On Tuesday Oct. 30, a panel of students, professors, and experts met in the Trophy Room to discuss and evaluate President Obama’s four years in office before an audience of students and members of the community. Pat Snyder, a leader of Health Care for All in Contra Costa County, said that “There are many issues not talked about in the cam-paign.” These yearly meetings are an opportunity to discuss issues not addressed in the presidential debates.

The panel included three DVC professors: Dr. Amer

Araim, president of the Is-lamic Community Outreach of California, Dr. Jeremy Cloward, who teaches politi-cal science and participates in the American Political Sci-ence Association, and Mickey Huff, director of Project Cen-sored, co-author of “Cen-sored 2013,” and co-host of the Project Censored Show on KPFA 94.1 in Berkeley.

Four students also par-ticipated: Alexi Smirnov and David Robinson from Mod-el United Nations, Nicolas Holmes from Students for a Democratic Society and In-quirer staff writer, and Ha-keem Montes from the Mus-

lim Students Association and editor in chief of the Inquir-er. Pat Snyder, a retired rever-end, and Phil Lawson, a well-known advocate for justice and peace, also participated.

The discussion covered a range of topics including censorship, health care, and globalization. The panel also discussed the United Nations Security Council and the war in Afghanistan. Robinson outlined the benefits of the UN, calling it an organization that “allows every country’s voice to be heard” in a time when “the age of imperialism is fading.”

Local issues were also cov-

ered, such as the use of drone planes by Alameda County’s police department and Cali-fornia’s single payer health care bill, SB 810, which was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzeneg-

ger twice and by Gov. Brown on Jan. 31.

Pat Snyder went over health care issues, stating that “we need to move to a program like Medicare.” She agreed

with Obama that the United States needs health care re-form, but disagreed with the Affordable Care Act because

Professor Cloward, right, critiques President Obama as fellow presenter, professor Mickey Huff, left, listens in.

JESSICA TRIMMER / The Inquirer

World Series parade unites fans - page 6

DVC tutor and supplemen-tal instruction leader Chris-tine Moore has been teach-ing English in China with the Peace Corps for the last four months. She is currently teaching freshman English majors at a college in the fog-covered and mountain-ous Nan’an district of the Chongqing municipality in southern China. She has 130 students and teaches classes in oral English, listening skills, and cultural studies.

When asked what is dif-ferent about China, Moore simply said “everything,” but remarked that “having a host family helped a lot.” She said that she misses her family and friends, but enjoys the hospi-tality in Chongqing. “Every-one’s super friendly,” she said, adding that people will often ask one another “have you eaten today?” and feed them

if they had not.While completing her B.A.

at the University of Oregon, Moore applied for the Peace Corps and was awarded a nomination. She began tutor-ing at Lane Community Col-lege and later tutored at DVC. “I had wanted to apply for Peace Corps for a long time,” she said. At DVC, Moore took English-140, the tutor training class, and eventually became a supplemental in-struction leader.

According to the Eng-lish tutoring lab coordinator Heather Lee, since the Eng-lish tutoring program was created 30 years ago by Irene Menegas, the tutoring lab has helped students with reading and writing skills in as many as 230 different classes, in-cluding math.

Jake Iliff, a first semester tutor who is currently in Eng-lish-140, also enjoys the chal-lenge of tutoring: “The most

rewarding thing is helping people learn how to help themselves,” he said. “I think it’s awesome. Every-one is invested in the experi-ence.”

Lee also pointed out that “we’ve had many people who started out as DVC student tutees who took the tutor training course and then became supple-mental instruction leaders, simultaneously completing their Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees while tutoring stu-dents.” Many of these tutors often move on to become instructors and professors.

The high quality of the tutoring program, she says, comes from “the dedica-tion, heart, and hard work of instructors at this college and in this department who want students to succeed.”

Tutors at DVC and beyondLaughter emanates from

the mouth of Eduardo Ran-gel. This has been the reac-tion given by most DVC students when asked about DVC Wi-Fi; however the tired old wireless connection is scheduled for a facelift in the spring of 2013.

Rangel, a business major and first year student said, “The first time I brought my laptop I could access Wi-Fi but then later it showed I had a connection but there was no internet access.”

According to Percy Rop-er, technology systems man-ager at DVC, the district In-frastructure upgrade project will be replacing all current DVC wireless devices with newer models capable of much higher speeds. Each Wi-Fi access point will be able to connect up to 500 devices including iPads,

smartphones, and laptops.Roper said the current Wi-

Fi connection which began to be deployed between 2005 and 2006, “… can only allow limited number of devices (smartphones, laptops, iPad, etc.) to connect to it and once it reaches the maximum num-ber of connections it stops accepting more devices.”

A number of students bring their laptops in an effort to catch up on schoolwork before, after, or during large gaps between classes.

Angela Pucci, communica-tions major and second year student said she has one hour between classes and finds it a “pain” not being able to do homework from her laptop during that time due to the lack of wireless availability. She said, “I’m here in the af-ternoon and the computer lab is closed. I’m not sure what other computer labs are avail-able for use.”

The limited hours in the computer lab are inconve-nient for morning students like Rangel. He said he brings his laptop to school for a non-internet program he uses during math class. He said, “It would be a lot easier if I can just access the internet through my laptop. I have a computer, so why am I using the computer lab?”

