Maybe I’m bias, but I love women. I also love International Women’s Day.

Illustration by Anna Heindl / Equinox Staff

“But what about International Men’s Day?” Someone faintly cries in the distance. “This is double standards at its finest!”

Breaking news: every day is International Men’s Day. In a perfect world, March 8 would just be another day because there wouldn’t be anything to celebrate. Women would have total equality, so we wouldn’t have to dedicate a day towards women’s rights and in honor of women before us.

I don’t see any malicious intent in celebrating; while there are obviously outliers of the “men are trash” variety, feminism at its core is about equality. Women are undervalued in all aspects of life, and that’s not something I’m willing to argue about. White cisgender men have never faced discrimination and prejudice in their life, the least they owe other people is a day to celebrate their own gender’s achievements.This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Press for Progress” according to their official website. People are being encouraged to fight against gender parity in any way possible, including challenging stereotypes and celebrating and creating positive visibility of women.

International Women’s Day is so much more than just receiving “special treatment” for being a woman. It celebrates past achievements while highlighting the fact that women around the world still face disparities. Internationalwomensday.com says that the day is “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.”

So much progress has been made towards gender equality, but it’s foolish to say that it’s been achieved. 42 percent of women have faced workplace discrimination, according to Pew Research. The study touched on a wide variety of issues, such as being denied promotions or being treated as though they aren’t competent.

The most significant issue faced is pay inequality: 25 percent of women surveyed say they have earned less than a man who was doing the same job; five percent of men reported earning less than a female. Our entire existences are devoted towards pleasing men; women have been told that our entire lives. We’ve been discouraged from changing our appearances because “you won’t get a boyfriend looking like that” or making decisions on our reproductive rights because not wanting children is insulting to your husband. True equality isn’t anywhere near being achieved yet, commemorating the women of the past who worked so hard for our rights while acknowledging that work still needs to be done is essential. People equate this day to something like Valentine’s Day, thinking that all we want is flowers and a pat on the head. International Women’s Day is so much more than that; we want people to realize that inequality still exists and actively work towards closing that gap.

Izzy Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com

I wonder how many people are still genuinely shocked to find out that Trump did something wrong again; how many people turn on the TV and clutch their pearl necklaces and faint when the news dares to call him out for something?

I understand that some of his appeal was originally him acting like a tough guy who’s not afraid to speak his mind and tell it like it is, but sometimes he says things that are quite questionable. And by sometimes, I mean all the time.

Take, for example, one of the tweets that was sent out after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida. After sending out the usual rounds of thoughts and prayers, Trump tweeted, “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

Those are two polar opposite trains of thought. I can’t think of anything that would drive a sane person to link a school shooting that killed seventeen people to collusion with Russia.

I don’t even know where to begin with this. There are a few things I’m positive about:

Trump is physically incapable of going five minutes without making something about himself.

Trump totally doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

Hey, speaking of gun reform, Democrats are focusing too much on Russia meddling with the election.

A few days after we were graced with such a well-thought-out message from the President, he spoke with survivors and relatives of those who died in the Parkland, Sandy Hook and Columbine shootings. He had a cute, little notecard with him with some talking points written down, like super morbid icebreakers at the world’s worst party. The fifth bullet point is really the only one that matters: “I hear you.”

Trump needed to remind himself to empathize with people who lost loved ones due to gun violence.

The media sure had fun with that one.

Those who attended the meeting suggested raising the age minimum for buying assault weapons or banning them all together, and Trump used the listening session to pitch his own ideas. He polled the group, asking for a raise of hands to see how many people agreed or disagreed with arming teachers.

“[Aaron Feis] was very brave, saved a lot of lives, I suspect,” Trump said, according to the New York Times, referring to a coach at Stoneman Douglas High School who reportedly died using his body as a shield to protect students. “But if he had a firearm, he wouldn’t have had to run, he would have shot and that would have been the end of it.”

If I asked anyone with half a working brain cell what Trump meant by that, I’m pretty sure they would say that he wants to arm teachers.

