’re here, that guy with red hair who
looks like a hair, ed sharen. Ad sheeren. Ed
sheeren. [...] the ed sheren rant, okay. I once
watched someone bellydance for the entire
song. I listend to that song a lot. There’s that
one weird ed sheeren song that sounds like
ta cross between a justein beier esong and a.
[...] there’s that one song, “people get cancer
and die. People get hit by cars and die.” and
it made me feel a lot better.
What movies inspire you?
Angus thongs and perfect snogging. That
was my favorite movie growing up. I tried

to watch it growing up as a kid but didn’t
get it. But they were all so horny.
I think i’m hot. That’s the lukeworm take.
I dont think im not hot. Maybe that’s cuz
i liook so much younger than i am. Someone called me man the other day. Someone
also mentioned offhand that i’m aesexsual
and im not aesexual. [further biographical
cut to preserve secret identities]. I have several pairs of pants. These are the same style
pants. It’s not like i own one pair of pants.
The thing is., i had to by these 9 dollar pants
from forever 21 and each one i had to tailer
to make them fit me better. Adn i have 9
pants , dollar patns, each tailered to fit me
better. A friend, growing up, they always
ahd to tailer their pandsts. And i just had
that one inch edge, one inch edge, . i dont
wear a lot of patns thto. I would love to just
wear overall pants all day . maybe its mjust
me, but overalls just pull me down into
the depths of the earth. My avatar. Is the
prince,. The great prince.
I came down to earth. Yu know what i’m
talking about? I drew a sheep, and they ate
a shepep. Why am i not connectd to why fi?
Sharlk week. I thought shark week was a
conspiracy. Everyone’s into it to peer perssur you into it. Is this just one person who
fell for a marketing scheme or is this just
a bigger picgure here? Shee didn’t make
me, she just got control of the tv, but i just
always picked jersey shore but wee just
wacthed shrak week. What’s shark week:?
Msnbc plays a lot of shark wee. That’s a
ggreat show. Shark tank. I had to watch
that tin my economics clas. I just oredred a
calendar online. I’m stoked on it.
The theme si panik.
We don’t look at it. It’s a secrent.
Great aunt. Fantastic aunt, or more distant
aunt?
if you were a videoblogger, what would
your videos be about?
Bullet journaling. Have you seen those videos? They’re so relaxing. Oh yeah. Hell yeah.

OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 13

Letters & Opinion
RUBY THOMPSON.

ADVICE ON SEX, RELATIONSHIPS & MORE
Hello! Welcome to BODY PARTY, a space to talk about sex, relationships, health, identity, and being
a freak! Each week, our anonymous
resident Body Partier will take
YOUR questions and answer them,
judgement free! To have your questions answered in print, send us a Q
at
ask.fm/CPJBodyParty!
Body Party! Help!
No matter what I do, everything
gives me a UTI!! It goes away after a
few days usually but I’m so sick of the
burning, straining, and azo! What am I
doing wrong?? How do I make it stop?!
-UTI4CPJ
Hello UTI!
Wow, this sucks. Having a UTI
sucks! But fear not, it’s common as
heck. As a professional UTI-haver
and WebMD extraordinaire, I have a
few tips and tricks to keep your pee
breaks feeling great. And before we
get too far I’ve got to remind you all,
I’m not a doctor! I go to Evergreen! I
am in no way qualified to give medical advice and this column is not a
clinic and should NEVER stand in
for real medical care.
For those reading and don’t know

what a UTI is, fuck you. Haha, just
kidding :-) UTI stands for urinary
tract infection. It’s a painful infection
that happens when bacteria attaches
to your urinary tract, the part of your
urinary system that is past the bladder and is the last passage your piss
goes through until it is one with the
toilet water. Because it’s the section
between the inside of your body and
the outside world, it’s super easy for
sneaky bacteria to get all up in there
if you’re not careful. When this happens, you’ll know by symptoms like
cloudiness in your urine, a bad or irregular smell, burning when you go,
frequency, and feeling like no matter
what your bladder just can’t be purged
of those last horrible drops. It’s really
the fucking worst.
But! Knowing is the first step!
What should you do once you HAVE
a UTI? Honestly, go to the doctor.
But if you can’t right now for whatever reason, you can try a few things
first. The absolute most important
thing to do once it feels even a tiny
little bit weird is DRINK WATER!
This is just generally a good tip, but
especially when you have a UTI because it helps “flush out” the bacteria,
so to speak. Keeping hydrated also
will help your body do all of its healing and immune jobs better. I don’t
know how, though, because I’m not
a doctor.

14 WWW.COOPERPOINTJOURNAL.COM

There are some over the counter remedies that can help ease the
sensation of passing tacks. You can
buy a medicine called Phenazopyridine which is a dye that doubles as a
painkiller which soothes the lining of
your poor urinary tract. As a fun side
effect, it also makes you pee bright
red (which is pretty metal).
If you’re really trying to go hard,
there are also some herbal remedies
that may or may not help, depending
on who you ask. Things like usnea,
echinacea, and cranberry tinctures
and teas have some sort of sketchy
research which says they really might
but also really might not help. So, uh,
do with that what you will. I don’t
know. I’m not a doctor.
My ambiguous and unreliable advice aside, there are also ways to help
make sure you don’t get a UTI that
I am way more confident in. First
again is drinking water because of
course if you’re always peeing the
right amount, bacteria can’t go on in
there rent free. You should also make
sure to change your underwear often,
which should go without saying. Try
to wear breathable fabrics like cotton in order to keep things dry and
healthy “down there”. Make sure to
wipe front to back. And always, ALWAYS pee after you have sex! Of any
sort! It’s just good practice.
If after all of that grief, all of that

water, and all of that precautionary
peeing you still feel like you have a
UTI, please go seek medical attention. I can’t stress this enough. The
longer you have a UTI that goes untreated, the longer the bacteria is just
living inside your body and fucking
shit up. The more shit gets fucked
up, the harder it will be to get rid of
the infection, and the more antibiotics you’ll have to take. Moreover, the
longer you let these little fuckers live
rent free, the longer they have time
to move up your urinary tract. You
know what’s past your urinary tract?
I didn’t because I go here, so I googled it. Google told me that first the
infection will spread to you bladder
(which is super painful), and then, ultimately, your UTI will become a kidney infection. You’ll get a fever, chills,
you might throw up. This is because a
kidney infection is super serious and
your body NEEDS your kidneys. If
you have ANY of those symptoms,
go to the emergency room. Not to
sound dark, but if you leave a UTI
untreated it very well can lead to your
death. And wouldn’t that be such a
bummer way to die?
Haha, uh, anyway! Stay safe out
there! Pee well! Love ya!,
Body Party

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OCTOBER 3, 2018 / THE COOPER POINT JOURNAL 15

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