It seems that the world is back to its good old Cold War shenanigans. Russia rapidly mobilizes its troops, the West and its allies scramble to ready what forces they can and Russia quickly withdraws those troops. This is precisely what happened near the Russo-Ukrainian border recently. 

Russia sent a large number of troops to their border with Ukraine, which (understandably) alarmed the international community and sent it into a diplomatic frenzy. Russia’s excuse? The Russian Defense Minister said it was a snap drill to see if their military could defend the country. Ukraine is hardly a threat to Moscow when they are in a stalemate with Russia-backed separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s goal was to send a message. Prior to 2014, Ukraine had a president who maintained warm relations with Russia. In 2014, after violent protests, the then-President Yanukovych fled to Russia. Ever since then, Ukraine has sought closer relations with the transnational European Union and NATO, the American-led military alliance of Western countries. 

Russia isn’t the only country that has been testing its Western-aligned neighbors; China is doing the same in the Pacific. In recent years, China has ignored other countries’ territorial claims by building up islands across the entirety of the South China Sea. The most recent flashpoint in this conflict occurred near the Philippines after the Philippine Coast Guard found Chinese fishing boats in their waters, allegedly with militias on board. Chinese authorities denied this allegation, saying the boats were taking shelter from a storm. Territorial water disputes are nothing new to Southeast Asia. The South China Sea serves as an abundant source of fish  and as a passageway for much of the world’s shipping. Tensions in the region ebb and flow over time as China targets one country to another, but they never completely go away. 

The South China Sea is the most likely point of tension because almost all the countries in the region have competing territorial claims with each other. Aggressive clashes between countries are not uncommon; encounters range from ships following each other to ships ramming each other. It doesn’t help that China claims the entire region based on maps from “ancient times.” With that logic, a quarter of the world would still be British territory, including parts of China. The Chinese Coast Guard has already been documented chasing fishing vessels away from areas that have traditionally been used. The ultimate goal of both China and Russia is to expand their territory so they are able to have a better international posture. Russia seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014, effectively cutting off the Ukrainian Navy from their own ships and ports. In the South China Sea, China has been creating artificial islands to build airfields and military bases on. 

What inevitably comes with these shenanigans is panic. This includes, but is not limited to, countries regularly poking each other with bombs, general hysteria and demonization of an outside group and massive spending on defense. We will get into a weird culture war about how we are losing to “them.” We already are in the beginning of dumb culture wars to be honest, just tune into Fox News on any given day. In 1956, “In God We Trust” became the official motto of the country. It replaced the unofficial motto, “E pluribus unum” to counter the “Godless Soviets.” The motto change did little, however, to change how the country faced the Soviets. During WWI, anything that was remotely German was considered unpatriotic. Sauerkraut was renamed “liberty cabbage” and German language newspapers disappeared. The demonization of their heritage ended up convincing some German-Americans to later fight for Nazi Germany. 

The difference between Russia, China and NATO-aligned countries is that leadership changes often in the West. In China and Russia, elections don’t really happen. They are able to build out their game plan over a much longer period of time than democracies because they know that they will be in power for the foreseeable future. In the West, policy goals change with every election and subsequent new administration. There really is no solution to this dilemma other than to stare at each other and saber rattle, because, realistically, no one wants war. At least, not a direct war. Both sides will most likely support proxies that would be willing to fight over ocean territory because those proxies will also have interests in the territory, whether it be natural resources or simple pride. And so, the Cold War continues as the imperialist countries involved each sponsor a rooster in the coming cockfight. The notable difference between a cockfight and a real war, however, is that lives are at stake.

Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan is ambitious, but it’s not the first time a politician has proposed a grand bill to revitalize America’s infrastructure. Infrastructure encompasses everything we use; from the electricity we use to power our homes to the roads we drive on to get to places, from the airports we use to fly to the water we drink, the list goes on and on. Biden’s infrastructure plan targets pretty much everything. 

Most of America’s infrastructure was built when there were simply less people in the country. There weren’t as many people traveling so the wear and tear wasn’t terrible. Building infrastructure has always been an investment in the future. As time went on, we didn’t invest in what was built to keep it in functioning and good shape. 