Aaron Hudson, a three year student, claims he can access the internet in the parking lot. He said “The places that I need it the most its not avail-able, I can’t get it in the math building.”

Hudson says he relies on his computer every day, “The computers in the lab are always used, I can use my phone but I pay for it.”

Brightly colored altars adorned with flowers and decorated skulls drew a crowd of interested students into the Student Union area. There they were greeted by music, food, and the warm personalities of Lati-no Student Alliance (LSA) members.

While the atmosphere was certain-ly festive, it was clear that this was no place for trick-or-treating; rather, it was an event organized to celebrate Día de los Muertos or “The Day of the Dead” as it is known in English.

Día de los Muertos is a holiday held on Nov. 1 and 2 which cel-ebrates and commemorates families, friends, and loved ones who have since passed. While it is traditionally a Mexican festivity, the holiday is cel-ebrated throughout the world, with each region having its own variation on the occasion. To acknowledge this, the LSA set up several altars to represent North, Central, and South America to educate students about

the different ways each region hon-ors the dead.

“It’s important [for us to educate DVC] because death isn’t just tied to Latin regions in the world,” said Michael Merino, president of the LSA. “Death is everywhere. This is a holiday which commemorates those who have passed. This is universal.”

At the altar representing Mexico, students were able to write down names of passed loved ones onto colorful paper butterflies and pin them to the altar. “The way this works is that this is a window or door for your soul or spirit to visit your family or whoever is still alive,” explained Victor Guzman, member of the LSA. “The path is made of marigold flowers which represent a trail or a landing for your spirit to come in and visit… the candles are there to light the path. You put the name on the butterfly so its spirit can fly in and out of the window.”

Students were encouraged to not only learn about the traditions

of Día de los Muertos, but to also take part in it. A free face-painting stall soon attracted an eager crowd, where members of the LSA patient-ly painted intricate and elaborate skull designs on the students’ bare faces.

“The face-painting symbolizes death, but it is also something fun to encourage students to get involved,”

said Merino.The vividly colorful decorations

of the altars, as well as the exuber-ant enthusiasm of the LSA seemed to be a stark contrast to the typical somber and melancholy mood of traditional Western funerals.

“We don’t think of it as dying – we think of it as passing onto the next step,” explained Guzman. “Pretty

much, we make fun of the dead. The face-painting, the sugar skulls, or any skull with decorations, it is our way of making fun of it in a good way. It’s not insulting, but we have fun with it… You know in Ameri-can culture we think of the Grim Reaper, dark with a robe… scary

TheINQUIRER

Student Voice of diablo Valley college

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Volume 80 No. 5 Copyright © 2012 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, November 8 - Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012

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Day of the Dead brings celebration

SAMANTHA CHIUSports editor

DAY OF THE DEAD, Page 2

Obama gets gradedJESSICA TRIMMER

Staff writer

Expanded wi-fi coverage on campusANTHONY CAMACHO

Staff writer

The Dance Club performs in front of the Student Union building.

Scan the QR code and visit the Inquirer for more articles!

Contact ANTHONY CAMACHO at ACamacho@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

REPORT CARD, Page 2

JESSICA TRIMMERStaff writer

Contact JESSICA TRIMMER at JTrimmer@TheInquirerOnline.

com

C.A.R.E. revamped Change is in in the air. It is felt

in the cold mornings, the shorter days, and the changing colors of the leaves. But that is not the only change going on. The EOPS of-fice is buzzing with change: a new location and a revamping of the entire CARE program.

The Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) provides support services for economically or educationally dis-advantaged students at DVC. The Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) is a sister program to EOPS that provides extra assistance to single parents with children under 14 years old. The program provides CARE students with a supply voucher, meal cards for days in class, and a monthly grant for childcare so the student can attend classes and study. These services are great in and of themselves, but now CARE wants to go a step further and create a community for the single parent students.

According to the EOPS/CARE Assistant Priscilla Beas, “The primary effort in revamping the CARE program is to provide a comprehensive program with relevant substance.”

Beas explained that the ulti-mate goal of the restructuring is to create a comfortable com-

munity for the CARE students. CARE has supplemented the standard benefits offered in the past with enhancements hoped to bring the program together.

A great example is Rachelle Hampton, 23, a pre-nursing stu-dent. To Hampton, being a single mother can be an isolating expe-rience. Hampton stated, “It helps to talk with others and recognize that we are all going through the same struggles.”

This ability to talk about their shared problems and discuss pos-sible solutions is a goal that the CARE program strives for, and they hope to continue to foster that sense of community.

As the EOPS and CARE programs both prepare to make their new home on the first floor of the new Student Services Center, they hope the move will allow them to proceed with the changes they have begun to im-plement and to grow the CARE program community. Change, in this case, is indeed good.

2 Thursday, February 9 - March 7, 2012The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

NewsCALENDAR

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Piano ensemble recital

Music 101 2:00 PM

Friday, November 9, 2012

College Budget Committee Library 101

9:00 AM - 11:00 PM

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Brown bag workshop: Sugar in Your Food Student Union Conference Room

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Friday, November 16, 2012

Last day to drop with a W All day

Our Voice fundraiser PAC 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

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Roots music journey Music 127

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Friday, November 30, 2012

The Exonerated PAC 8:00 PM

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right? Here, we have an elegant lady who comes and gets you when you die. She’s funny looking – we make fun of her.”

