School shootings in the United States are an epidemic. Unless we pluck this disease out by its roots, band-aiding it will just tear it open.

There have been 27 school shootings so far in 2022. These tragedies seem common, and yet we are always surprised to hear of yet another mass shooting. I pray we don’t get desensitized to human lives being reduced to nothing by gun violence.

It’s imperative that we take action to avoid future violence, but some proposed solutions are more productive than others. Metal detectors can’t — and don’t — prevent school shootings. Instead, they have a negative impact on students and staff. Imagine going to school where the norm is passing through metal detector doors, with armed officers and cameras at every corner. I would not be able to learn anything at all from fear and anxiety — common feelings among students from such schools. This fear could then lead to more violence because militarized learning environments can make school feel like a prison.

There are no studies that suggest metal detector doors actually work. Regardless, they are more prevalent in urban schools with greater populations of students of color.

A case from here in Minnesota demonstrates the ineffectiveness of these doors. In 2005, a student at Red Lake High School managed to shoot and kill the security guard operating his school’s metal detector. He was then able to walk directly through the metal detector with three weapons and kill seven people.

These upgrades and security equipment are not only counterproductive but expensive. We need to set our priorities straight.

Instead of resorting to such costly and ineffective techniques, we should study the psychology of these shooters and learn the tell-tale signs of future shooters in order to provide help and intervention for students.

Our students need help and counseling. They need to feel like they have a second family at school that takes care of them and cares about their well-being. If we treat them like prisoners, we will have students running around with semi-automatics looking to settle a score.

Maybe the students that commit these acts feel ignored, mistreated and hated, and that becomes a reason enough for them to arm up and take innocent lives.

We need to invest in our schools and build a stronger support system where all students — regardless of their home situations — can get the help they need.

Our youth need more attention from us, but we have forgotten them behind closed doors and alone with their devices.

I grew up in Ethiopia, surrounded by people who looked like me, spoke the same language as me and valued the same things. I always followed the same routine: waking up, going to Islamic school and then to a private English program, then hanging out with friends and talking about our religion and culture.

Those were beautiful days. We became closer to our culture and religion as we advanced our education. Of course, not every experience was delightful — especially those one goes through when coming of age — but life was wonderful regardless.

That all changed when my family arrived in the U.S. I was mature enough not to get influenced by all that was new to me, and I am grateful for that.

But what about our younger siblings and children who grow up in an entirely different cultural environment? Do we let them figure their way out of this confusion on their own? Or do we hold hands with them and guide them, cultivating our values in them?

My younger siblings came here at a young age, and some cultural differences between Ethiopia and the U.S. shocked them. Some of the aspects of American culture that surprised them included mosques segregated by ethnic group, a lack of religious education and gun culture.

The segregation of mosques by community came as a shock to me too. At some mosques, nearly all of the attendees are from one ethnic group. I don’t understand – aren’t we all praying to the same God? Why are our places of worship segregated by community type? Why do an Oromo mosque and a Somali mosque have to be separate? It doesn’t make sense to me.

The lack of emphasis on religious education at mosques and Islamic schools saddened my siblings. The less you pay attention to your fundamentals, the easier it is to forget your culture and be influenced by popular culture.

Gun violence and the loss of lives almost every other day from it is something no one will ever get used to. My family barely saw guns back home but now, my siblings thought, people’s lives don’t seem to matter much when they can easily be ended by gunshots.

The way we raise our children now is flawed. We don’t teach them to be unapologetically who they are and hold onto their values even if they don’t align with mainstream culture. We don’t plant the seed of love for their religion and culture in them. We send them to school – as we should — but leave them to come back home and retire to their bedrooms, doors closed.

We are afraid to check in on them. We don’t have time for them. We leave them alone with their devices, to stew in boredom and confusion. We should follow our beliefs and faith unapologetically and teach our children to not compromise their beliefs for the benefit of others.

But what can we do when the elders in my community can’t even communicate with the generation that was brought here at a very young age? The language and communication barrier makes the responsibility of guiding our youth fall on our shoulders.

