When is Social Media Wrong?

Social media is now being used, not only by public officials notifying of deaths but students being reprimanded for posts.   Is this going too far?  What happened to our social conscious in the former and our first amendment rights in the latter?

Here are four different instances where parents and relatives have been notified of the death of their loved ones through Facebook.  

In the first instance, a mother, Anna Lamb-Creasey in Georgia was notified to call the police where they were using one of their undercover aliases, "Misty Hancock."  Tom Jones of WSBTV wrote, “Anna Lamb-Creasey told Channel 2's Tom Jones she had no idea that if someone who is not a "friend" sends her a message, it goes to a box called "other" in the message folder. "

Her daughter read this post in her own inbox that said to call the police.  The mother thought it was a joke but her daughter convinced her to make the call.  Much to her dismay, this was the call she had been waiting months for. Her son was dead.

In another instance, the father had custody of the son in New York State and the mother, Jackie Barden, was not notified at all and read of her son’s death on face book per Kristen Gosling, U.S. World News.  The police claimed they thought the father had notified the mother of his death. By the time she found out, it was too late to view her son’s body.

Still another incident a young Georgia college student, Jasmine Benjamin, was found dead in her dorm and "Benjamin's mother Judith Brogdon and stepfather James Jackson were notified of her death when a friend forwarded a Facebook post about the discovery" writes Jeff Truesdell of People Magazine. 

What happened to the day when the police at least tried to come to your home or leave a message on your door to call them?    There is no excuse possible for not taking into account human decency.  Have we become so desensitized and uncaring of the feelings of our fellow citizens?

And now we are even getting to the point where tweeting something about a person is punishable as shown LIDIA CURANAJ of FoxTwinCities reported,  "Erik Nielsen, a student at Curtis High School on Staten Island, was suspended after he Tweeted a photo of a teacher's car parked in a no-parking zone and wrote "I hope Mr. Pillarella gets towed."

In another instance the following happened:  Lou Raguse of WIVB4 in New York reportsm  tthatin WNY, a senior High school honor student and his friends were removed from the stands at their school's hockey game for being disruptive.

The student posted a tweet: "F*** mrs._____ #freedomofspeech like come on why did u do that!""

He was suspended for a week."

How do you feel about the actions of the officials in these instances and how would you feel if this was the new way of contacting loved ones in the future or actions being taken for social media usage?  When does the first amendment rights apply and should they in social media?  Can you see any action being taken by the courts or public officials to protect freedom of expression or speech through social media?

Feel free to contact us with your opinion on this topic at Commuter@linnbenton.edu.

“Les Miserables” Is a Revolutionary Film

By 

Nora Palmtag

 on January 10, 2013 at 7:00 am

There was no movement or noise in the theater as everyone was totally engrossed in the action on the screen. My family loved the movie , saying their audience was also did not move or make any noise during the performance. We cannot wait for the Oscars to see if it wins hands down.

I had not seen or read Les Miserables, which means “The Miserable, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims.” Regretting this action is stating the obvious. Growing up black in the South before The Civil Rights Act, I did not want to see a movie called Les Miserables since this is the way I saw my life.

However, I now see that my life was a cakewalk compared to Jean Valjean’s life, prisoner 24601, the main character of the movie, played by Hugh Jackman, who was imprisoned for five years for stealing bread to save the life of his sister’s son. However, being the independent, defiant, and proud man that he was, Jean did not conform to prison life, continually trying to escape, and served an additional fourteen years, along with beatings, humiliations, and scars.

The main nemesis is Javert, played by Russell Crowe, a fanatic and uncompromising police inspector, who is unrelenting at his job. After being paroled, Jean Valjean cannot get employment because he is an ex-convict with yellow papers, so he destroys his release papers to start a new life and so begins his odyssey.

Javert is relentless in the pursuit of prisoner 24601 and vows to never stop in his pursuit of Jean Valjean. Enthralled in this musical amazing odyssey of this proud man from the gutter to a new life, you cannot help being moved by this movie. It is magnificently portrayed and presented to the audience from beginning credit to the end.

Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, and Amanda Seyfried perform one of the most moving quartets I have ever heard. They can actually sing, I mean Russell and Hugh, of course. Anne Hathaway may walk away with an Oscar for her portrayal of Fantine, the mother of Cossette.