While other countries have continued to build and maintain their own infrastructure, the United States has stagnated, putting only bandaids on a problem that grows more expensive and complicated each year. For example, airports are critical to supply chains, but they are also choke points if something goes wrong. New York’s LaGuardia airport has consistently been voted the worst airport in the country, and for good reason. Not only are delays constant at LaGuardia, it looked like a prison at one point. Complaints ranged from how cramped the terminal was to leaky ceilings.

There are many places in the United States where it would be impractical to have a subway, but which would still benefit from rail service. Many rural towns depend on Amtrak as an affordable way to get around the country, as opposed to air travel, which may not serve their town. An economy ticket on Amtrak usually costs less than an economy ticket on an airline. With the proposed infrastructure plan, Amtrak has already put out a potential map to service new places across the country. 

Biden’s infrastructure plan also looks towards the future. It would fund the construction of 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles and electrify 20 percent of the country’s school buses. The heftiest portions of the plan would invest $621 billion in transportation infrastructure and $650 billion for quality of life. This would include removing lead pipes and improving the electric grid. It would also spread out the spending over several years, instead of all at the same time to avoid overheating the economy and to prolong the jobs that would be created from this infrastructure plan. 

The plan is obviously expensive at $2 trillion and it calls for corporations to have their taxes raised to 28 percent. Of course, many corporations are going to oppose the plan because they would pay more in taxes under it. President Trump proposed an infrastructure bill in March 2020 with the cost also coming out to be about $2 trillion. Realistically, the tax hike wouldn’t survive more than three or four years in Congress before being repealed, let alone the 15 years it would take to pay for the infrastructure plan. However, the corporations opposing the infrastructure bill solely because of the tax hike are only shooting themselves in the foot. Crumbling and failing infrastructure ultimately costs more for everyone. One example of this is the Chester Bridge on the Missouri-Illinois state line. The condition of the bridge is so poor, there is a weight limit of 40 tons. If the bridge were to be closed with no replacement ready, crossings would be forced to detour to St. Louis or Cape Girardeau, a four hour round trip drive for nearby communities that rely on the Chester Bridge. 

A four hour detour isn’t the only cost incurred by poor infrastructure. Potholes are some of the most obvious, and jarring, signs of poor infrastructure. Driving on pothole-filled roads will reduce the life of your car and its shock absorbers. It will also cost you more in gas money.

Some on the right have criticized the infrastructure plan as not actually fixing our infrastructure and instead being a so-called “liberal wish list” pointing to the plan’s allocations of money to replace lead pipes and build environmentally friendly technology. But if we want a healthy society, it starts with our citizen’s basic needs being kept safe. I don’t know of any country that doesn’t consider a clean water supply to be part of their society’s critical infrastructure. It’s something everyone needs, along with food and shelter. 

Others will say that the government has no business doing research or spending this money and that the private sector can innovate themselves. I will say that government contracts are what has helped America progress forward and become more efficient in our day-to-day lives. Memory foam was created for astronauts under a NASA contract and is only one of the thousands of products that we use consistently that originated from the space program’s research. Nearly all highways and airports have been built with taxpayer dollars. The internet and GPS were both invented by the Pentagon. One of our biggest drivers in innovation is the Pentagon, for better or for worse, because they are always demanding products that are better than its predecessor, and those spinoffs later land in civilian laps and are put to everyday use. The difference between the Pentagon’s contracts and the infrastructure bill is that the money we shovel towards the Pentagon is earmarked for national defense, so few will raise a fuss. Why is the upkeep, repair and innovation of our infrastructure not prioritized to the same level as national security, and instead considered wasteful spending?

That jarring alarm goes off every morning. I drag my hand around my nightstand trying to find my phone while my eyes are still closed; it’s time for another day of classes. At this point in the semester, the days have blended together and the weekends fly by. There’s no such thing as balance anymore. I roll right out of bed, still wrapped in my blanket, grab something small to eat and join the class Zoom. 

