Jennifer Falcon - Prop 8

Hello all you Spectators out there!

It was an exciting week for news at our own campus with many things going on with Prop 8. It amazes me how something so tiny can cause such a huge uproar on a college that is so diverse and is full of so much hope and potential. Its sad to let this issue divide not only our school but our faulty as well. With there cent hateful words that some faculty is saying to one another on the email system is disheartening to say the least. To see our school divided makes me as a student feel very angry.

By staff and faculty fighting over Prop. 8 it saddens me to see some people who are apart of Chabot singling out any group of Chabot students and staff. No one questions a straight person after they ruin their marriage and cheat on their spouse. Its still legal for them to remarry, they are not made uncomfortable at their place of work or school. You would never see a campus wide email talking about a faculty member who got a divorce.

We are offending people who are merely trying to be comfortable in their own skin, the truth is when it comes to Prop. 8 the school should realize that they cannot have a healthy debate on this issue without offending their own students or colleges. I respect the schools stand against Prop. 8 and I think it’s a great thing for the college to encourage and support diversity. Why deny anyone rights based on any reason. We are taking a step backwards at the school if we allow anyone related with the school to say things such as “If you don’t like I hear there are other job openings at in other countries, perhaps you should move there?” or “oh so civil union just isn’t enough for ya huh?” How hurtful is that to say to someone who just wants to fit in and be like everyone else.

I felt I didn’t belong anywhere, and to see someone have to feel this way at their place of education or job makes me feel so bad. Homosexual students and faculty are being unfairly discriminated and it creates a negative vibe on campus for any student.

I wish the said faculty could go back and re-read some of their statements and realize just how hurtful and sickening they really are. I think NO ONE has the right to say the quotes above and should be reprimanded just as any student would be. We should not tolerate any kind of slander or hate at Chabot.

Jennifer Falcon - Welcome to the Spectators Blog

I am the head news/ managing editor here at the Chabot College paper. While this is my first year at Chabot, I have written for the Tracy Press and the Tri City Voice. Actually I still currently moonlight as a local politics writer for the Voice.

I am an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Indian Tribe. A first-born suburban Indian, my mother grew up on the reservation in Poplar, Mont.

When my mother was a teenager they picked up and moved to Denver, Colo. where I would later be born in the middle of one of Denver’s worse snowstorms. My dad would point out right now that it was then he knew I would be stubborn.

I tackled the job of news editor because I am addicted to news, watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are the highlights of my day. I can’t get enough of news, be it PBS or CNN, The Huffington Post or just Yahoo!’s top headlines.

Some crave coffee, I crave my campaign trails.

And with the elections coming just around the corner I simply cannot get enough. This is THE most exciting presidential race we have yet to encounter. History, and no matter who wins, the White House will be changed forever.

I think my love for all things political was passed down from my grandmother and mother who have fought to ensure equality on the Indian reservations and in America.

In 1974 my grandmother and her friend traveled to the Washington and stormed the capital building fighting for Indian hiring preference when its came to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA.) They believed that since reservations were sovereign nations the BIA should be ran by Indians to aid their self-government.

It was there that she met Ted Kennedy, in the midst of eating lunch, they told him what was going on. Kennedy stopped eating his lunch and walked them across the Capital Rotunda, through the tourists that were there that day, many screaming out at the senator as they made their way behind the velvet rope.

Ted walked her and her friend into a room where they met Ethel Kennedy, Roberts Kennedy’s wife and founder of the Robert Kennedy foundation.

Because she made this trip to fight for the rights of Indians to be involved in their own governments the Kennedys took them under their wing and provided everything they needed through the Robert Kennedy Foundation.

Because of she took the time to stand up for something she believes in she was able to enrich many Indian peoples’ lives.

Resulting in Freeman v. Morton, a law that enabled the reservations, which are a sovereign country, to run the BIA and give Indians a preferred part in their own self-governing. Today the BIA is 95% Indian ran and self-governed.

That is what is so inspiring to me; we can be that change. It’s really not that far of a reach to impact the world if you feel your beliefs are really that important. You may seem like just one person but if you try you can make a huge splash!

So make it your business to know what is going on with your government, be a part of history yourself and go out there and vote. Be active in shaping your country, the country you are going to pass on to your children. Research your candidates and make your vote wisely. After all you can’t complain if you didn’t speak up when you had the chance!

So welcome to my blog, and expect many other juicy family stories and updates on what’s going on in the news.