To feed the students’ grow-ing appetites, the LSA also served free birria, a traditional Mexican meat stew, with rice. “It’s not the traditional food for Día de los Muertos, but it’s what we’ve got!” laughed

Jorge Barajas, LSA’s commu-nity outreach representative.

Once all the students were adequately fed, the crowd was treated to a live performance by the DVC Dance Club. Their dance, while not directly relevant to the day’s celebra-tions, was met with huge en-thusiasm from the crowd and provided a fun, exciting con-clusion for the day.

“We have a really good rela-tionship with the dance club,” said Abby Romero, treasurer of the LSA. “We sometimes actually trade performers – if we need anybody to dance

“bachata” for example, then we can have one of them to come in and help out. And if they need help then we help them out too!”

“Our club is not exclusive to Latin people,” reiterated Merino, who stressed LSA’s dedication to form relation-ships with other clubs. “We are open to other cultures and other regions of the world, and this event illustrates that. Death is universal and brings us together.”

Day of the deadFrom Page 1

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Contact SAMANTHA CHIU at SChiu@TheInquirerOnline.com

Report CardFrom Page 1

it is “not sustainable.”In a question and answer

session after the panel discus-sion, one student, who recently had two back surgeries, asked Snyder how organizations like Health Care for All planned to transition to a single-payer system. She answered that it would have to be achieved first in the states with laws such as SB 810. Other audience mem-bers asked questions about the United States’ role in the UN

and shared concerns about government surveillance.

At the end of the event, Mickey Huff encouraged the audience to get involved, ei-ther through DVC groups like the Muslim Students Associa-tion and Students for a Dem-ocratic Society, or by organiz-ing discussions of their own through one of DVC’s many student organizations.

Contact JESSICA TRIMMER at JTrimmer@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Islamophobia was addressed last Wednesday on campus in the form of an open discussion hosted by the DVC Muslim Student Association.

Dr. Ejaz Naqvi, MD and author of “The Quran: With or Against the Bible” says Islamophobia, “...is not an accident, it is a specific act to demonize Islam. It is a campaign of fear, hate and misinformation.”

Professors and doctors were present on the dis-cussion panel including DVC professor Dr. Araim Amer; Dr. Munir Jiwa, Director of the Graduate Theological Union Center of Islamic Studies and Dr. Ejaz Naqvi. Student speakers Nicolas Holmes and Roshan Rahimi, were also present to express their views. Holmes is currently a staff writer with the Inquirer.

In an interview following the forum, Dr. Jiwa said,

“Assuming everyone’s American, we’re all working towards understanding. There should be more in-terfaith...understanding what we have in common. People don’t always have to accept but it’s important for people of all backgrounds to know and partici-pate in forums.”

Dr. Naqvi said the media is largely responsible for the negative attitudes towards Muslims. News sta-tions such as Fox and CNN are responsible for only focusing on the negative aspects within the Islamic community and not taking into consideration that 82 percent of terrorist acts are not Muslim-related. He said in an interview afterwards “...some are misin-formed but others have a negative agenda. Women can lead prayer in mosques, but you won’t see that in the media.”

Naqvi said, “Silence is not an option. Whoever you are, student, whatever, we need to get engaged. [Islamophobia] is an attack on American values of peace and justice for all.”

MSA member Roshan Rahimi, spoke at the forum

to bring awareness to the fact that she is a modern Muslim woman who has made her own decisions and is not oppressed.

She said that during her high school junior sum-mer she made the decision to wear the scarf. To ev-eryone, the transformation was overnight but has remained true. Rahimi’s parents were afraid for her. The social implications of wearing a scarf can be frightening and Rahimi said, “People do judge.”

Rahimi chose to speak because ever since she has worn a scarf she has had a stream of unending ques-tions from “Did your parents make you?” to “Do you wear that in the shower?” Rahimi loves her scarf. She said “My scarf gives me a voice.”

Naqvi believes speaking out is the best way to combat Islamophobia saying, “Jihad by the pen. See injustice? (Muslims) need to say something. Violence never succeeds.”

IslamophobiaJESSICA TRIMMER

Staff writer

Contact JESSICA TRIMMER at JTrimmer@TheInquirerOnline.com

Sports 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, November 8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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Vikings best Panthers in shootout

“Teamwork and dedica-tion” were the first words that sophomore running back CJ Best used to describe the Vikings’ bounce back win against Sacramento City Col-lege on Sophomore Night at Viking Stadium. The sopho-mores provided a second half surge of offense after Best and teammates all agreed it was “time to come with it” at the half, a philosophy that led to a 38-15 win for the Vi-kings.

Best, who teammate Da-mon Collins described as “the truth”, scored touchdowns through the air and on the ground. One of the Vikings’ touchdowns came from a fourth quarter sprint through

the Panthers’ defense and into the endzone following a failed onside kick. “We did a better job of sticking to our priorities,” Best said of the increase in Viking offense af-ter the half.