I feel for our youth. They are the champions of our generation, as they try very hard not to compromise the values they were brought up in and believe in. We need to have conversations with our youth and answer all their questions with patience and love. The more we meet them with anger and blame, the further they will feel lost and scared.

Editor’s note: This article discusses domestic abuse. If you or anyone you know has experienced abuse or assault, the Aurora Center’s 24-hour helpline can be reached at (612) 626-9111.

Johnny Depp won a civil suit against his ex-wife Amber Heard on June 1 after a jury unanimously decided that Heard defamed him in a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post.

The quotes that Depp’s legal team alleged were defamatory during the televised trial in Virginia were as follows: “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change,” she wrote. “Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she continued. “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”

After 13 hours of deliberation, the jury found her liable and awarded Depp a little over $10 million in damages. Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages for countersuing Depp’s former lawyer, Adam Waldman, who called her allegations of abuse a “hoax.”

Heard’s op-ed doesn’t mention Depp by name, though Depp sued her alleging she was referring to him. Evidence for and against both sides was monumental and each denied allegations of abusing the other. As evidence of both abusing the other came to light, it became less certain to me who was going to win the case.

Shockingly, it seemed that Heard was tried not only in the court of law but also in the court of public opinion.

Some social media users painted Heard as an abusive liar while the trial was still in progress. But who should we believe to be telling the truth when both deny that they had abused the other? No one knew what the verdict would be until it was announced, yet the court of public opinion reached its decision long before the jury.

The stories of abuse presented by Heard were backed by audio and photographic evidence. We saw pictures of Depp passed in a haze of drugs and alcohol and, Heard said, sometimes after abusing her. We also saw pictures of their bruised faces each, allegedly, caused by the other. They claimed they would be physical with each other and then apologize later. Heard said her anger had taken over. Depp blamed drugs and alcohol for his outbursts. Their relationship was so toxic that I felt bad for both of them.

The verdict caught me off guard because, before their trial in the U.S., Depp had sued a United Kingdom-based tabloid, claiming they had libeled him by calling him a “wife-beater.” Heard was able to provide evidence to support the claim the news executive made. Depp lost this suit in 2020 after the tabloid presented sufficient evidence to demonstrate Depp had, in fact, been violent against Heard.

I got the feeling Heard was trying to patch up an already doomed relationship even after, as she alleged, he hit her for the first time and he had an explosive outburst on an airplane. She probably thought there was something to be salvaged, like any wife in love with her husband would. It seemed like life was hell for both of them.

As for why the public was scrutinizing Heard, I think she did not fit the public image of what a victim should look like. Was she supposed to show up bruised and wearing rags? There isn’t any one way to “look like a victim.” I think people forgot this happened years ago. I just hope the right person got the justice they deserved. Everyone deserves justice, and both men and women can be victims of domestic abuse.

The best advice someone gave me about my twenties is to be patient with myself. I cannot stress enough how crucial that statement is. We are in a world of increased stimulants and social pressure. A world in which we have to prove our worth somehow. Pleasing others is a vague and difficult task, but we tend to seek the approval of others in most things we do – whether that be grades, a sparkling career plan, or our hobbies

I am tired of living for others just to get a ‘head-nod’ from someone telling me I did a good job. I feel stuck. I keep thinking about what I should do to make someone else happy. I am attached to those around me. It feels like everything I do almost always somehow has to involve someone else.

This attachment comes with a cost: life is fleeting, yet my progress in life is stagnant. I think it is time I do what works for me within the confines of my faith and values.

I realized that people will always have opinions on what I do, for better or for worse. I decided to work toward my goals without paying attention to what other people think. I do take advice when given and analyze when criticized, but the opinions of others no longer hold water. Since then, my viewpoint in life has shifted for the better: I have read more books than I ever have before. I have also spent more time in self-reflection. Living for myself has allowed me to have more control over my time, especially now that it’s not tied to the approval of others.