Apparently there’s some kind of subtext that the nation failed to see, because in a series of Tweets sent out on Feb. 23, Trump argued, “I never said ‘give teachers guns’ like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving ‘concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience’ – only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to…immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A ‘gun free’ school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!”

I have questions.

How would adding more guns to the gun problem fix anything? CBS reported that the armed security guard did nothing to stop Nikolas Cruz, so what would a geography teacher with a handgun and 30 scared students do against a school shooter with an AR-15? What if a student got a hold of the gun? Where would it even be kept? What kind of training would the teachers receive?

Remember, Trump is a guy who received $30 million from the NRA and needs to be reminded to be empathetic. It’s futile to think that anything will happen on a legislative level. We the people have to decide that enough is enough and we need to act on it ourselves.

Izzy Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com

In case you missed it, allow me to be the first to tell you that Larry Nassar is officially The World’s Biggest Scumbag. In one of the biggest sexual abuse scandals in sports history, Nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting over 265 women since 1992.

According to CNN, he’ll now be serving three separate charges, including 40 to 175 years for seven counts of sexual assault on minors and an additional 40 to 125 years for three more counts.

Larry Nassar will spend the rest of his pathetic life behind bars, and I can’t even begin to describe how happy that makes me.

This is obviously long-overdue, but USA Gymnastics (USAG) has sadly been accused of dismissing victims’ complaints. The USAG’s official website states that “the duty to report lies with those who have first-hand knowledge.”

Essentially, unless a statement comes directly from a victim or a victim’s parent, an allegation of sexual misconduct is dismissed.

Even when they receive complaints, USAG seems to have a tendency to brush them off for far too long – it took Marvin Sharp four years to be reported to police for molesting and sexually assaulting minors.

Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual abuse, said a culture was created which allowed predators like Nassar to commit sexual assault without fear of being caught.

“I did not know that at the same time Larry was penetrating me, USAG was systematically burying reports of sexual assault against member coaches in a file cabinet instead of reporting them…” she said in court. “I did not know that… USAG, rather than supervising Larry, was allowing him to treat these girls in their own beds without even having a medical license in Texas.”

It’s incredibly frustrating to hear all of this, and this is coming from someone who can’t even comprehend the idea of someone you trust violating you like that.

This man is so deplorable and offensive that, when he had the opportunity to write to the court, he took it as a chance to whine about how much this took a toll on him.

Mind you, he sexually abused over 250 women. I can’t even comprehend it; it’s insane to think that someone can be so rotten that he would sexually harass 250 women.

And now, after getting caught and sentenced to prison for the rest of his pathetic life, he complains, “I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that praised and came back over and over.”

Thankfully, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina had no time for his sheer nonsense. “Spending four or five days listening to them is significantly minor,” she said, “considering the hours of pleasure you had at their expense and ruining their lives.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll always stand by the fact that victims should never have to be silenced or scared of telling their story.

Keene State College encourages reporting any act of sexual misconduct to someone such as Campus Safety or the police so it can be adequately handled, and the offender could ultimately face expulsion.

Everyone should be entitled to a safe space where they feel comfortable enough to tell their story, and no one should have to feel the pain of their allegations being systematically ignored and thrown under the rug for the sake of someone’s reputation.

While Nassar is finally going to serve the prison sentence he rightfully deserves for being an awful human being, the fact it took so many years for these women’s voices to be heard is disgraceful.

I’ve heard so many people ask, “Well if this person sexually assaulted someone, why didn’t they say anything sooner? Why did they wait so many years before speaking up?”

This is a prime example of why USAG and Michigan State let 250 women down by enabling Nassar’s abuse and allowing it to happen for the sake of his own image.

It’s totally unacceptable that this went on for as long as it did (or at all, for that matter) and even though he’s being held accountable for it now, testimonies from sexual assault survivors need to be taken more seriously. It’s something that can no longer be ignored and brushed aside like it has been in this case.

Izzy Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com

As a person who enjoys doing the absolute bare minimum, imagine my delight when I found that a Keene lawmaker wants to make it as easy as humanly possible to vote. Representative William A. Pearson is the primary sponsor of House Bill 1772, which would allow people to register to vote online.