Head coach Mike Darr described the contest as a “well-fought game” against a “physical and athletic” Sacra-mento team that tried to con-trol the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. “I chal-lenged the guys to do what they worked so hard to do,” Darr said of his halftime ad-justments, which allowed the Vikings to do “what they’ve done all year against tough competition.”

The bowl game implica-tions for both teams in-creased the stakes, as Sacra-mento City’s offensive and defensive lines made physical

plays, sacking DVC quarter-back Quinn Kaehler on nu-merous drop back plays. The Panthers committed to their run game offensively, relying on the linemen to make space for their star running back Lanier Logan.

The Vikings’ defense re-mained disciplined in their assignments throughout the game, wrapping up instead of trying to arm-tackle the elusive Panther running back.

Wide receiver Diante Jack-son made several spectacular catches in the second half, along with an opportunity on special teams that he convert-ed, returning an onside kick attempt for a touchdown. He attributed the second half surge to his team’s abil-ity to “come together to get it done.”

Jackson went on to express

thanks to the offensive coor-dinator and the wide receivers coach.

In a hard-hitting, cold-weather struggle, the Vikings

were able to triumph. It’s a victory that coach Darr be-lieves will put the Vikings in contention for a Bowl game, about which the coach said,

“the guys deserve that.”

After devastating loss, DVC regains their superiority on the field

JOSH “GRASSY” KNOLLArts & Features editor

Contact JOSH “GRASSY” KNOLL at JKnoll@TheInquir-

Running back, CJ Best, squeezes through the Panther defense, scoring DVC’s second touchdown of the game.

MATTHEW EMMANUEL / The Inquirer

Mariah Rodriguez, midfielder, looks to advance towards the goal in the second half.

RYAN PETERS / The Inquirer

In their second meeting of the season on Tuesday, Oct. 30, the DVC soccer team barely edged out a 1-0 win against Sacramento City Col-lege in a game that looked much different than their first meeting with the Panthers.

On Oct. 2, the team had brought home a decisive 3-0 win in a game they had complete control of. The big difference between the two games was injuries.

The Vikings are dealing with late-season injuries that have two of the main tar-get players, captains Wen-dy Magarin and Elizabeth Driscoll, sitting out until they are cleared to play.

Both players suffered con-cussions during practice. Ac-cording to head coach Cail-lin Mullins, the team had to restructure their shape and players had to switch posi-tions to make things work.

Mullins explained, “We now have to rely on our ath-leticism and pace, and utilize the width of the field. It had

been frustrating in the fi-nal third though; there were many opportunities, but not a lot of scoring.”

The only goal of the game came early in the eighth min-ute of the first half. Kata-

rina Gentry connected with a through pass from Krista Bartzi in one of the first breakaways in the game. As alluded to earlier, the chance to score was there, but DVC was simply unable to put

another goal away in the re-maining 82 minutes of the game.

Assistant coach Sam Liu-bicich said, “A win is a win - we will take it,” but she was clearly upset that more of the team’s opportunities were not capitalized on.

Liubicich said the team tried to use more crosses in front of the goal since their target players were absent, and that created more chanc-es. However the soccer team was just unable to convert those chances into goals.

Two games are left in the season - both at home. The Vikings are hoping that the two captains will be cleared to play by then. Getting back to the system that has been successful for the team so far will be extremely important if they want to maintain their chances for the upcoming playoffs.

The Vikings will host Sier-ra College on Thursday, Nov. 8. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.

Soccer scrapes by with a win

RYAN PETERSStaff writer

Contact RYAN PETERS at RPeters@TheInquirerOnline.

com

“It had been frustrating in the final third though; there

were many opportunities

but not a lot of scoring.”

~ CAILLIN MULLINSHead coach

Volleyball victors valiantly

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The DVC women’s volley-ball team won a hard-fought match against Sacramento City College, three sets to one, on Friday, Nov. 2.

“Today was a very impor-tant match for us, since we were playing for sole posses-sion of fourth place,” coach Jackie Ponciano-Babb said after the game.

The first set laid the tem-plate for how most of the match would unfold. After a small DVC lead, the team’s energy picked up. A combo block by DVC made it 14-10, forcing Sac City to call the first of a litany of timeouts.

DVC built a five-point lead, 22-17, highlighted by back-to-back kills by Abbie Noland and Sandra Foster. But Sac City didn’t crumble, rallying a 6-2 run. At 24-23, Foster rose up and deposited a kill to the right corner of Sac City, giving DVC the first set 25-23.

Both teams came out fir-ing in the second set. Neither team held a lead of more than two for most of the set. DVC eventually strung to-gether a 7-2 run, forcing an-other Sac City timeout. After Sac City took the next point, a spike was dug out in center

court by Sheila Tuvell, tipped up on a dive by Noland, and bumped over by Foster. DVC took the point, then followed with another wild string of digs and saves which built up to a set-clinching kill by No-land, and a 25-19 win.

Sac City started the third set with a small lead. A pow-erful kill by Foster spurred a 5-0 DVC run, which forced yet another Sac City time-out. The stoppage didn’t slow down the Vikings, who continued their run and took their first lead of the set at 17-16.