Living to better myself also opened my eyes to how important it is for twenty-year-olds to establish consistent routines. When my life wasn’t governed by others, it became governed by me. What next?

Once college graduates head off to their post-college lives, we transition into a different life with different demands. Canvas and course deadlines are no longer a priority. We have to set new deadlines for ourselves.

It is easy to get lost in the mundane 9-to-5 days of work and look forward to weekends just to binge-watch Netflix and restart the same routine the next week.

If we don’t start putting value into what we do and start thinking about things we want to accomplish in life, life can feel less fulfilling. Time only moves forward – no one can simply turn back the clock and redo every single mistake.

My advice for college graduates? Start writing down what you want out of life now that you have graduated. What are your short-term and long-term goals? What do you want to accomplish in the coming five years? What vehicles do you have to get you there? Maintaining our mental and physical health should be at the top of our priority.

It is normal to explore life in our twenties. What better way to learn the ways of life than through trial and error? Don’t be afraid to take risks and get out of your comfort zone.

Above all else, however, it is important to have a routine – something you can look forward to every day. Make a habit of daily activities that fulfill you.

I searched online to see what advice I would get about the twenties and almost every website has numbered habits graduates should start implementing into their lives. The lists go on and on, but what they don’t take into consideration is that every individual’s post-college journey is different. Start slow and find a routine you like. Keep track of what works and what you need to change. Don’t reprimand yourself when you make a mistake. It is a learning opportunity. Try again and do better next time.

Take one step at a time and remember: the most important thing is to have consistency in the small acts we do every day. We then build on that as we become more disciplined.

Remember, this is our time to shine and leave a footprint in history. It is now that we have the best of everything including health and free time. Once this time passes and old age sets in, our bodies and brains won’t be able to handle as much so let’s start slow and build up that impenetrable character, discipline, and consistency in all we do.

I was recently on the Metro green line headed to St. Paul, and what I saw and smelt was beyond disappointing. Metro Transit is a means of transportationthat is utilized by Minnesotans –young and old. The train has made transportation in the Twin Cities much easier for its riders.

But at what cost?

Years ago, before the pandemic, the only complaint I had was the foul smell at the train stations, especially in the downtown area. The inside of the train was bearable and okay to ride, for however long, at the time. Now, however, the odor inside the train is very much unbearable.

The longer the trip, the worse the smell gets. There is trash on the floor. The seats have dried stains on them that at times reek. And if you want to stand for the duration of the trip, it becomes inevitable to hold onto the bars and who knows if the next COVID-19 variant lives on those handles.

I used to love taking buses and trains as it gave me a moment of peace.

There was no need to use my cellphone. The creative side in me came out during those trips. I always carried a book and a pen with me to jot down words of poetry. What used to be my piece of mind turned into a dreadful trip I would rather avoid. I have to breathe through my mouth in hopes not to smell the foul stench assaulting my nose and of all the passengers from every angle. It is as if there is no proper ventilation installed.

The trains are not sanitary. According to the metro council website the trains get sanitized and cleaned during downtimes and sometimes between trips. As a rider, I can say that it doesn’t always feel like that.

In early 2020, the Metropolitan council held a press conference to announce efforts to improve the safety on Twin Cities buses, and I agree that this is also a major concern, but so does public health. We are the public the city is serving yet not doing an adequate job to fulfill its duty.

There is a focus and safety on Metro Transit trains and buses. As much as I appreciate taking our safety seriously, it is equally important to take our health very seriously as well.

People of different ages, backgrounds and medical conditions ride both buses and trains. The unhygenic environment in the stations and from inside the trains and buses can negatively impact the health of riders. The longer the exposure, the more complicated one’s health can get. And this exposure is inevitable as many of us use this mode of transportation on a daily basis to take care of our necessities.

I urge our city to take the health of riders seriously and work to keep trains and buses clean.

