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Street Beat Q: What are your thoughts on the budget cuts, and how are you affected by this?
Editorial-Staff-
A plan for our education system
What California should do after the cuts
A
*Editorials are written by one reporter. They are opinion pieces and are voted the topic of the issue by the majority of the Pirates’ Log staff. If you have any ques-tions, comments, or concerns, write us at [email protected].
Education will soon be re-
served for the upper class if our bud-get stays its
course...
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Pirates’ LogThe
2 VoicesVoices THURSDAY, MAR. 24, 2011WWW.PIRATESLOG.ORG
Michael Martinez, 27Film major
“I wonder if I can transfer.”
The pen is mightier than the sword
My whole life people have been telling me that if I go to college and get an education, that I can be anything or anybody I want to be. I believed them. What they didn’t tell me, however, is that I have fight for what I want; that I either have to give up, or put up the biggest fight of my life. Up until junior year of high school, I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. When I entered Journalism, I fell in love. I had finally found my niche. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. When I’m writing, it’s just me, my computer, and my imagination. It feels like there is nothing and no one else around me. I’m free and my whole world seems full of endless possibilities. It’s the greatest feeling in the world when my work is published and people read and enjoy what I have produced onto paper. I know I would be happy to do this every day for the rest of my life. I entered college ready to take on the world; ready to start the training I need to accomplish my dreams. I was full of energy and passion that I could only express through words on a paper. So why does Dr. Gaither Loew-enstein, our school President, think that it is okay to cut programs like journalism that give people like me the motivation to continue my educa-tion? Journalism is the only thing that keeps me going to my other classes. I look forward to coming to my Mass Communications, Film and Newspaper Production classes because they are what give me a reason to even wake up and go to school. But it’s not just the classes themselves. I love learning new things pertaining to reporting, writing, and producing a paper because of my professor. Laura Paull, my journalism profes-sor, has given me the outlet I need to express myself in new ways. She has inspired me to go further in my educa-tion and has believed in me when no one else has. When she teaches, she is full of life and spunk and I can tell that she has a passion for what she does. She wants to share that passion with anyone who comes into her classrooms and I look up to her. Laura has helped me to understand that I can do anything I set my mind to, just as long as I stay focused and determined. She taught me ways to fight for what I want especially when people like Dr. Loewenstein are trying to take it away. It infuriates me that Dr. Loewen-stein thinks that cutting Laura would
be a good idea. She has worked at MJC for over a decade and has inspired so many students and has led them down a path of success armed with the tools they need to reach the stars. To cut her would be like cutting an artery. I truly believe that Laura is a vital part of this college and deserves to stay. She has established a voice for this college and without
her, there is no voice. If the Mass Communications program is cut, I don’t know where I could go. I cannot afford to travel to another community college or transfer to a CSU or UC and I don’t want to do anything else besides Journalism. I am not interested in any other major. So what do I do? The fear and uncertainty of my future is the worst feeling a college student could ever experience. Since I was a little girl, I’ve had my future planned out. I would go to college, get a rewarding career, get married, and start a family. But without college, I can’t get a rewarding career and I don’t want to get married without knowing I can stand on my own two feet first. I hate asking the question, “What am I going to do?” For Dr. Loewenstein to say, “In the absence of actual talent…” in his 20 page document of the Proposed MJC Budget Reductions for 2011/12, is de-meaning and offensive. I know I have talent. It may be raw and it may not be up to the standard of someone on the New York Times, but that is what I am here for! I’m here to get that training so that I might one day be at that level of talent. I might even be able to work for the New York Times someday, but without my education, I can’t get there. Dr. Loewenstein is crushing the dreams of hundreds of students and we will not stand for it. To Dr. Loewestein, I say, be prepared for a fight. We will not sit by and let you stifle our voices and crush our dreams. You can bet that we are going to use our voices through the very program you are going to cut and we will show you that we are important and that we are not a dying breed. Armed with our pens, paper, key-boards and computers, the Pirates’ Log staff, including myself, are going to fight for our programs. We will not be silenced and we will not be “reduced to sophisticated mechanisms for deliver-ing mediocre content.”
Attack of the Pirates
By Dawn Burns
Contact Dawn Burns at [email protected]
CORRECTIONIn the article titled “Board: Let the cuts begin!” (March 11, 2011) The Log mistakenly attributed a quote to Jim Howen. It was actually IT student William Wyatt, who “proudly” said, “Give him an F and make
him do it again.” The Pirates’ Log regrets the error.
ccording to SFGate.com, Cali-fornia has raised state funding for prisons by 9% annually and
higher education by 5% since 2007. By 2012, our budget will spend more on our prison systems than colleges. Education will soon be reserved for the upper class if our budget stays its course, so as Califor-nians we must band to-gether to save our state colleges. We propose a plan that will save our higher education and our prison institutions, a final educated solution if you will. Our first step should be to dismantle the state funded college system in its entirety. All staff would be eliminated and all faculties will be temporarily removed. Campuses would be given back to the state and could be sold for higher profit, which would help funds in more essential places like building more prisons. Next, we can combine public colleges and prisons into one multi-functioning institution. Some faculties can be reinstated, and prisoners can get the rehabilitation they need as well as earn diplomas and become productive
members of society when or if they’re released. Students would no longer have to worry about housing or food, for these necessities as well as exercise and showers would be provided for them. These services could easily be paid for by funds directed towards colleges
as prison populations multiply. Many who are wor-ried about the growing problem of obesity, like Dr. Gaither Loewen-stein, will find solace in the plan, considering that being physically fit in prison is a matter of survival.Students will have an hour of exercise and can use the rest of the time focusing on their studies.
School shootings would be a thing of the past if students are constantly searched for weapons. Sure, school beatings and shankings would be com-mon, but this could teach students es-sential lessons just as important as their courses: the lessons of hard knocks. Getting students into the prisons will be the easiest part of the plan. After all, where do state legislatures expect students unable to afford college to go?
The budget cuts ‘Absence of Actual Talent Show’ 2011
Don Gonzales, 30Film major
“I am still going to pursue this.”
John Giorgio, 49Radio Lab Assistant
“I don’t have a clue what’s in store next.”
Aaron Harris, 22Radio/ Television major
“I don’t believe the figures Loewenstein proposed are true.”
Sara Bell, 19Television major
“Finish my general education, then hope to transfer.”
By Brian FedericoPhotos/ Nick Silva
Gai-Lo chews out the losers in the MJC idol competition to the displeasure of his fellow judges, J-Lo and Halo.