The Vikings continued their run and took their first lead of the set at 17-16 but could not hold on, losing 25-27.

DVC was able to prevent the last set from creating a snowball effect. The Vikings established an 11-7 lead be-hind consistent kills by No-

land. Noland was a constant threat throughout the match.

A huge dual block by Mad-die Ward and Lindsay Wood stood out during the con-struction of a 23-14 lead. Af-ter Sac City pulled within five, Noland smashed another kill for 24-18. Fittingly, the set and match was won on a kill by Noland that could not be handled by Sac City.

Taking a stronghold of fourth place in conference wasn’t their only impetus. “We were also looking to avenge a close loss in five sets at their place. So there were a couple reasons for the extra energy,” said Ponciano-Babb.

DVC’s next, and final, home game is on Friday, Nov. 9 versus American River Col-lege.

Injured captains affect Vikings’ performance

STAFF WRITERS Gabriel Agurcia, Thalia Avila, Anthony Camacho, Nicolas Holmes, Julia Kinkela, Josh Knoll, Eric Lee, John Michaelson, Celeste Milina, Ryan Peters, Erika Peterson, Jessica Trimmer

PHOTOGRAPHERS Matthew Emmanuel, Sebastian ReneDESIGNERS Jack Dillion, Ransom Fulgham

INSTRUCTIONAL LAB COORDINATOR Ann StenmarkADVISER Mary Mazzocco

EDITOR IN CHIEF Hakeem MontesMANAGING EDITOR Andrew O’Connor-WattsONLINE EDITOR Kellyn BorstNEWS EDITOR Aidan HerrickOPINIONS EDITOR Brenan Peterman ARTS & FEATURES EDITOR Josh KnollPHOTO CHIEF Karin JensenSPORTS EDITOR Samantha Chiu COPY EDITOR Sofia Putri

Opinions4 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College Thursday, November 8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Editorial Board Staff

• Phone: 925.685.1230 ext. 2313 • Fax: 925.681.3045 • Email: inquirer@dvc.edu • Website: www.TheInquirerOnline.com • Printed Every Two Weeks •

How prepared are you for a large scale

disaster such as Sandy?

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The Inquirer is published Thursday mornings during the school year by the journalism students of Diablo Valley College. All unsigned articles appearing on the opinions page are editorials and reflect a two-thirds majority opinion of the editorial staff. All signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writer or artists and not necessarily those of The Inquirer, Diablo Valley College or Contra Costa Community College District.

Interviewer: Matthew EmmanuelPhotographer: Sebastian Rene

“Sandy is crazy. I’m prepared for a

zombie apocalypse but not Sandy.”

JULIUS ABELLA, 19 Criminal justice

“I have swords and food...and a medical kit too.”

AMITY ALBERTO, 20 Philosophy

“I just have some knowledge from TV. Like

what not to do.”

FRANK JUAREZ, 20Criminal justice

“Not very prepared, but I’m working on it. I don’t have any water on hand.”

VANESSA ZAGLIONI, 25Art

“On a scale: for an Earth-quake 8. For a flood, a 9. I

live on a hill.”

NATALIE SPITZ, 19Psychology

Letters to the editor

Opinions

With the passing of Halloween, we crossover the threshold into yet another holiday season, while po-litely ignoring the looming anticipation of Christ-mas, the mind turns to the next big seasonal event: Thanksgiving. We are all familiar with the story: pilgrims show up, natives befriend them help them survive the winter, and they all pig out in celebra-tion.

What a wholesome American story. It really en-capsulates what we stand for as a nation, what with us treating strangers as equals, our willingness to help out, and how awesome consumption is. But we’re in college now, and the purpose of education is to expand our understanding. To avoid question-ing our traditions is to deny ourselves advancement. The history of Thanksgiving is actually much dark-er than many believe it to be.

In the teaching of American history, the entire subject of what happened to the natives is politely played down. Though there are some progressive teachers who won’t elude the destruction of several nations and their people (another disregarded fact is that native Americans had countries, with bor-ders and trade agreements and so on), the majority of American history is taught as though etched in stone, with anything that may clash with our alleged American values being watered down or left out. That said, let’s discuss some facts.

First, the pilgrims couldn’t even call firsts on vis-iting America. The Vikings, the Chinese, the Japa-nese, the Malians, and even other Europeans like Spanish Jews and the Romans were there before the pilgrims. America gained its namesake from Ameri-go Vespucci, an Italian explorer who died a cen-tury before the pilgrims even showed up. This also ignores the fact that Native Americans had settled America roughly 30,000 years before anyone else. Talk about calling firsts.

Second, the pilgrims didn’t really settle anything, so much as just crash on America’s couch and never leave. Three years before the arrival of the pilgrims, plague raged up and down the east coast, killing as much as 90% of the native population. The num-bers that remained to greet the pilgrims were few, and the land that the Europeans found so easy to manage and thrive on was that way because natives had done all the work and then disappeared.

Some readers may be familiar with the story of Squanto, who played a key role in the pilgrims’ sur-vival of their first winter in the new world. Put into this new perspective of Thanksgiving, you may be

wondering how he survived the plague, or how he could communicate with the Europeans.