Last October, the university announced the schedule for this semester. In the announcement, administrators said that it was designed to limit travel. In that respect, the schedule has worked…sort of. We still have the Zoom links to our classes, so someone could still travel to ski while also attending their classes. That’s something that I’ve seen on my personal Instagram feed. Vacation is impractical for most students though, so they stay on campus and keep doing what they’ve been doing for the past two months; namely, slogging through their school work. 

It wouldn’t be unfair to assume that almost every student wants more than a random Thursday off. Some use the traditional week-long spring break as a time to completely forget about classes and schoolwork so they can relax. Others use it to work and earn money so they can pay their bills. Some do typical spring break things like go to Florida. Like everything else these days, our lives revolve completely around the pandemic. The university has been operating in this mode since March 2020 and they chose to skip out on spring break this year. We could’ve been sent out on break, like any normal year, and potentially have caused a massive outbreak in the dorms before spreading it to neighboring local communities. Or, we could have chosen to do what we are doing now. Obviously, we weren’t sent on break. I can’t blame the university for choosing this option because there were no good options anyways. From the beginning, it was damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Had the university sent us on break, it would have been the honor system keeping us from going to events jam packed with people. Looking at Florida, more specifically Miami Beach, that would’ve been unrealistic. 

The problem now is that the mental health of many Americans has deteriorated significantly. Our giant Thanksgiving/winter break was two months, which is unusual, but we live in unusual times. In a Twitter thread by Dr. Jen Newton, Ph.D., the doctor simply stated that students should get an actual break. In the replies, some people asserted that people with jobs don’t get breaks. Some students angrily replied to these people by saying that they are both full-time students and workers. It’s not unrealistic to say that we’re in a better spot than we were a year ago. But how should we balance safe schedules and people’s mental health? 

Students aren’t alone in feeling the crunch. Scrolling through internet forums, professors and instructors across the country are just as tired as we are. The content of their posts highlights that they have a never ending fire hose of work aimed at them that has been made worse by the pandemic. 

Not having the motivation to do any work isn’t an uncommon feeling now. It’s something that I’ve felt on some weekends. Sometimes on the weekend, I do nothing for a day and instead spend it watching shows on Disney+. Is it a good idea? Probably not. But, it does help take my mind off of school work, even if it’s only for a few hours. Taking care of ourselves is especially important at this time, given the limited break days we have and the sensation of getting blasted with information everyday. Some may bottle up their frustration or feelings because they have a sense that they don’t have it so bad compared to others. While that may be true, your experiences are no less important or valid than anyone else’s. While it certainly would’ve been nice to have had an extra break day, we’ve been given three. It’s also easier said than done to tell you to do x, y and z. You know what works best for you. 

Recently, a Yale student took their own life. His death highlights the reality of becoming overloaded with work, yet many are silent about it. I hope that this is a wake up call for universities to reexamine their approach to how work is assigned. In higher education, for some reason, there are people who take pride in how much strain that they can put on themselves and brag about how little sleep they get each night, or how much work they can do in one sitting. This is obviously unhealthy. There shouldn’t be any pride in overworking yourself to the point where you are so exhausted you fall asleep at your desk taking notes during a lecture. 

The condensed calendar puts a strain on everyone involved. There is an urgency to not fall behind, otherwise we may not learn material that is essential to the next class next semester. Even though we are a year into this awkward situation, we’ve adapted to it and it’s odd quirks— but it’s still not great. Will some online learning stick around going forward? Probably. But hopefully we’ll be back to a normal schedule soon. 

On March 16, a gunman killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent, at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. The suspect Robert Aaron Long, who is white, claimed he targeted the spas because he wanted to remove a sexual “temptation,” the authorities have said. The killings have sparked renewed outrage, fear and renewed attention to the rise in violence against Asian-American people.  