Laura Romaniello / Art Director

The Keene Sentinel reported that 37 states and the District of Columbia have implemented online registration since 2002, and Pearson said that those states see a higher voter turnout and decreased costs for elections. “For me, this is commonsense election law reform that New Hampshire probably should have done years ago,” he said.

Pearson also told The Sentinel that New Hampshire already has a pretty good track record in terms of participation, which he hopes to preserve through HB 1772. “We consistently see some of the highest voter turnout in the country, and we have a unique tradition of being really politically engaged in the state,” he said.

Similar bills have been introduced the past two years by Senator Bette Lasky of Nashua, but both were shot down in the Senate. Pearson, however, still remains optimistic that some form of online voting will be implemented soon, pointing out that the majority of voters he’s spoken with support HB 1772.

It comes at a miraculously convenient time — New Hampshire has been accused of illegally busing thousands of people here to cast their votes, and although there’s exactly no evidence of that happening, a lot of bills have been aimed at preventing this non-existent voter fraud by limiting voters’ rights. “It really is astonishing that New Hampshire manages to maintain such high voter turnout,” Pearson told the Sentinel. “I’m skeptical we’ll stay in that top bracket unless we start doing some changes that at least many of the other states have already implemented.”

I don’t think I need to stress how important it is to vote, but just in case: it’s really, really important to vote and make your voice heard, even on a smaller scale than presidential elections. Thankfully, HB 1772 makes it very easy to register.

“But I don’t want to vote,” you say. “There’s no point!”

This is where you’re wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a worse statement in my life, actually. Unless it will somehow actually kill you to register, HB 1772 would make it possible to register without getting out of bed and changing into your pair of ‘going out’ sweatpants, which I think is incredible.

It gets even better than this: once you’ve hypothetically registered online, Keene State College has shuttles to take you straight to the polls on election day. It’s like my mildest fantasies are coming true (not wildest, this is pretty awesome but let’s not get carried away).

I know that registering can be a pain: as a creature of procrastination, registering to vote gets filed under “I’ll get around to that later.” You know deep down inside that you should definitely do it, but at the same time it’s something that’s so easy to put off. HB 1772 would give you the power to register whenever it’s convenient for you, and all you need to do is put in minimal effort. It’s awesome.

Izzy Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com

Like myself, almost half of Keene State College’s students come from out-of-state. Another fact is the Republican and Democrat parties are not exactly best friends.

There is a correlation between the two, I promise. Because Donald Trump is secretly a middle school bully in a fancy suit, he has made more than a couple of outrageous claims to justify him losing the popular vote, and a few of them have been aimed at New Hampshire specifically. Last November, he bitterly claimed (through Twitter) there was “serious voter fraud” in New Hampshire. In February, he said thousands of people were bused from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to cast illegal votes. Besides making me laugh, neither claim was backed up by any actual evidence.

Luke Sweeney / Equinox Staff

In New Hampshire, a college student can vote if they have a valid out-of-state ID, but due to Trump’s recent cries that the election was rigged, New Hampshire Republicans have started cracking down on college students.

House Bill 372 states that a person can only vote in New Hampshire if they are considered a resident, which entails registering your car and getting a New Hampshire driver’s license. Between getting a new license, state fees, municipal fees and a couple of nonsensical administrative fees thrown in there for good measure, registering can cost upwards of $143, according to Slate.

That’s $143 more than I would like to spend just to be able to vote. I am almost positive a majority of fellow broke college students can back me up on that claim. Supporters said the bill is just to “correct” problematic language in the current law and to make sure people have a strong connection to the state they’re voting in. Opposers were still quick to point out that it would only suppress voting and make it more difficult for out-of-state students to cast a ballot.

The legalities of our friend HB 372 are a little murky; according to Slate, the New Hampshire Constitution allows “every inhabitant of the state of 18 years of age and upwards… an equal right to vote in any election.” Placing a burden on someone’s right to vote can only happen if it advances the state’s interest, which this certainly does not.