It was easy for Squanto to survive, as he was not in America when the plague struck. Squanto was a slave, sold by a British fisherman to some Spanish monks who wanted to educate them. Squanto es-caped however, and joined a fishing boat on course for the new world. When Squanto finally got to the shore and trekked home, he found his people exter-minated by disease, making him the last of his peo-ple. Joining the pilgrims was a matter of survival.

One very common misconception is that we have been celebrating Thanksgiving ever since “the first Thanksgiving.” The reality is that Thanksgiving was instituted by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War as a means to raise morale. Lincoln stated in his Proclamation of Thanksgiving, “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and ob-serve the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascrip-tions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, or-phans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently im-plore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoy-ment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

James Loewen, author of the book “Lies My Teacher Told Me” writes, “Thanksgiv-ing is the occasion on which we give thanks to God as a

nation for the blessings that He [sic] hath bestowed upon us. More than any other celebration, more even than such overtly patriotic holidays as Inde-pendence Day and Memorial Day, Thanksgiving celebrates our ethnocentrism.” Loewen expands on this idea by citing King James and the early Pilgrim leaders as praising God for the plague which they felt gave proof that God was on their side. Loewen goes on to explain the archetypes associated with Thanksgiving, “God on our side, civilization wrest-ed from wilderness, order from disorder, through hard work and good Pilgrim character traits.”

We can see Loewen’s archetypes reflected in Lin-coln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving. It is problem-atic only having part of the truth. We remind our-selves, ethnocentric values imposed upon a nation through cultural traditions weaved with half-truths and blatant lies while discouraging truth-seeking through indoctrination, is not worth being grateful for.

San Francisco Giants fans have been exhibiting brighter smiles than usual. ‘BIRGing’ is the likely culprit for the recent spike of happiness in our com-munity.

The phenomenon I am refer-ring to stands for, “basking in reflective glory”. This glorious concept is a type of social iden-tity theory which helps a person define their identity and role in society.

When a person assigns their loyalty to a particular sports team, they are creating and de-veloping a part of their socially created identity.

BIRGing dictates that one is very likely to display their sports team’s regalia the day after a win. The recent barrage of black and orange paraphernalia flooding the campus and community is a testament to this.

According to a 2010 Auburn University study, “Fans who as-sociate themselves with a favor-ite team attain feelings of vicari-ous achievement simply by being fans….”

Since I’ve never followed sports closely, I find the concept of identity association with any sports team completely foreign. Though it is important to note, BIRGing is not exclusive to

sports. My BIRGing experiences are

related to social justice activism. I found myself basking in higher self-esteem and feelings of hap-piness when reading about a re-cent decision surrounding the in-famous UC Davis pepper spray victim case.

Michael Risher, staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, stated in a Huff-ington Post interview that the UC system agreed to an award of, “$30,000 to each victim, $250,000 in attorney’s fees and a requirement for UC to set aside $100,000 for anyone else who can prove they were harmed or arrested during the incident.”

Though the suffering of the UC Davis pepper-spray victims cannot be equated to a monetary amount, it brought to me feel-

ings of satisfaction and justice to witness the UC system held accountable for making such a violent decision against students and alumni for raising dissent in a peaceful fashion.

As I was recently witnessing images of Giants fans setting a Muni bus ablaze, turning cars over while piles of trash were simultaneously burning into the night’s darkness, this nagging question remained at the fore-front of my mind… did I miss something or is the destruction of public transportation and causing general mayhem post-World Series victory standard is-sue protocol?

For those who missed the memo, the answer to this would be… no.

If we as the public come to a point when we are causing social

disruption within our society, let us use it to bring attention to im-portant issues such as defending our public higher education sys-tem from being stripped down and privatized as was displayed by our fellow courageous UC Davis students.

Let us refrain from acting like mindless idiots who riot simply because the local team won a championship ring.

There are larger pursuits which we should be focusing on such as fighting for the future of our public higher education system which has continued to dwindle down drastically.

Very soft reporting style, if at all. The media only highlights the random goody goody gone wild and only when it hap-pens, then you never hear about it till the next “event”.

Taking away more of our right to pro-tect ourselves would only serve to widen the gap between law-abiding citizens and criminals. Even the discussions about types of guns is soft at best.

Why own an “assault rifle” with a 30 round clip and a thousand dollars worth of optic you ask; because it’s fun to shoot targets at 100 or 200 yards, and can also be used for home protection if the time ever comes. You can talk about gun control all you want but it’s not going to prevent real criminals from owning any type of gun they want.

My final argument would be what hap-

pens when the ... hits the fan. Does the gun control lobby lay down and hide? No, they’ll be at their neighbors house, the same honest joe they previously criticized , looking for a way to protect their family and happy that no one took his “assault” rifles away.

Next time try doing some research or take a novel approach to talking about gun control, provide options and some facts to

back it up. You’re just rehashing the same story. You’re riding the wave. Be creative or try something else because this article does nothing to inspire, provide insight or assist the campus community in any way.

-RM of Orinda

Thanksgiving? Thanks for what?

