Opinion – Page 10

3Apr

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion

The pandemic is rising, racism is too

By ANA FIERROS It seems as if talk around COVID-19 has spread faster than the disease itself. The panic and hysteria has set in. Stores are filled with people stocking up on food and other supplies including the ever sold-out face masks. Musicians are canceling stops on their tours and countries are suspending international travel. Some have even restricted travel outside one's city. The disease, which began its rapid spread in China, has brought with it an influx of people who have found an excuse to be xenophobic toward East Asians all over the world. This disregards the fact that many East Asians living outside of China may not have ever stepped foot in China (much less recently) or may not even be Chinese. Widespread ignorance and wrong information...

2Apr

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

News, Opinion

Control the Spread and the Panic

Keesler personnel fill the Commissary at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, March 2020. Photo courtesy Kemberly Groue by Kevin Hartung Worldwide, officials are scrambling to control the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) but maybe controlling the panic is equally important President Donald Trump, who had contact with coronavirus subjects, was tested and received negative results. To date, at least 30 countries have been banned from U.S. travel. The economic fallout from the panic was instantaneous, with the stock market hitting another all-time low on March 14. Experts predict economic fallout from the coronavirus scare will be long-lasting. According to a March 17 article on the FiveThirtyEight website, five states have postponed their presidential primaries due to the coronavirus. Sta...

2Apr

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion, Uncategorized

Instructor's take: Casey at the Bat

By JERRY GILL Many years ago, when I was teaching at a college in Florida, I was asked by the graduating seniors to be their commencement speaker. It was when the Vietnam war was grinding down, President Richard Nixon was being impeached, and the civil rights movement was in full swing. Difficult times indeed. I chose to interpret the famous poem “Casey at the Bat” by E. L. Thayer as a description of the failure of the United States to fulfill its promise to lead the world toward peace and justice. As the poem’s opening line has it: “The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day,” the outlook for our country was indeed not brilliant. Although the minor theme of the speech was the failure of the United States to deal effectively with its own problems, as well as those of the ...

Algiers soundtrack the apocalypse on “There is No Year”

11Mar

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

Algiers soundtrack the apocalypse on “There is No Year”

By KYLE KERSEY “There is No Year” begins where “The Underside of Power” left off: Franklin James Fisher powerfully performing poetry atop a flurry of synthesizer and drum machine. “We’re reaching out in order to get shot down / while the world around us just implodes,” he remarks, a theme that will be explored for the remainder of the record. But before we get into all that, some context is in order for who these guys are and why you should care. One of the most politically charged bands of the last decade, Algiers’ first two albums blended Motown soul and hardcore punk with overtly political themes of revolution and social discontent with the status quo. It’s music for those who create playlists consisting of Marvin Gaye, TL Barrett, Death Grips, Rage Against the Machine, The Stooges’ “R...

‘Swimming’ through Mac Miller’s final album

27Feb

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

‘Swimming’ through Mac Miller’s final album

Photo Courtesy of Kmeron via Flickr Mac Miller performs at Dour Festival in Dour, Belgium, in 2014 By ANA FIERROS Released in August 2018, the late Mac Miller’s “Swimming” shed light on a version of the artist we had no idea existed. The potential for a world of music unbound to his previous works unraveled onto us like a Christmas gift. Here, we caught a glimpse of the ravishing mind of Miller. Within a month, the future that we looked forward to disappeared when he accidentally overdosed in September 2018. Now, a little over a year later, we get “Circles,” a posthumous album, counterpart to “Swimming.” It is a culmination of a journey we craved to see. This is not what was expected of Miller, but then again, neither was “Swimming.” Miller would’ve done just fine chart-wise if he...

Letter from the Editor: Put your mind and your grind to it

27Feb

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Put your mind and your grind to it

By ELLIANA KOPUT In 2017, an Instagram motivational speaker by the name of Amber Wagner, or “justlbby,” posted a video. The dialogue has haunted my reality ever since. “You!” Wagner smacks her lips. “You are the motherfucking shit! You are great! You are magnificent! You can do whatever you wanna do in this world!” This video surfaced in my life during a time of lucid self-doubt, a feeling each of us knows all too well. From all-nighters spent completing previously procrastinated homework assignments, to wading through the murky waters of minimum-wage service jobs, today’s young people are often overlooked as true warriors. As many Gen Z-ers can agree, social media has become a tool for emotional coping, and its archives will one day be analyzed sociologically. Today’s memes an...

18Feb

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

2020 Oscars: hostless with the mostest

photo courtesy of wikipedia By DALTON GRIJALVA The Oscars have been, to say the least, a lackluster popularity contest in the inner circles of celebrity ties. Most of the time, the awards are full of pretentious pictures that most will never watch that don’t connect with many actual movie-goers. The 2020 Oscars ceremony was actually a quite pleasant experience: “A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.” For example, Eminem came out of nowhere halfway through the ceremony to perform “Lose Yourself,” a performance that was 18 years overdue. The crowd’s reactions started with confusion, but eventually some celebrities, such as Zazie Beats, appeared to be into it. Though “Joker” was the most nominated film of the evening, “Parasite” was the scene-stealer of the night, winning four out of ...

Letter from the Editor- You don’t know Jackson

12Dec

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion

Letter from the Editor- You don’t know Jackson

By JOE GIDDENS To steal a line from Bill Hicks: “We always kill the good guys and let the demons run amok. Gandhi: murdered Jesus: murdered Andrew Jackson… wounded.” Turns out that perhaps the only thing our seventh president enjoyed more than ethnic cleansing of indigenous people was violence against individuals who wronged him. Over his too long of a life, he engaged in possibly over 100 duels. On May 30, 1806, the future president squared off against a fellow plantation and horse enthusiastm, Charles Dickinson, in Logan, Kentucky. Gambling wagers and insulting of wives led to Jackson taking a bullet to the chest and a lifetime of chronic pain from the wound. Jackson, with his hand over the wound, returned fire, killing Dickinson. Dickinson’s life ended with a kill-death ratio of...

Letter from the Editor: An Open Letter to Notch

21Nov

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion

Letter from the Editor: An Open Letter to Notch

By JOE GIDDENS An open letter to “Notch” Dear Markus “Notch” Persson, Congratulations are first in order for the singular achievement that is “Minecraft.” Few video games can match its critical and commercial impact. Over 176 million copies have been sold as it nears its 10th anniversary. In the video game industry, the advancement of technology grinds most games that have been out close to a decade into obsolete dust. However, the fact that people globally are still enjoying your creation is a testament to it. Minecraft is an endless variety of worlds to explore and create in a near boundless space that is even larger than our own planet. It’s against that background that your own present existence looks all the more cruelly ironic. It feels out of a Charles Dickens’ novel that ...

Letter from the Editor: The Legend of “Camaro Joe”

6Nov

By Pima Post Editorial TeamNo Comments

Opinion

Letter from the Editor: The Legend of “Camaro Joe”

By JOE GIDDENS “Camaro Joe.” Essentially, it would be a live-action “Magic School Bus,” with a smaller cast and an identical copy of my first car, a blue-green ’91 Chevy Camaro RS. Every episode would begin with me asking the precocious diverse cast of child actors, “Hey kids! What do we want to learn today?” That would be followed by spending the next half-hour going out into the world in the Camaro to experience first hand whatever the kids said. That’s my daydream elevator pitch for a PBS children’s show. After all, “Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced.” It is an idea shared by both the poet John Keats and naturalist Freeman Tilden. But I’ve heard Alton Brown describe it better as the “Monkey Touch Monolith Moment” in reference to “2001: A Space Odyssey.” “Cama...