Unfortunately, the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year isn’t exactly surprising. Early on during the pandemic, when there was no official name for COVID-19, the disease was called a variety of names from the Wuhan coronavirus to the novel coronavirus. Once the WHO officially named it COVID-19, most people followed suit. One very notable exception was former president Donald Trump, who went so far as to eliminate the word “coronavirus” from his notes and replace it with “Chinese virus” before a White House briefing in March 2020. While the president tweeted a few days later that “We have to protect our Asian Americans,” he continued using racist names for COVID-19, like “kung flu,” which continued to pour fuel on the already raging fire of racial hatred. Many of his supporters continue to use the term “China virus” when referring to the coronavirus. Some even cite the 1918 flu pandemic as a reason why it should be called “China virus,” all while also ignoring the fact that the Spanish still despise the name “Spanish flu” for the same reasons Asians despise the name “China virus.” The absurdity of not connecting the dots was satirized by Ryan Higa in a YouTube video last April, which still rings true.

A sharp uptick in anti-Asian sentiment across the country followed after the arrival of COVID-19, which the FBI predicted would happen. At the beginning of 2020, when reports were first emerging from China about the virus, the first casualty of irrational fear was Asian-owned businesses, which saw revenue sharply drop at least a month before other businesses did. Sadly, this hate isn’t only confined to the business world. There have also been violent attacks in places like New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area, cities with large Asian populations. In addition to the most recent Atlanta shooting, there is a long and disturbing list of violent attacks against Asians. In New York City, a woman taking out her trash was doused with acid, a Filipino man was slashed across the face while taking the subway to work and an Asian man was stabbed in Chinatown. In San Francisco, Vicha Ratanapakdee, a Thai man, was shoved to the ground on his morning walk so violently, he was killed. In Midland, Texas, a father and two of his children were slashed in a Sam’s Club. And as horrifying as these accounts are,  they are but a few of the violent attacks that have targeted Asians all over the world since the emergence of the coronavirus.  

In the U.S., many Asian American communities have grown increasingly weary and horrified by this constant harassment and threats of violence. While attackers choose their victims because of their perceived “Chineseness,” many of the victims aren’t even Chinese. One of the most common targets of abuse are older Asians. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that there have been far more attacks than were reported because of a variety of reasons, such as the language barrier, cultural differences or simply not wanting to raise a fuss. Asians experience this discrimination on top of other forms of harassment, like being flipped off at a stoplight, that can’t be reported to the police. 

To me, none of this is a surprise. This anti-Asian violence is part of our country’s ugly history of knee jerk reactions to events no single person can control. Immigrants are always blamed for whatever social woes are prominent at the time. In the 19th century, Irish Catholics were blamed for increased violence and drunkenness, culminating in the rise of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s. In more modern times, many Americans have taken to blaming all Muslims for the events of 9/11. Asians have not been spared from this pattern of scapegoating. In 1982, Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, both of whom were auto workers. At the time, there was high anti-Asian sentiment in Detroit because Toyota was breaking into the American auto market, causing the revenues of the Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) American car manufacturers to decline. Even before this decline, the 1979 recession had also occurred a few years earlier. Americans were trying to save fuel and money where they could and Japanese cars did the job well, at least compared to American cars. Some believed that these imports were taking over the American auto industry and that people like Vincent Chin, who was an automotive worker himself, were to blame for this; after all, he was Asian and so were the auto imports. Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz were convicted of second degree murder but never faced any serious punishment besides being fined $3720, ordered to pay $780 in court fees and three years probation. Thankfully, Vincent Chin’s murder was a positive turning point for Asian American civil rights. His death was not in vain.

At the same time, when immigrants try to carve out a new life for themselves and their families, they are blamed for “taking our jobs.” In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, there was an influx of refugees from Southeast Asia who resettled across the country. Many of them faced discriminiaton, harassment and hate. In Texas, newly resettled Vietnamese shrimpers clashed with the Klan and its militia. Texan shrimpers would set their traps in increments while the Vietnamese shrimpers, who didn’t know because no one told them, set all their traps in one spot. A clash between the two parties resulted in Vietnamese shrimp boats being torched. As a result, the Klan successfully forced some of these refugees to flee to Louisiana. Eventually, the Southern Poverty Law Center stepped in to help the Vietnamese shrimpers using a combination of federal and state laws. Thankfully, these racial tensions have since eased, which has allowed for a thriving community to take root in the region. 