Casting for all the parts in the movie musical was beyond perfect, especially the children. Gavroche, a street urchin, portrayed by Daniel Huttlestone and Cossette, played by Isabelle Allen, the daughter of a young unwed factory worker, who leaves her with some abusive innkeepers do their singing and acting to perfection, at times almost bringing the audience to tears.

There was no movement or noise in the theater as everyone was totally engrossed in the action on the screen. My family loved the movie , saying their audience was also did not move or make any noise during the performance. We cannot wait for the Oscars to see if it wins hands down.

Tim Black Talks GSA

News

By 

Nora Palmtag

 on February 13, 2013 at 11:14 am

Breakdown of Bias Cases, from FBI.gov.

LBCC’s GSA, Gay-Straight Alliance Club, is open for everyone on campus. “The GSA, to my understanding, is a student-run club that brings together gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and straight students and staff to support each other and provide a safe place to socialize with a platform for activism to fight phobia towards anyone,” said Tim Black, the faculty mentor of the club.

What does he believe are the main challenges for gay, transgendered, bisexual or questioning students and the friends, family and faculty who support them? “Constant, unrelenting bigotry and persecution,” said Black.

According to Violence Prevention Works, “As many as 93 percent of teenagers hear derogatory words about sexual orientation at least once in a while, with more than half of teens surveyed hearing such words every day at school and in the community,” and over 30 percent of all teen suicides being committed by these students.

Metro Weekly, supplied with hate crime information from the FBI, reported that “20.8 percent resulted because of a person’s perceived sexual orientation.” However, even the FBI stated that these crimes are reported by local law enforcement voluntarily and the numbers of attacks are more than likely higher.

Where to Find Tim Black
Office: SSH-204
Phone: 541-917-4834
Office Hours: Mon./ Wed./ Fri.
10 a.m. – Noon

“One article I read dealt with a young man, really young, maybe seven or eight, who was so unrelentingly harassed. He took a gun and killed himself. That’s ridiculous,” said Black while describing his interest in becoming faculty mentor of the GSA. “Now, take that kid who took his own life. Maybe he was told by society, his parents, his friends, his neighbors, his teachers, his congressman, his gardener, his senator and his pastor that because of how he was born and how he feels, he is unworthy of participation in a relationship like the most important relationship he knows. Think of him hearing, ‘People like you can’t get married.
People like you don’t deserve to get married! You’re disgusting! God hates fags!’ Well, projecting that sort of hatred onto an innocent child is systemic, societal child abuse.”

“I can’t comprehend the pressures young gay people might feel, said Black. “That’s why I’m interested.”

LBCC Celebrates the Lunar New Year with a Dragon Dance

The celebration of the lunar new year on Feb. 13 on LBCC’s Albany campus offered a beautiful red and gold 8-foot-tall, 15-foot-long Chinese dragon carried by volunteers, coordinated by Adriana Villegas

Dating back to 180-230 AD of the Han Dynasty, the dragon dance, like the lion dance, is put on to show great respect towards the dragon, which is regarded as a sacred creature.  Symbolizing power, courage, righteousness and dignity, this dance welcomes the start of the lunar New Year and the end of the old year, driving away all evil spirits, bringing good luck and good fortune for the people.

This dance is done by many cultures since 180 AD.  “Basically, dragon dance to Buddha celebrating the Year of the Snake for The Lunar New Year,” stated Adriana Villegas, who coordinated the Dragon Dance here at LBCC. Stephanie Nguyen, a Vietnamese student here, said the dragon dance is done “to give health, wealth and luck for the New Year.”

Nguyen gave a talk at the DAC about the Vietnamese Lunar New Year and how “whatever you do in the beginning of the year will influence your whole year.”  Things such as lotus seeds for a houseful of children, squash for good health and development, tea given to the elderly to thank them for their children, and oriental candy for sweetness can influence the year. She brought some of her familial candy to the DAC to share and educate students about her culture.

One of the most interesting customs she mentioned is the choosing of five fruits – apple, fig, coconut, papaya, and mango – because this odd number of fruit represents well-developed symbol of living based on wealth. The seeds inside represent the stars in the sky and the fruit themselves represent the universe, which contain the stars and the whole meaning is the endless reproduction of life, according to Nguyen.

To see photos of the dragon on campus, with photos taken by Elnora Palmtag, go to:

http://www.flickr.com//photos/lbcommuter/sets/72157632808475884/show/

Nora Palmtag, LBCC Student, Shares Story of Segregation

By 

Emily Smucker

 on February 23, 2013 at 12:20 pm

Nora Palmtag, LBCC Student & News Editor for the Commuter.