It has been a year since I heard of the scholastic ghostwriting industry, and it continues to surprise me

Students can pay as little as $5 and as much as $30 or more per page to foreign freelancers, mostly living in Kenya, to write their academic papers, according to a BBC article from 2019. Some students even pay for others to take their online courses. Scholastic ghostwriting is a booming industry that has no regard for schools’ academic integrity. I mean, why should they when this business is probably a great way to make easy money? After all, there is a demand for such cheating services, and there are people and industries ready to capitalize on this.

College or graduate students hire freelance writers located anywhere in the world to work for them on their academic papers. Students can be selective about which country the people they hire should or should not be from so that they get the best out of this service.

These ghostwriters are legitimate and even use websites like gradebees.com to generate clients. Academic ghostwriting is a booming business in Kenya where the industry is valued at $1 billion globally according to BBC news.

However, the writers won’t necessarily disclose their location in case the knowledge of it would deter clients overseas from doing business with them. Instead, they make multiple accounts for themselves and thus bring in more clients. At least for the freelancers, this is a job for them and they are making money by providing services for their clients.

There are a multitude of reasons why students indulge in this form of academic dishonesty. Personally, I think they are all excuses that can be dealt with in ways that don’t involve hiring ghostwriters. Regardless, they have the money to hire someone to do their school work and lack the brain to do it themselves. This could be because they are just lazy or they faked their way through school to get a diploma or degree at the end of the road.

Does this qualify as cheating? I certainly believe it should. But do they get caught? Not as long as the person they hired did not plagiarize the work. Apps like Turnitin, which check for copied work, can’t detect cheating if the work was written by the ghostwriter. After all, these papers can be well-written, and cited properly.

But I still can’t wrap my head around the fact this practice even exists. How can someone bring themselves to avoid learning from their classes and pay someone else to write their master’s thesis or even their Ph.D. dissertation? I just can’t fathom this.

What is the point of going to school and paying tuition if you are just going to hire somebody else to do the work for you? It is a double loss on the student’s part. They are paying the school tuition to supposedly get the education and they are not learning anything in the process. And even worse, they are wasting money on work they could have done themselves

Maybe students engage in this because they struggle with writingessays or simply don’t want to. It is actually disheartening and an insult to education. Only the privileged can indulge themselves in such practice while thousands around the world don’t have access to education.

The student’s need is met and the writer gets paid so it may seem like a win-win for both. But it is actually more damaging and very insulting to the sacred knowledge we seek and it is an exploitation of privileges some have more than others. Education is undoubtedly a priviledge.

Life seems to follow a programmed routine at college — we are used to the known and what we are comfortable and familiar with. Our years of college life occasionally seem endless and dreadful in between midterms and finals. And while we do occasionally change our living arrangements, college is ultimately a familiar territory we live in for years.

College life is a daunting and exciting transition from high school. The change ends up becoming manageable as we adjust to the responsibilities that seem to pile up overnight. We tackle and manage rent, utilities, and tuition costs, which also include learning to live on our own and away from families. It is an incredible opportunity to learn independence and grow as a person, but that growth eventually slows down until we finally find our comfort zone. Suddenly, even a single change could threaten its foundations.

That changes the day after graduation. Some of us have jobs and internships lined up. Others continue with the jobs they had on the side during school. For many of us, our reality raises the question: now what?

I found myself evaluating my goals after I graduated from the University of Minnesota in December. While I was still in college, I had a destination to reach: my bachelor’s degree. Now that I have accomplished that, setting a new milestone became necessary. But taking that first step to decide on what next felt out of reach.

So, I thought, this must be what they call post-graduate blues.

I see this as taking a step back in order to plan for how many steps to take forward. The little time spent wondering what to do next is just part of life because whenever a new situation comes, we learn to adapt.

After a few months of post-grad life, I have realized that life actually starts after graduation — not before. In the sense that, we were entering early adulthood in college, but now comes the adulting part.

Our present reality changes according to the demands of life. I think it is normal to feel lost after college. For the first time, I realize that I have full control of my life now. This is new territory.