The vast majority of my family came here as Vietnam War refugees, though they didn’t face the same hostilities as the shrimpers did. Most of my family settled in Hawaii and still live there. I grew up with stories from my mother about how an old man one day realized at the grocery store register that she didn’t know much English. He took time out of his day to show her around the store, pointing at different items and naming them in English to help improve her vocabulary. Later, my parents moved to Houston, where I was later born and raised. My family shielded me from much of the ugliness that is racism when I was younger, and many people in the community did the same for their children. But to say that I wasn’t ever made fun of because of who I was would be a lie. 

One of my earliest memories happened in daycare when someone a few years older than I was made “ching chong” noises at me. Since I was only a toddler, I didn’t know what exactly that meant, so I went home that night and told my parents. They of course called the daycare’s principal to discuss what had happened. I don’t blame that person for making racist noises at me; they were young like me and simply reflected who their parents were, what their values were and what they taught them. I was lucky enough to grow up in a neighborhood that also had kids like me, kids of immigrants. At my elementary school, however, it was a different story. It was a majority white school with a small ESL class for each grade. Often, I was the only Asian student in my entire grade. Most of the ESL students were my friends and the ESL teachers would often ask to borrow me to share my home life. They were also kind enough to adorn their classroom door with decorations during the Lunar New Year, which none of my ESL friends celebrated at their homes. Luckily, they were always happy to partake in the little classroom celebration. 

Asian Americans have contributed to this country’s history since the 1800s. Unfortunately, as is the case with so many people of color in America, their history has been brushed aside, whitewashed and minimized. Some families have been here for five or six generations but are still seen as foreigners. What does an American even look like? Their ancestors may have helped build the transcontinental railroad or served in the all Japanese American 442nd Infantry Regiment, but they are still seen as foreign. Instead of being celebrated, Asian Americans are routinely attacked and belittled for a virus outside of their control. 

St. Louis doesn’t have a massive Asian American population compared to places like New York City or California, but it’s not insignificant either. Wherever there is an Asian family, there is a grandparent with them who loves to go on morning walks or who exercises at the park. They  often partake in these activities alone. Most people don’t pay much attention to them on walks because they are old and don’t bother anyone. Besides, what harm is an old person going to cause? Now, we are faced with the unique situation of watching over them and asking about their well being as they go about their daily routines because they could be hurt or even killed for minding their own business. It should go without saying, but the elderly are people too. They ought to be protected, cherished and loved. Instead, they have become the victims of vile and vicious violence. We can be better than this. Will you choose to stand up for the targeted and marginalized, or will you stand by and watch as your fellow human beings are attacked simply because of the way they look? Pick wisely. History has its eyes on you.

Many around the world will celebrate the Lunar New Year, as they always do. There are numerous names to the Lunar New Year in different countries, but they all revolve around the same calendar, or the moon in this case. Like many other New Year celebrations, it is a symbol of bidding goodbye to the old year’s bad luck and misfortunes and starting fresh with good luck and happiness. These celebrations are often accompanied by large reunion parties with friends, family and sometimes strangers who just happened to be invited. For many Asian American communities, it is one of many events that still connects them to the homeland. 

Leading up to the New Year is always a tedious but exciting process. From frantically buying groceries and decorations, cooking for days for a big reunion dinner, thoroughly cleaning the house to sweep away the bad luck to make way for good luck, it is all a giddy adrenaline inducing event. It is a happy, frustrating and satisfying process at the same time. People use the Lunar New Year as an opportunity to reconnect with distant family and family friends who haven’t been seen in years. Gift giving happens with the elders giving red envelopes to the children. It is also common for some families to pile into cars after the big dinner and go to a temple, often a Buddhist temple, to light the first incense of the year and pray for good luck from the gods and goddesses, all while it’s accompanied by firecrackers and lion dances at the gate. Doing this means being packed like sardines in what would be an otherwise empty temple, choking on incense fumes and not moving for what seems to be an eternity. It’s part of what makes the Lunar New Year experience so unique. It is Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s rolled into one giant holiday. It’s a time where everyone will come back home and help clean the house from the top to the bottom. 