Nora Palmtag dives into life with energy and zest. If you see her walking across campus, you may notice her sunny smile. But what you don’t know is that behind that smile is a woman with a truly phenomenal life story, the type you’d expect to see in a hardback memoir on display as you walk into Barnes and Noble.

Just like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and other people you’ve read about in history textbooks, Palmtag was a civil rights activist, fighting for justice in 1960’s Mississippi. Only a teenager at the time, Palmtag stood up for her rights as best she could and stirred up her community so much that the KKK wanted her dead.

Palmtag was born in 1949 in a one-room shack to a 16-year-old mother. She grew up in Clarksdale Mississippi, a place that was full of injustice.

“You couldn’t drink out of a water fountain because it said ‘white,’ and you had to walk another ten blocks to get to the next one,” says Palmtag. “You go through the whole downtown, and there’s no bathroom you could use. At the doctor’s office, you didn’t get seen until all the white patients were gone. After all the white people were gone you’d get seen, one by one, but you still couldn’t use the bathroom there.”

Schools were also segregated, and the black schools were vastly underprivileged. The textbooks at Palmtag’s high school were leftovers from the white school, with pages missing, and vulgar words scrawled across the pages.

A big reader, Palmtag eventually discovered the writings of Martin Luther King Jr., and realized that things did not have to be the way they were. “I decided to go to the white school and see, why didn’t they want us there?” says Palmtag. “What’s going on? Why were the kids allowed to write in our books all the nasty things they did, and tear out the pages before they sent them over to our school? They didn’t even know who we were.”

The kids at her new school hated her, spitting on her and calling her names. The KKK wanted her dead for daring to de-segregate the school. But Palmtag refused to be intimidated into leaving.

Once, Palmtag convinced her mother to take her to another town, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was arranging a march. Palmtag wanted nothing more than to march with the protestors. However, when she arrived, King told her that it was too dangerous, that he wouldn’t be able to protect her. According to Palmtag, King said, “I know what you’re doing. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

And so, Palmtag kept doing what she was doing and survived the abuse of high school. Ole Miss, ordered to de-segregate in order to receive federal funds, offered her a full-ride scholarship, but she refused. She wanted to get as far away as possible from the kids who had hated her in high school, and so went to college in Illinois instead.

Palmtag had been in the top 10% of her class in Mississippi. Even so, she struggled in college. Her parents didn’t support her financially, so she tried to work full time on top of being a full-time student. Eventually she was completely burned out, and decided to strike out for the West with $100 in her pocket.

Palmtag settled in Washington, getting a job with a cable company that eventually took her to Oregon. Upon retiring, Palmtag decided to go back to college, and came to LBCC.

Now, Palmtag is eager to share her story. “It’s not about me, so much as the fact that anybody…can bear anything,” says Palmtag. “If I could survive all this crap I went through, no matter how broken I was in the end, if I could survive it and make it to where I am now, you can survive anything. You can do it.”

Get ready to be inspired by Nora Palmtag. On Thursday, Feb. 21, at 1:00 pm, she will be in the Diversity Achievement Center, sharing stories of her experiences living in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. Feel free to show up and listen in on Palmtag’s life-changing story.

A Rebuttal to the Conservative Corner

Opinion

By 

Nora Palmtag

 on February 26, 2013 at 10:16 am

Thinking The Tea Party and Conservatives (Republicans) are the same is like comparing grapefruits and oranges. The Conservative or Republican Party is more about economics and conservative social mores, while The Tea Party is ultra-conservative, mostly about their so-called rights.

I don’t consider The Tea Party as racist so much as unbendable people, who do not respect or acknowledge others rights to their own opinions.

Where is there any evidence of someone saying there are no minorities in The Tea Party? There are people in all races, who have a right to their indignant, ignorant and biased opinions and I acknowledge this.

Also, please do not confuse The Black Panther Party, founded by Huey P. Newton in California in 1966, with The New Black Panther Party, chaired by Khalid Abdul Muhammad, in Texas. The original Black Panther Party was a non-violent group who wanted the same rights as other citizens, including the right to carry arms as long as they are visible and not pointed at anyone.

The New Black Panther Party, while racist and anti-Semitic, did not sanction the two individuals who went to Philadelphia but they are a small-minded group of thugs who are not reflective of the black community.