HAKEEM MONTESEditor in chief

Contact HAKEEM MONTES at HMontes@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Rioting for the wrong right reasons

Putting a bullet in the issue

Graphic Illustration by KELLYN BORST

Arts & Features 5The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, November 8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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In the beat-intensive “Backseat Freestyle”, Kendrick makes his ambi-tious goals obvious, and the song’s instrumental serves as a perfect example as to how rap artists gain short-lived success in the music industry, by not placing emphasis on the content of their lyrics.

This album is the perfect recipe because “m.A.A.d city” gives you a bit of social awareness along with some style within its powerful yet sometimes jazzy sound (e.g. the track: “Sing about me, I’m Dying of Thirst,” “Good kid”, and how can I forget “The Recipe” featuring Dr. Dre). Kendrick’s contribu-tions to a middle ground

may serve to reinforce rap’s longevity, and a future to a new age of M.C. More importantly, perhaps hip-hop music can now be regarded as more than just money, sex, drugs, and black music, but rather, money, sex, and drugs within an art form. Kendrick Lamar brings a good story, great instrumentals, and a dash of humor, and so I ask you now, was hip-hop ever dead? And what is the status of hip-hop today?

GOOD KIDFrom Page 6

Contact SEBASTIAN RENE at SRene@TheInquirerOnline.com

whom arrived as early as 2 a.m. to stake their claim on the prime real estate.

By the time the ceremonies began, bodies were packed in for blocks around the stage where the team, front of-fice and coaching staff all had their time around the trophies and microphones to thank the legions of fans. Stadium announcer Ren-ell Brooks-Moon used her time at the mic to reiterate what has been a rallying cry throughout a regular and post-season of sell out home games, “Together we’re Gi-ant.”

It was an afternoon full of camaraderie, mutual gratitude and, as outfielder Gregor Blanco said of the team, the fans in attendance

were “always looking to have fun.” Barry Zito described the sensational comeback journeys of both himself and fellow starter Ryan Vo-gelsong, “He and I have been through some differ-ent states of hell... the low-est of the low,” Zito went on describing that moment as, “the highest of the high.”

Everyone seemed to be equally in awe of the mo-ment, grateful for the oppor-tunity to be a part of it. As General Manager Brian Sa-bian said of Bochy, “...you’re finally getting your due, and it’s long overdue.”

ORANGE & BLACKFrom Page 6

Contact JOSH “GRASSY” KNOLL at JKnoll@TheInquir-

erOnline.com Courtesy of WARNER BROTHERS STUDIOS

tion of giving into what ap-peared to be his id (Hugo Weaving). Zachry saves his niece from death by helping a member of a technologi-cally advanced society (Berry) whose home had become un-inhabitable send a signal to her fellow survivors.

While Hugo Weaving played characters that were violent or “evil”, Keith Da-vid’s characters acted as pro-tectors of “good.”

The makeup in “Cloud At-las” was a source of contro-versy, as the film had actors portraying different races. Caucasian actors played Asian characters and vice-versa with the primary source of controversy stemming from the way the makeup was used to portray non-Asian actors as Asian characters, focusing mostly on the eyes.

This was an unfortunate

filmmaking choice, not to mention that the poorly done makeup distracted from the rest of the film. An argu-ment could be made for the actors changing appearance as a way to reinforce the idea of souls transcending race, but could have been executed more successfully by casting Korean actors in those roles, as opposed to British and American.

I admire Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis for what they attempted thematically and accomplished visually, although the film might have been improved had they at-tempted fewer storylines and used different actors. “Cloud Atlas” is a film I would have liked to see at least twice be-fore writing about but is cer-tainly a film worth seeing for yourself, whether you leave angry at the makeup or ex-cited by the endeavor.

CLOUDFrom Page 6

Contact ANDREW O’CONNOR-WATTS at AOConnorWatts@

TheInquirerOnline.com

RYAN PETERS/ The Inquirer

Hunter Pence celebrates his World Series Championship with fans on Market Street. Courtesy of AFTERMATH RECORDS

Kendrick Lamar poses for the camera.

Zachry (Hanks) clings to his niece, in Cloud Atlas. Courtesy of AFTERMATH RECORDS

6 Thursday, November 8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Art eatures

Cloud Atlas transcends

My first reaction when leaving the film “Cloud Atlas” was, “that is what a big budget film should look like.” Upon further reflec-tion however, “Cloud Atlas” has several flaws, but delivers an entertaining and aesthetically appealing story that is really six intertwoven plots. Each story takes place during a differ-ent time period throughout history, but when taken as a whole, conveys a uniform theme: “What we do in our lives transcends our life-time and has implications both past and pres-ent.”

Directors Lana and Andy Wachowski (“The Matrix”) and Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”), successfully conveyed this idea, and reinforced the theme of souls being passed on through different bodies by using the same actors to play different parts in each storyline.

The Wachowskis directed half of the sto-ries: a young lawyer (Jim Sturgess) on a 19th century ship in the South Pacific, the start of a revolution by a clone worker (Bae Doona) in dystopian “Neo Seoul” Korea in 2144, and a morally-conflicted tribesman (Tom Hanks) living in a primitive Hawaii signified as “106 winters after ‘The Fall’” (taking place after 2144).