Adding to the hectic nature of preparing for the New Year, is digging through endless stacks of red envelopes and finding a pack with the perfect meaning and symbolism, going to banks exchanging old bills for fresh ones and speeding from flower shop to flower shop to find the perfect bunch before someone else does. It’s a race against time every year, and there is bound to be a toddler being dragged through the store, slowing down the family by asking if they can get that tart candy that they like. Trying to remember certain things to avoid is a bit like playing a game of telephone with your grandma. You’ll try and do your best to do something a certain way, but it’s almost inevitable that someone will come along and fix something you didn’t know you did wrong. 

But this year is different. There will be no big reunions with bouncing music for many families, few red envelopes exchanging hands and no being packed like sardines in smoke-filled temples. While the bright red decorations will still be up in many places like stores, restaurants, homes and streets, they are all missing one common denominator. A crowd of people joyfully greeting each other. In place of gatherings will be tiny Zoom calls and family asking for tech help from their kids. There won’t be the rowdiness of talking over each other over the table, deafening laughter or the entertainment of aunts and uncles fighting to pay the bill. It will all have to be done in an orderly fashion so everyone can get a word in without being cut out by accident. Looking back, this year’s celebrations will be bittersweet for many. There will be families mourning the loss of a loved one from the pandemic while trying to ring in the Lunar New Year with hopes of luck and fortune. 

The vestiges of happy celebrations are all there, but the possibility of becoming sick and passing it on to the matriarchs and patriarchs is too great for many families. Stories, memories and years of wisdom would be lost. Instead, celebrations will be limited to a single household with everyone hoping that the next year will bring enough good luck so that we can all have loud chaotic dinners again. 

On Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists did what the Confederacy never could: They stormed Capitol Hill, waved a Confederate flag in the halls of Congress, and cut down the American flag, attempting to fly another in its place. These acts were shocking for most Americans to see, but not surprising for anyone who has been paying attention to American politics for the past five years. All of this happened because of a man who has never been presented with the true colors of reality. An entitled, narcissistic man who has never heard the word “no” until now, tried to overthrow American democracy itself. 

He and his enablers have spewed lies to their supporters for four years, and they gobbled it up like it was nothing. These same enablers battled for the president’s attention just so that they could get the clout that comes with a presidential retweet. With each passing day since the Nov. 3 election, those lies became increasingly deranged and divorced from reality. 

On Jan. 6, many of those enablers all came together in a bizarre “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse, a park near the White House. Rudy Giuliani exclaimed “Let’s have trial by combat!” to the crowd, which cheered. Some, obviously, took Giuliani’s exhortations literally and ultimately stormed the Capitol. The question now is whether they will face consequences for inciting a riot. The DOJ has said that they won’t. 

There is plenty of blame to go around for the insurrection and the spectacular security failures of the Capitol Police, but fault primarily lands at the feet of the President. Instead of choosing to leave graciously, like all of his predecessors, he will be known as the president who, via his supporters, tried to destroy the government for his own personal gain. There is no doubt in my mind that the President watched the chaos with glee while lawmakers and those in the line of succession were quickly whisked away to secret locations with seconds to spare as the House floor was barricaded.  Some rioters made it onto the Senate floor. Several were pictured with zip ties, suggesting that they were ready and willing to take hostages, or worse. They were not the only ones that came prepared for potential violence. Two pipe bombs were placed at the RNC and the DNC headquarters. Frankly, it’s a miracle that members of Congress weren’t killed. 

Many in the crowd wanted the Vice President killed for his perceived “betrayal” of  Trump, when it was really just his job to count the electoral votes, and a ceremonial job at that. While I am no fan of the Vice President, I would very much prefer if he were not dead. When the President tells these people, who exclusively listen to him, that the election was stolen (which it was not), people will start to believe it. His insistence that the election was fraudulent directly caused the failed coup of Jan. 6, 2021.