It is common to lose balance on what life should be like. Life in high school and college was about deadlines made by professors and internship applications. Now, I get to make my own deadlines. It just takes time to adjust once more.

During school, I made my life so much about school and assignments that I find the post-grad silence to be unbearable. Moving forward with plans I made before I graduated gets delayed to a non-existent present “tomorrow,” while I snuggle further into my mattress.

I think post-grads sometimes get stuck because we are still living in the past: the known. College is all we think about, and as long as our minds live in the past, the body becomes useless to act on its own. So, one way to start breaking away from this confusion is by taking one step at a time.

Start by developing a hobby. Make it consistent and try to enjoy the process.

To those of you who are still in college: don’t forget to build a life outside of academics and school — a life that you can fall back on when the familiarity of impending canvas assignments are in the rear view mirror. You are more than a grade and a student. You are a worthy human. Don’t forget to live and learn practical surviving skills like finance and whatever else that will make your life easier going forward. If you want to take a break after graduation, then by all means indulge yourself. You deserve it.

I don’t have the brain capacity to understand people who love winter. It baffles me how we get through every winter season, sane and alive. There is no winter that passes by without me tripping and falling on ice. The pain from the fall pierces through my skin to my bones. I shiver remembering it now.

I used to complain about the chilly air in the morning where I grew up, a tropical climate; compared to the Minnesota winter and below-30-degree weather, it humbles me. But not to a point where I convince myself that I should learn to adapt, because the truth is, I will never get used to the cold. I really hate winter and the cold, and everything that lurks in the dark with it.

I questioned myself time and again why our parents decided to bring us to Minnesota out of any other state where it doesn’t snow. Those states too have other disasters, but I would choose that over the cold. Turns out, my question was a concern of many other Africans from the earth’s equatorial. I was riding in an Uber early this month when my East African driver started to lament about the cold and asked me the same question: “Why did our parents bring us to Minnesota, to this cursed weather?”

I could only laugh because I knew the pain he was feeling. It is just impossible to ever get used to this. We are not polar bears who have a thick layer of blubber and two layers of fur to survive in the cold at a minus-50 degree temperature. We can’t roll around on the ice and not get frostbite. Heck, the thought of laying on snow to make a snow angel sounds mad to me.

I think this is a generational dilemma, especially in the immigrant community from countries where it doesn’t snow. Their children who are born here love the winter and the older people dread shoveling snow from their driveways to shoveling out your car and having to move it so it doesn’t get towed. I shake my head at children who put on their snow wear from head to toe and run around in the backyard trying to catch falling snow. The adult in me then sits on a rolling chair, rolled up in a blanket with a steaming cup of tea as I look out the window at the children playing as I contemplate leaving this godforsaken cold land.

The cold winter hurts physically and emotionally. How do you recover from that? But we seem to be surviving. Winter-lovers say, “Have something to look forward to” so that you can bear to live in it. There is really nothing to look forward to unless the desire to want to keep sleeping counts as one. Maybe layering up and getting “cozy” is what people look forward to. Another piece of advice I got is to “stop being cold.” I honestly don’t even get what this means. If there is an off and on button for feeling a certain way due to the temperature, please share.

What is there to like about not being able to feel your face at all? How about not being able to feel and use your fingers because you think they are about to fall off? Or how about the times your fingers become so red and swollen from all the blood rushing to them, to seeing your fingers turn blue as if the soul is leaving it any second? How about the time you didn’t have change for a bus and had to walk multiple blocks to the point where you couldn’t feel your toes, and had no choice but to go inside the first store you come across just to warm up and continue the miserable journey again?

No, no thank you. You will never be able to convince me to enjoy being in despair and constant pain. It is not happening at all. No wonder why the squirrels in our backyards just disappear in the winter. They are in a deep sleep and I would love to have that if my body could withstand it. I can’t even bring myself to have a love-hate relationship with winter. Maybe someday. Maybe.

COVID-19 has graced us with its unfortunate presence since late 2019. We are going into our third year of the pandemic having lived through one of the worst times in history. Those of us still standing and resilient, taking every precaution needed and getting vaccinated, are hopeful that this suffering will end.