I am honestly impressed with the amount of effort that went into this. I like the idea of a couple of Republicans so irate over the fact that they could possibly lose an election that they had to jump through hoops to prevent a couple of frat boys from voting for Bernie in 2020. That being said, this is mostly in response to college students being held responsible for Hillary winning in New Hampshire last year, and it is childish for someone to even consider taking these measures to prevent people from voting. I cannot imagine dedicating so much time towards being so angry that I would try and take away their rights like this.

This is all over a candidate who still lost the popular vote, by the way, which I think is fantastic. Trump, being the actual president of the United States, isn’t enough for those who voted for him – it’s the fact that he lost the popular vote that is grinding their gears. This is nothing but a desperate attempt to blame anyone but the guy who would probably marry Andrew Jackson if he could.

Izzy Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com

i began to fear the feeling of being

Illustration by Christopher Mitchell / Equinox Staff

full. felt flowers sprout in my belly, but

could not figure out how to get them out.

i wanted to be covered in beautiful things,

let them bloom from my skin and turn myself

into a garden. maybe then i could see my veins

as roots and curves as tulips. my eyes would become

sunflowers and my lips strawberries, sweet and easily

consumed. i opened wide, expecting vines to

escape and grow around my limbs.

instead only a whisper emerged, for i was

too timid to roar.

it.

I’ve been staring at a blank page for about 30 minutes now, figuring out how to start writing this article because I shouldn’t have to. Ideally, we’d be living in a world where I wouldn’t have to explain why America shouldn’t celebrate the Confederacy and why removing public displays doesn’t equal erasing history and white genocide.

But here we are, 15 days after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a Confederate monument has been put on display in Crenshaw County, Alabama.

The unveiling of the “Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers” monument was attended by 500 people, including re-enactors dressed in period clothing, members of the Daughters of the Confederacy and Sons of Confederate Veterans and a few members of the right-wing militia group the Three Percenters, decked out in full-body armor and bearing guns “in case anything were to happen.”

I feel the need to emphasize that the unveiling was just 15 days after a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of people, killing one person and injuring 19 others.

I can’t even think of a comparison to make to emphasize what poor timing this decision was. David Coggins, who owns the land where the monument was unveiled, considered that and said, “This was planned several months ago…the monument was ordered last year, and it’s taken this long to get it in the ground and ready to unveil.”

Even if the fate of the universe somehow depended on the unveiling of this monument, I think he could’ve waited.

Just another 24 hours to contemplate whether this was really that good of an idea. At the very least, the thought of holding off on this should have crossed his mind at some point.

While the subject of race in America isn’t a new idea by any stretch of the imagination, recent events, such as Charlottesville, have revived conversations about white pride, historical preservation and free speech.

I’ve seen a lot of arguments lately that go along the lines of, “I’m not a Nazi myself, but aren’t they entitled to their right to free speech as well?” and sadly, those people are totally right.

Under the First Amendment, people like Chris Cantwell are perfectly able to march down the street and shout, “Blood and soil!” and, “Jews will not replace us!” and whatever anti-Semitic, racist slurs they can think of, and the government can’t do anything about it.

However, I have a quick history lesson: in Germany, under Strafgesetzbuch section 86a, the use of symbols “of unconstitutional organizations” such as the Third Reich are straight up banned unless it’s for educational purposes.

It’s also totally illegal to publicly display flags, uniforms, insignias, slogans and forms of greetings.

What’s the point I’m getting at here? Do I believe that the United States should enact similar laws to ban the usage of Confederate symbols? And that Germany has such laws in place because the country feels ashamed of their past and the United States should as well?

In short, yes.

The Confederacy stood for slavery first and foremost. You may recognize this as more or less the entire point of the Civil War.

You also may be aware of the fact that they lost that same war.

Those in support of unveiling monuments such as the one dedicated to the unknown Alabama Confederate soldiers say that it’s a way to honor those who served.

However, all it does is feed into the ignorance of those who believe that the Confederacy correlates to white pride and glorifies a horrible part of American history. It’s not something that should be commemorated and celebrated, but rather something we should use as a tool to learn from our past and ensure that it never happens again.

Isabella Manzo can be contacted at imanzo@kscequinox.com