The Badger Pause Volume 11, Issue 5 14510 North Cheshire Street, Burton, Ohio January 2016 Ask A... by Sam Martinjako, BP Staff Writer Q: Why didn’t we have a snow day A: OUR AMERICAN PRIDE WILL today? NEVER ALLOW US TO BECOME A: You didn’t wish hard enough, COMMUNISTS. As for other coun- slacker. tries, I do not know. Q: Will we ever have a snow day? Q: Can you tell me why Donald A: If we didn’t already have one by Trump shouldn’t be president? the time this article is published, then A: I’m not sure if I can trust a man we may just have to abandon hope. If with hair like that. we did though, I guess your question Q: What does human blood taste answered itself. like? Q: Am I ever going to get off the A: Garlic, you vampire. bus? Q: Can I ask a statement? A: Probably not, for life is just a A: Can I answer with a question? series of buses. Q: Why has the dress code become Q: What’s my favorite color? such a problem? A: Coral Blue #2? A: I don’t know, but it needs to be Q: What do lizardmen eat? solved. round shape is the easiest to form due to photo courtesy of: davegranlund.com A: They eat normal food so that Q: What does it mean to be human? this. The more dense particles became Donald Trump at it again they’re not discovered. You never the core of the earth, and the less dense I’m asking for a friend. I’m not a what you make of it” type of answer. know who’s a lizard. particles became the surface. This is robot. I have skin. Q: What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me) Q: Anything exciting coming next why Earth looks perfectly round from A: That sounds like a question a robot A: Don’t hurt me no more~. semester? outer space. However, Earth is not com- would ask. Q: Why is senioritis a thing?! A: Well, the year is half over, so pletely round, which is obvious consid- Q: Why is the world round? A: According to my graduated brother, that’s something. ering things such as mountains, and is A: Depending on who you ask, you you finally see that there is hope after all, Q: Why does school start so early? constantly changing shape. Scientists might still get told that it’s flat. In any and that your boring mundane life will A: For no good reason, that’s for consider our planet to be an “ellipsoid” case, the answer is that it has to do finally change. sure. rather than a sphere, as the equator is with gravity, mass, and shape all being Q: What’s the best sport… ever? Q: Does God exist? wider than the poles because of cen- related to one another. Larger amounts A: Cheese rolling and zorbing are both A: I’ll leave that up to you I suppose. trifugal forces. of mass have a more powerful gravi- pretty good. Q: Is a hotdog a sandwich? tl;dr, Gravity and other science stuff. tational pull. As the earth was being Q: On a scale of 4 to potato, how many A: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Q: Why are we doing this? What is formed, large quantities of space dust cotton balls can you fit in a blind guys OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO life? began to gravitate towards each other. mouth? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO A: If I were a nihilist, I would tell you This matter spun around and came A: You’ve abused the question asking OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO that we are doing this for no reason together forming the earth. The earth, privilege and have ruined it for everyone. OOOOOOO. and that life is meaningless. We all end and all other celestial bodies, ended No more questions. Q: Will the whole world become up round due to the fact that gravity up dead, who cares… Since I’m not communist? affects everything equally, and that a though, I’ll just give a generic “life is All men are created equal by Julia Losasso, BP Staff Editor born and raised as United States citizens, are store, who happens to be wearing a hijab (a head cover- still seen as outsiders, or “the other” based ing worn by women to cover hair neck and chest), is not. the way they dress or what they believe in. This prejudice, fought against so hard by the american Citizens judged for their appearances, people, and in the big picture, the global community, has Above is a symbol that represents the ideology that every religion can and avoided or shown inequality for the been a part of the “problem scene” for far too long. In live in harmony same reason sounds reminiscent of the pre- their very essence, bigotry and intolerance are wrong. civil rights era, but in actuality this is a situ- From a young age we learn that bullying, stereotyping, Discrimination. Prejudice. Stereotypes. Not words we ation described quite often across America. and bias are not accepted, neither socially or in a profes- like to use to describe ourselves, our communities, The American ideals: “The Land of the Free,” the land sional setting. We live in a country where our principals country, or our social world. Yet it’s a reality. Burning of opportunity, the land who’s people take pride in equal are that all men are created equal, and have a right to life, places of meeting and worship, hate crimes, that hurt and rights, are hard to understand when such intolerance that liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not to mention 27 kill people, and rhetoric about barring legal citizens from makes people feel they need to compensate for who they amendments further expressing our rights and freedoms. the country (something not done since the second World are based on their appearance or faith is of such preva- How is it then, that the most basic of these are being vio- War in Nazi Germany). What worsens it is that all of this lence. lated in a major way and not only are few people taking is aimed at classmates, community members, coworkers The issue of prejudice and bigotry, however, is not based action against it, but there are large groups of supporters and legal citizens, innocent people that are victims be- on direct experiences by the average American and indi- committing acts of hate and violence? cause of the stereotype others create due of their different vidual ignorance or bias, but by the intense coverage by The hate crimes I have been referring to include several beliefs. the media over an incredibly low percentage of a radical shootings in the past few months, religious slurs, vandal- Discrimination and bigotry have negative connota- and trouble causing group. The media and major political ism, bombing, and arson, to name a few. All committed tions. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and ‘60’s players encouraging the direct bigotry and misconcep- against Muslims. People of the Islamic faith, a peaceful was a hard fought battle to bring issues such as these to tions about a group of people has made the rhetoric of religion. Why have they been singled out? Why do we, as national attention, and it succeeded in many ways. Yet hate not only widespread, but encouraged. an entire nation, and beyond, see an offshoot, a far fringe the regression in the past year alone is alarming. The “I feel like a virus.” “It’s not who we are.” “what right group, as representative of a whole religion, a whole stereotypes are not relevant, and by furthering the belief does anyone have to question my Americanness based on community of people? And why does the word “islamo- that they are, the general population is only spreading the way I dress, or my faith..?” The words of people, US phobia” even exist? It is defined as “dislike of or preju- irrational fear and greater misconceptions. citizens, affected by bigotry, discrimination and violent dice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political Misconceptions and fear breed bigotry, defined as hate crimes carried out against their people. Is it their job force” (Oxford Dictionary). Prejudice is in the definition, intolerance toward those who hold different opinions to defend the less than 5% of people who call themselves yet it is used in a political force? It seems when fear and from oneself. Intolerance such as that which has occurred of similar faith, yet are in fact carrying out violence, power are combined, morals go out the window. in recent months aimed at peaceful people and commit- often times on their own people. It is people like this that So I ask you, if you agree that bigoted and discriminatory ted by ill informed believers of a growing stereotype is are terrorists. Those who kill and whose goal is to spread are not words you would like to use to describe yourself, telling of this. According to the American Civil Liberties fear, terror, and destruction. They are not terrorists based to use your voice and your power, whether it be over Union (ACLU), in the United States alone, 31 states have on the color or their skin, their looks, or their faith. To be your friends, your parents, or over your social media experienced one or more incidences of prejudice based clear, those that burn mosques, commit mass shootings, community, to stop the stereotypes and prejudice, and destruction to otherwise peaceful places open to commu- or bomb places, no matter gender, race, or religion are spread the reality that Muslims are individuals, just as we nity members.