The threat COVID-19 posed was undermined by the Trump administration in the early days of the pandemic and from then on, the condition started going from bad to worse. In 2020 alone, there were 352,000 deaths accounted for. Even worse, 2021 surpassed the number of fatalities recording 353,000 deaths, according to data from John Hopkins University. Vaccines became rapidly available for the majority of people in 2021 and yet, we have fallen short of containing the virus as a country.

However, the vaccine rollout most likely prevented an even worse crisis. But then, how can you completely defeat an invisible enemy? This virus is like a malevolent ghost. When we think we are finally getting to a point of containment, it mutates and multiplies rapidly. Three variations of coronavirus since COVID-19 are accounted for: the variants alpha, delta, and omicron.

Unfortunately, this is the new normal and we can no longer put a timeline on the virus nor wish it to just disappear. Even if a magic wand had the ability to rid us of the virus, it would be futile. The new normal we so desperately wish for is the one we are in now, overwhelmed by the omicron variant with its higher transmissibility rate than SARS-Cov-2, or COVID-19.

Feeling helpless in these years is the new normal. Losing jobs and students being sent home from schools is the new normal. Hosting Zoom parties and restaurants requiring proof of vaccination or negative test results is the new normal. Constant email notifications regarding COVID-19 cases at our job sites and having to report to work anyway is the new normal.

Overusing the word ‘normal’ doesn’t make this world crisis feel any more normal. There is really nothing normal about losing those close to us to a virus and losing countless lives worldwide just in the past two years. There is nothing normal about the virus mutating and spreading like a wildfire.

But, despite all these hardships, we have to stay sane and we do that by using less harsh words in talking about the inevitable bad news of the virus and all that comes with it. If there is anything I learned from history, no single period in history lasts forever and a day will come when COVID-19 becomes part of the past, but will never be forgotten.

Life gets easier when we let go of what we can’t control and this virus is an example of that. It is time to live our days as they come, taking all the precautions necessary to live beyond the years of COVID-19 and experience what normal was like once again.

The topic of abortion is a very sensitive one, and I will do my best to treat it as such. But don’t confuse this with me shying away from saying what I believe is morally right and wrong. Before I educated myself on abortion, I believed that it was wrong to have an abortion, regardless of necessity. My opinion has changed and I became tolerant of abortion, but only when it is necessary.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States on Jan. 22, 1973. The ruling included protection against violating women’s privacy, which meant women had the right to their reproductive choices. It also stated there would be minimal to no state interference with pregnancy, and if there were to be interference, it would be to prohibit abortion after viability; that is, after the pregnancy reaches 24 weeks gestational age, unless it is being done in order to save the woman’s health or life. I am keen on what causes the state to get involved, and I believe it is to protect potential life if the pregnancy is being terminated for reasons other than health complications. I agree with abortion if life is at stake, but not when it is done because of inconvenience.

I want to repeat that I don’t oppose abortion when it is necessary. I looked into the reasons why women typically want to abort and the results were, in my opinion, disappointing. A majority of women cited reasons such as unpreparedness, educational interruption and not being ready to have a baby as reasons why they chose to have an abortion. A little baby who has the right to live gets terminated because this baby happens to be an inconvenience. What happened to fighting for humanity and preserving human lives?

Perhaps a single mom can’t afford to raise a child alone. The fact of the matter is, we live in the United States, where we have resources such as institutions and centers set up to help women and their children. There are places where women can bring their children, such as the Center for Women and Families, the Center for Women and Children, the Lotus House Safe Haven program, Genesis Women’s Shelter and Support and more.

Women shouldn’t have abortions unless it is medically necessary. I feel like abortion has become a moral dilemma in our society today and in order to prevent falling into this dilemma, please protect yourselves to the best of your ability and reach out for help. We don’t always have our lives together, but when we make a human life worthless by deeming it a disruption to our occupations and education, then what should we make of ourselves?