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Blue Wave Ripples Through Suburbia

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Blue Wave Ripples Through Suburbia “Truth, No Matter The Cost” VOL. 27... NO. 3 TORCHBCC.COM NOVEMBER 2018 Blue Wave Ripples Through Suburbia Featured KATY TEMPLE FEATURES EDITOR Articles: two particular races that ended Rumors of the “blue with upsets left the country wave” were running rampant disappointed and worried. A Veteran’s Tale throughout the country in the Beto O’Rourke (D) ran months leading to the 2018 against incumbent senator midterm elections. As polls Ted Cruz (R) and lost by 2.6 were closing and ballots were percent. After his defense of counted, the entire country star athletes kneeling for the stayed glued to their televisions national anthem, O’Rourke to wait for the great blue picked up national exposure, wave. traction and became the DNC’s What looked like a ripple star candidate. on election day rose to a wave As someone who a week later, with Democrats supports the legalization flipping many seats from red of marijuana, opposes the Page 2 to blue and taking control of influence of corporate money the House for the first time in Washington and views since 2011. healthcare as a basic human Key races in Virginia’s right rather than a privilege, When You Give a second and seventh district O’Rourke encompasses indicate that suburban everything young people are Girl a Glock civilians who previously voted looking for in a politician. Republican have switched to While O’Rourke has a the blue side. Elaine Luria (D) national presence and Texas defeated the incumbent Scott // Wikimedia Commons Taylor (R) by about 6,000 swayed more blue than it has in votes in district 2. Similarly in the past, Cruz still managed to opportunities, enforcing gun- the first two Native American district 7, incumbent (R) Dave clench on to his Senate seat by safety and anti-discrimination women to serve in Congress Brat has conceded to Abigail the skin of his teeth despite his laws, reforming our criminal along with the first two Muslim Spanberger (D) by less than 2 past falters. justice system and providing women: Ilhan Omar (D) from percent. In Georgia, Stacey Abrams affordable health care were all Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib Of the seats up for grabs, had the opportunity to become topics of discussion throughout (D) from Michigan. This 35 had flipped from red to blue the first black female governor Abrams’ campaign trail. Even wasn’t just a win for minority by mid-November, with six in the United States. Abrams with Oprah’s endorsement, women, Colorado elected the races still not called. That’s the became the first woman to lead Brian Kemp (R) came out on very first openly gay governor, biggest Democratic gain since the Georgia General Assembly top with 50.3% of the vote. Jared Polis. the wave election that followed in 2010, and the first African- Despite a few major upsets, According to CBS, this was Watergate. These victories American to lead for Georgia in this midterm was a success the first year that the number were great, but weren’t nearly the House of Representatives. for women and minorities in of voters exceeded 100 million Page 5 as monumental as the DNC had Like O’Rourke, Abrams politics. For the first time, over at a midterm election. Analysts ran a campaign focusing on 100 women have been elected now say that Democrats have hoped, this is a step in the right big ticket issues young people direction towards the actual into congress. flipped 33 seats and will finish ‘The Hate U Give’ Review blue wave we may see in 2020. are eager to reform. Making Deb Haaland (D) in New with between 36 and 40. What Small victories are great, but housing more affordable, Mexico and Sharice Davids in looked like a ripple on election creating quality educational Kansas have been elected as day is now a definite wave. Hate Breeds Hate: A Holocaust Survivor’s Story Page 10 DANIEL CURRIER unaware that she was the sole STAff WRITER survivor of her family. It is often said that by After many grueling refusing to learn from the months of hard labor in various ghosts of our past, we are camps, she was packed into a inadvertently doomed to repeat cattle car with other survivors. our mistakes. This is the In a last ditch effort to hide message that Trudy Album, the truth, the Schutzstaffel PTK and Honor’s a Holocaust survivor, was (soldiers employed by the Nazi conveying on October 30 in a party) lured many Jews to their College Spotlight walled off section of the Moses deaths with promises of hot Family Center at 10:30 a.m. food. She was a member of the “If we forget the past, then lucky few that did not leave the we will lose the future,” Trudy cattle car, and was rescued by emphasized. the