German director Tom Tykwer took the helm on the other three stories: a young com-poser (Ben Wishaw) in 1936 who travels to Cambridge to work with an aging master (Jim Broadbent), a journalist (Halle Berry) attempt-ing to uncover a nuclear meltdown conspiracy in 1970’s San Francisco, and an old publisher (Broadbent) escaping from a group of thugs in present-day United Kingdom.

At times the different narratives felt awk-ward and disjointed, however the enormous task of fitting these seemingly unrelated tales together was somewhat remedied by transi-tions that either audibly or visually connected the stories. One example of many was in a scene “After ‘The Fall’” in which a painted

warrior on horseback (Hugh Grant) rides across the screen from left to right before cut-ting to a train crossing the screen from left to right in present-day United Kingdom.

While characters within the individual sto-ries had little development what set “Cloud Atlas” apart was that the “souls” had charac-ter development. This development was espe-cially present in the character played by Hanks who goes from a greedy and sadistic doctor in the 19th century storyline to a tribesman named Zachry struggling against the tempta-

ANDREW O’CONNOR-WATTSManaging editor

CLOUD, Page 5

“good kid, m.A.A.d city”, Kendrick Lamar’s latest album under Dr. Dre’s record label Aftermath, proves to be an al-bum that cannot go unheard. Kendrick has found a way to tell a story with his template of speedy bars and off tempo rhyming schemes. The sub-stance of the stories he tells, and how he tells them, backed by incredible beats, allows the audience to relate on an individual level to his art.

Kendrick’s style plays an important role in hip-hop because we can see the birth of a middle ground since hip-hop’s death from the late 90’s. Hip-hop was initially the contemporary socio-economic story of blacks after the 70’s and 80’s. It was a medium through which blacks could practice freedom of speech, from the account of those subjected to marginalization, and institutional frustrations (especially against the police). Does the so-called, “War on drugs” ring a bell?

Today, the story of hip-hop has changed to a means of accessing money and attaining success for some rap artists. As a result, rap has become more of a commod-ity for monetization and not valued as art. With the rise in commercial rap, under-ground rap continues to tell stories of the marginalized, which has translated today to

low-income minority groups. On the flip side, artists like The Roots, Common, Mos Def (now called Yassiin Bay ), Mayday, Nas, Blu, etc. have devoted their careers to pro-viding a source of conscious music in the mainstream. Kendrick Lamar fits into the equation by providing something more than just a hit and less than the so-called conscious rapper.

In “Section.80”, Kendrick’s previous album, the song “Ab Souls Outro,” Kendrick says, “I’m not the next pop star. I’m not the next socially aware rapper. I am a human

mother... being over dope-ass instrumentals.” This very con-cept has translated into this album, “good kid, m.A.A.d city.” Songs like, “Backseat Freestyle” and “Art of Peer Pressure” exemplify this concept.

In the “Art of Peer Pres-sure”, Kendrick gives a first-hand account to the influence that drugs and friends have. “Usually I’m drug-free, but shit I’m with the homies.”

The good, the m.A.A.d and the city

SEBASTIAN RENEStaff photographer

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“It’s like a family thing,” DVC Student Martin Oropeza said of the October 31st World Series Champion’s Parade in San Fran-cisco. “My grandfather and my dad have been watching them (over fifty years).” Oropeza, along with many others from all parts of the bay, converged on San Francisco to take part in the team’s second World Series celebration in three years. It’s estimated that over 1.3 Million die hards like Orepeza were also in attendance for the full day of festivities that “brought the community together”. “We tried to spare you the

torture of 2010 by clenching a little early.” Manager Bruce Bo-chy told the crowd at the Cer-emony that followed the parade down Market Street; after the skipper’s Rolls Royce ran out of gas and had to be pushed the last few blocks of the parade route. Like most of the Giants’ roster, Bochy expressed heart-felt gratitude to the fans, who he gave credit for “making this the time of my life.” Sergio Romo ascended in 2012, filling the role of injured closer Brian Wilson with brutal efficiency, dealing the fateful fastball that froze Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera to finish the Giants’ four-game World

Series sweep. He too gave credit to the Bay Area fans, “We are a great example of this city,” Romo said, in reference to the team’s diversity and ‘misfits’ mentality. Throughout the playoffs, fans of the team have been unmis-takable here at DVC and in almost every local venue, flying the colors of the unlikely Cin-derella team, who rallied from being one game away from elimination, to Champions. “All my heroes still wear orange and black,” proclaimed team president Larry Baer, gesturing over the players and crowd. “You all have become our heroes as well... you all

are our magic.” Baer went on, celebrating with a team and a fan-base that “never give up, no matter what.” This was a senti-ment echoed later, by Romo when he said that the players and fans “are all champions in orange and black.” One and a half tons of confetti were launched from air cannons, along the parade route and over the stage throughout the event (Comcast Sportsnet). The Civic Center plaza had been packed with devoted fans since the night before, some of

JOSH “GRASSY” KNOLLArts & Features editor

A sea of orange & black

ORANGE & BLACK, Page 5 RYAN PETERS / The Inquirer

The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Barry Zito celebrates his comeback.

Courtesy of WARNER BROTHERS’ PICTURES.

Zachry (Hanks) and Meronym (Berry) hide from a warrior (Grant).

GOOD KID, Page 5