It now appears that many in the administration are resigning after suddenly regaining their spines and consciences. Where have they been for the past four years? Especially after the riots in Charlottesville or the El Paso shooting, where white supremacists were hell-bent on killing anyone that was perceived as BIPOC, allies of BIPOC, or whoever they see as Antifa on any given day. Most notably, Secretaries Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos cite the President’s actions on January 6 as the reason they are resigning, breaking from the “tradition” of lavishing praise onto the President in resignation letters. Why did it take an insurrection for them to have morals? They could have resigned when the President first implemented his child separation policy at the border. They are profiles in cowardice. Instead of staying on to discuss invoking the 25th Amendment and upholding their oaths, they are jumping ship. 

There will inevitably be people that will exclaim, “But what about the protests over the summer?” and excuse storming the Capitol by trying to pin blame on anonymous Antifa bogeymen that do not exist, which has already happened. The difference between the protests that took place this past summer and what happened at the Capitol is that protests over the summer advocated for police reform, while the Capitol storming was done for a man attempting to attack and overturn our democracy by telling lies about how he won the election to somehow negate the fact he lost the popular and Electoral college vote. It’s also difficult to understand the Antifa explanation when a West Virginia GOP state delegate, who has since resigned, has been arrested for participating in the coup attempt. Is there an Antifa chapter within the West Virginia GOP that nobody knows about? The President that seemingly never stops touting his love and appreciation for the police is also silent on the death of US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher and later collapsed in his division office. The contrast couldn’t be more different with the flag at the Capitol lowered to half staff, with the flag at the White House defiantly remaining at full staff for three days. 

Now that practically every social media service has deplatformed the President, the House impeaching the President again, the Vice President ruling out invoking the 25th Amendment, and Mitch McConnell not bringing back the Senate until Jan. 19, the President is more dangerous than ever; he has absolutely nothing to lose. Ironically, the person deemed too dangerous to have a megaphone on the internet still has the nuclear launch codes. The President and his enablers, most notably Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, have drawn international outrage, and rightfully so. The President must be convicted by the Senate and the members who voted to overturn the election expelled from Congress. The blood of five people is on their hands. 

Dear Pollster McPollsterface, 

You need to change. You’ve cheated the country three times now. In 2012, 2016, and now, 2020. We love you when you help us understand changes in public opinion, but you need to do better during elections. I think you need to change how you reach out to people. Maybe don’t call them. People will think you’re one of those scammers asking you to wire them $1000 and then they’ll receive $10,000 back. At least have a caller ID so people won’t just ignore your phone calls. It might be best if you physically go somewhere and ask people at their doors, but even then it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get answers to the questions you ask. But without your beautiful numbers, how else would we know which districts are competitive?

You’ve done us well in the past before. We know what you can do, but it’s just hard that we’ve come so far for you to do this to us. It hurts, you know? There’s no easy way out of this problem. 

When we first met, you were the best thing in the world, helping us decipher the aggregate  opinions of entire communities. But now? You’re like an Instagram horoscope page from 2015 but fancier and more expensive. You said that Democrats would control the House. Technically, they will, but they actually LOST seats in the election. You misled us. Though the pandemic most likely played a role in everyone’s campaign efforts, it’s heartbreaking to see how wrong you really were. 

It was our mistake for us to rely so heavily on you. You even had the Republicans freaking out! You did get one thing right though. People hated the president and subsequently voted him out, but only the president. How can people trust you going forward? We could stand on a street corner and ask people as I mentioned earlier, but that’s only a small segment of the population that you’re sampling. Imagine if we could take quality polls on the internet without having to worry about how truthful people are. 

Looking at your numbers used to be so soothing. I could almost always expect the results to be within the margin of error. Now it’s almost like throwing a dice and hoping you get the number you bet on. While the numbers often do end up within the margin of error, it’s usually in districts that are safe for either party. I want to keep using your numbers in the future, but the formulas seem a bit broken. I know that you can at least try to fix yourself because you changed after the 2012 and 2016 elections, but how will you change in 2024? Will it be for the better?

In my mind, you will always be just a little off, but you still need to do a little soul-searching for next time. It’s going to be harder to do it right now because people are so distrusting of you. Next election cycle, people will look at you and say, “the pollsters have been wrong the past three times, why should we trust them now?” It’s not necessarily a bad thing that everyone will be fighting harder to win the hearts and minds of people, but no one will know where to allocate resources if they don’t trust you like they used to. It’s time for a revolution in the polling industry.