American Army. Trudy spoke of her life She survived her ordeal before the German occupation. with the aid of good Samaritans along the way. She credits She was born in Czechoslovakia Trudy Album tells her story to fascinated students // Daniel Currier to Modern Orthodox parents. these people for her survival According to her account, her and survival of many others, in her town were ordered to chimneys were belching black including some of her friends childhood was peaceful and smoke, an orchestra was everyone lived in harmony. take their belongings and move and their mothers. to a ghetto. The next order always playing and, according She spoke of a physician Page 11 However, there were to Trudy, there were “skeletons rumors stirring in the early was the demanding of able- that saved her life by treating bodied men over the age of 15 wearing human skin” walking a sickness she developed while 1930s: rumors of what would about the camp. later be known as “The Night to be drafted into a segregated she was working. If she were Vegan Thanksgiving labor force known as the Werk It was at this point that to report to the infirmary, she of Broken Glass.” Rumors of she came face to face with Dr. Jews being shipped to ghettos Kommando. This was the last would have been killed and time Trudy saw her father. Mengele, the notorious “Angel it was through the power of arose as well, all of which of Death” who conducted would be proven to be true. Another order came in human compassion that she which led her and her family deadly human experiments was capable of telling her story. In their own time, the throughout the duration of the Wehrmacht cut their way to another ghetto, which she Trudy, currently 89 stayed in for two days. It was Holocaust. This was the last years old, looks back at her through Eastern Europe and time Trudy saw her mother, both into Trudy’s homeland. With at this point that she donned experiences and urges students the infamous Jewish star on sisters and her grandmother. to speak out against hatred. the new German occupation, She, along with several of her everything seemed peaceful at her clothing. Initially, she wore “If you see something, say it gladly, because she did not friends, were taken to Birkenau something,” she said. At first, first, but regulations were soon understand its significance at concentration camp. put in place, such as not being the time. Despite all this, Trudy still the students were aloof, but by able to own businesses and Later, she was sent had faith in humanity and God. the end they were a captivated jewelry. to Auschwitz, which she She promised herself, ”I would audience. By the Spring of 1944, that not be the only one who dies,” peace was broken. All the Jews described as frightening: Page 14 2 NEWS THE TORCH VOLUME 27 ISSUE 3 NOVEMBER 2018 NEWS ‘Trump of the Tropics’ Assumes Power in Brazil Rohingya Refugees Sent Back To Myanmar Despite Persecution OWEN MCCLOSKEY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The Rohingya are a group of displaced people who have lived in the Rakhine region of Myanmar for centuries. The ethnic group developed from tribes in parts of southeastern and southern Asia and have lived in the Rakhine for generations upon generations. However, the Rohingya – a predominantly Muslim group – are targets of persecution by the Buddhist- majority Burmese (Myanmar) government. In 2015, a group of researchers from the UK-based International State Crime Initiative reported “sporadic massacres” and “ghettoization” of the Rohingya people. After quelling the voting rights of the Rohingya people, the government of Myanmar responded to an attack by Rohingya militants with what has been reported by watchdog groups as “ethnic cleansing.” Military troops are systematically being sent into Rohingya neighborhoods, firing upon // Flickr.com men, women and children. government of Myanmar is targeting Muslims amongst Burmese laypeople. as a country recovering from a civil Surveys conducted by Médecins Muslims, as there is an enormous Despite all of this, the governments conflict of its own, its citizens feel Sans Frontières (MSF) in refugee distaste for Islam in a country that is of Bangladesh and Myanmar the need to turn to a scapegoat for the settlement camps in Bangladesh largely Buddhist. The demonization (Bangladesh has the largest Rohingya fundamental problems in Myanmar. estimated that at least 9,000 Rohingya of Muslims is a common trope in refugee population in the world, at If this deal goes through, hundreds died in Myanmar during the August Myanmar, and this has been exacerbated 655,500) have made a deal that will of thousands of refugees will be sent and September of 2017. Since then, the by a surprising factor: social media.
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