Blaming “the liberal media, poorly informed liberals, progressives and so-called ‘civil rights’ leaders who only seem to see things in a positive light if it agrees with their own mindset for the negative information,” but isn’t that what everyone has a right to do, as you are. Do we, the public, have to believe what you or they say?

No, we do not. We need to be better informed and check the information for ourselves from other sources and make our own decisions. All of these rights are protected in OUR constitution.

Comparing what Imus, a talk show host, said to what Janeane Garofalo, a comedienne, said is not in the same genre or occupation. Garofalo can say the sky is red and I would laugh but if Imus said the same statement, I would question why he said this because of his occupation. The seriousness of the two situations must be considered in the context of their positions in society.

If you do not have racist thoughts and this was demonstrated at the Academy Awards last night, then you can say so-called racist comments and be funny and not be censored by any groups. There are some situations and groups, like children, who should not be subjected to statements, like Imus did. Maybe you don’t understand the stigma behind the words he uttered but believe me they were hateful and not meant to be funny.

I, too, hope that one day we can look around and not think about the color of someone’s skin but the content of the character of the individual. So, basically, we are on the same path but from different poles.

The New Face of Music-A Changing World

(Ho hey, ho hey) by the Lumineers is an example of music that will have a musical longevity, even though they did not win the major awards from the music industry.   The Lumineers were nominated for The best new artist and best Americana Album, but did not win the Grammy.  The group is comprised of Wesley Schultz, Stelth Ulvang, Jeremiah Fraites, Neyla Pekarek, and Ben Wahamaki, the epitome of five nerds, who do not follow the usual flashy, Hollywood looks or style of singers you usually see or hear.

In the video on Youtube, the group is in this old empty apartment with lights strung along the wall and old pictures hanging down the hall in a rustic setting and yet you do not  mind the setting with the sounds of the band strumming and singing so well. 

There is a timelessness and melodic continuity in this song which appeals to real music lovers.  It does not have a genre, gender or age appeal and will be used for many valentine dates, anniversaries, and any loving moments, to be shared by people in the future.   There is no gender specific theme in this song, so it can be song from anyone to anyone.  This helps with the universality of the song, as shown in Wikipedia, where it is cited as being part of Country Music Television, Indie folk, folk rock, Americana, and found on different billboards around the world.

Photo provided by Wikipedia.

Stelth Ulvang, Jeremiah Fraites, Wesley Schultz, Neyla Pekarek, Ben Wahamaki

They are giving their audience what they want, good music sung by someone they can relate to.  The words in the song which resonate are “I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart.”  This can even be song as a lullaby and that is true versatility.

In order to continue getting those royalties and being remembered by generations to come, more artists will have to come up with lyrics and melodies, like this one unforgettable and lyrical.

This group was started by Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites on the east coast and they decided to start over by moving to Denver, where they used Craigslist to find Neyla Pekarek, their celloist. 

Using Youtube to advertise their talents, the group made another smart decision, which paid off when Onto Entertainment managers, Christen Greene and David Meinert, saw the video of this song and signed them.  Social media has been the impetus of the success of this and other groups in this internet savvy society.

After The Grammy Award loss, Wesley Schultz said, "We were nominated for two awards but didn't win. As we were walking in Elton John stopped us and said he has been listening to our album and was a fan. Our drummer said, 'There's no f--king way you are a fan!' Elton just slapped him in the face and put him straight. It was a special moment."

There was one review posted by Melanie Haupt, music review for The Austin Chronicle, said the band is "uniquely American in all the best ways: gritty, determined, soaked in sweat and love and drive. There's nothing precious or affected here, just three dedicated artists opening their hearts."

When asked to explain the song’s success, by Sean Plummer, writer for MSN entertainment,  Pekarek said, “I think it’s kind of refreshing for people to see human beings playing instruments, as opposed to everything being so digital in music and just life in general. I think it’s refreshing for people to see just somebody stand up with an acoustic guitar or whatever and play a song that somebody actually wrote.”

This song has been downloaded, not only by my family, but sitting in my geology class, the teacher was playing this song on her computer while waiting for class to begin.

Reviving this style of music, the ones that will last through time, is the way of the future, using social media to find your audience and support for your art is going to be the wave of the future.

Links are attached to key words in this blog and listen to video by clicking on Youtube in text.