Newspapers / The clarion : the … / April 22, 2020, edition 1 / Page 6
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Page 6 Opinion The Clarion \ April 22, 2020 Feedback response 'After the pandemic orders are lifted can you continue to post only digital copies to reduce paper waste?' R\/ 7arh nirlcorcnn college unless they see it printed out in t By Zach Dickerson Editor in Chief This was a question that The Clarion received in our CO VID-19 pandemic survey that is open to all students, faculty and staff. 1 want to start by saying that I think this is a great question and I can see valid reasons to argue on both sides. The short answer, that we as a staff came to together, is that we will still continue to print our issues of the newspaper as usual. On the side of stopping printing issues of the newspaper, as stated in the question, it does reduce paper waste to do only digital copies. The average American consumes more than 700 pounds of paper each year, and paper accounts for 25 percent of waste in landfills and 33 percent of municipal waste. That’s why when all of our staff goes around campus to put out the latest issues of the newspapers and replace the old issues, we always put the old issues into recycling so that they avoid the landfills. They go through the recycling process and can be reused. Yes, we are also very much aware that extremely large amounts of trees are cut down every year to be used by paper industries at the expense of the environment and that stopping the printing of our newspapers will also help the college itself save on time, money and resources. However, we as a newspaper staff will continue to print as a service to ourselves, the whole college, the community, alumni, prospective students and many others. We choose to continue to print our issues of the newspaper because it is a practice, and maybe it can even be called a tradition, that many large newspaper organizations/ companies still do themselves to this day. ft’s just a typical practice of the industry. The biggest and most important reason for us continuing to print it is so that we may advertise and show the work we do to all and to get information out to those who are unable to access it online. When prospective students come to campus for tours or admissions events, the biggest and maybe only way that they will see and know of the work that we do for the campus, with the paper, is by having printed copies out for their viewing. Plus, it is also a great way to get possible new staff members when they see the printed copies. Yes, they can just go to the website for The Clarion, but they won’t even know that a website, let alone a student newspaper, exists at the college unless they see it printed out in front of them. Then, there is also the possibility that if they do know of the newspaper and the website, there is no guarantee that they will remember to go to the site later or even go to it in the first place. There are also community members who come onto the campus, walk around and/or use the facilities such as the dining hall and coffee shop who myself and many others see reading and enjoying the printed versions of the newspaper. We also will continue to print in order to help us spread the information that we put in the paper. There have been multiple attempts, many during my time on the staff, made by Admissions, Administration and the Athletic Department to remove issues of The Clarion that we have put out due to articles written in them so that the information is less visible to anyone who might see it. Not everyone has access to, or knowledge of the online edition, so printed copies are really the easiest, and maybe only way that our work and the information in the issue that we want out for the public to see can be seen by all parties that want to, and should, see it. It’s the best way to spread the word and messages that are inside that the issues are being thrown away for. It’s an important part of what the First Amendment is for. If anyone has any questions or story ideas that you want us to answer or write about, please send us your feedback by filling out the survey that can be found using the link address: httv://bit.lv/clarion-feedback-2020. LETTER to the EDITOR 'Vote blue no matter who/ you say? Not us Among the increasing calls for Bernie Sanders supporters and other leftists to join together with the Democratic Party to vote for Joe Biden in November, we have decided that we are not going to “vote Blue no mat ter who.’’ We supported Sanders in both primaries, and he was the one who was responsible for igniting our passion for participating in politics. That being said, we will continue to advocate for progressive policies such as Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and other policies that Sanders championed. We believe that the Democratic Party and their nominee, Joe Biden, are against these policies, and as the Party (and Biden) have continued to take money from Wall Street, Big Pharma and other ridiculously wealthy donors, they have preserved a platform which has protected the interests of the rich and powerful while undermining the needs of the working class. We also believe that both the Democratic and Republican Parties, including Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are fundamentally the same. Both party platforms, including the pol icies that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have supported, are incredibly capitalist, globalist and imperialist at their cores. Both parties, including Biden and Trump, are responsible for the unending wars in the Middle East, the children in I.C.E. camps at the United States- Mexico Border, the acceleration of human caused climate change and the disproportionate amount of extreme poverty and socioeconomic inequality in the United States. Because of what we believe to be an illusion of choice between two uber-capitalist candi dates, we have decided to vote for whomever the Green Party nominee is. The Green Party has given us an alternative in light of Bemie Sanders’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race, promoting an eco-friendly social democracy that goes above and beyond Sanders’ original platform. In reality, we know that few people will vote Green, but we strongly feel that voting for Biden just to prevent four more years of Trump in exchange for the status quo is not enough to sway us. If Joe Biden wants our votes, then he and the Democratic Party will have to undergo a radical policy shift towards the left, and we don’t see that happening anytime soon. Grace Kelley and Madison Ramsey
April 22, 2020, edition 1
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