Right now, you’re in the horse world of polling because no one picks up the phone anymore. We need to bring you to the present in the electric car world. Imagine how amazing it would be to know the tendencies of a district and how they vote and actually see it turn out that way. There’s much work to be done in the future if we want to be accurate. It will probably have to be a combination of calling people and knocking on their doors for the most accurate read. 

I can’t wait for what the future holds for you and your beautiful spreadsheets. I hope that they’re accurate, but even if they’re not in the end, I know you did your best to help everyone make informed decisions.

On Sept. 26, 2020, America watched the President host a Rose Garden ceremony to officially announce the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States. Normally, the only thing that would be unique or usual about this sort of event would be the nominee. Instead, it was the event itself that raised eyebrows, or in this case, very loud alarm bells. With the exception of a few people and military aides, the majority of the crowd was unmasked. At the time, it was a “calm before the storm” moment. This event will most likely become notorious for illustrating this administration’s, as well as the entire Republican Party’s, cavalier attitude toward the pandemic.

Watching the video of the ceremony, you’d think that we were having a normal year with no highly contagious virus ravaging the world. That illusion all came crashing down about a week later, days after the first presidential debate, when White House advisor Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19. The President and the First Lady tested positive the next day. As with everything else in this White House, reports with little to no transparency from White House physicians about the President’s condition were given at first. However, the President’s condition progressively worsened throughout the day of Oct. 2, and ultimately ended as he was flown to Walter Reed Medical Center. At the beginning of the day, the President was supposedly doing fine. The biggest indicator that the President wasn’t fine? He stopped tweeting for the whole day. He didn’t show up for a scheduled phone conference with governors, having the Vice President fill in instead. For a President who consistently and constantly announces major policy decisions via Twitter, oftentimes blindsiding career civil servants in the process, it was an eerie silence that settled on Washington that day. 

To be honest, when I first saw the notification that the President and First Lady tested positive, my friends and I asked if it was real. All of us had been so used to the President’s lies, our first instinct was to question whether the reports were true. It was the ultimate form of hubris, especially when remembering all the events of the year. I wondered if Trump would have an epiphany like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his experience with COVID-19 and ultimately take the pandemic more seriously. However, in hindsight, maybe it was naive of me to assume that the President would realize this disease was much worse than he thought and change his administration’s attitude. Instead of a change in attitude, the President and his staff only dug their heels in further. The President has always wanted to convey a message of personal strength, fearing what people would think of him if he appeared weak. We found out the lengths he was willing to go to appear strong when he went on a car ride to wave to supporters outside of Walter Reed. On top of the bizarre nature of the situation, the SUV that the President used is essentially a giant box of recycled air, as it’s designed to protect against bioweapons. Not only did he take an entirely unnecessary break from quarantine for political reasons, but the President also willingly risked the lives of the Secret Service agents in the car with him for no good reason. While Secret Service agents signed up to take a bullet for the President, they never signed up to take a bullet from the President. 

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that the President got infected at the Rose Garden ceremony that was held to announce the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The ignorance and arrogance of President Trump’s administration caused an outbreak among White House staffers that resulted in more confirmed infections than within the entire nation of Taiwan, a nation of 24 million people. In dealing with this pandemic, not only does the President shift blame away from his disastrous “leadership,” but the people he surrounds himself with routinely attack our stellar public health institutions and career scientists for something as simple as recommending wearing a mask. Comparatively, countries like Taiwan have had a consistent and effective response to the pandemic since the beginning. At the beginning of the year, the then-Taiwanese Vice President, Chen Chien-Jen, led their COVID-19 response. Chen Chien-Jen is an epidemiologist who was also the Health Minister during the 2003 SARS epidemic. He has been praised for his response during both the SARS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic and recently returned to private life. Health officials even went out of their way to wear pink masks to encourage young boys to wear them, because young boys viewed them as girly. Never once did Taiwanese officials politicize the emerging disease. In our country, the President has downplayed and continues to downplay the pandemic. At one point early on, he said that the coronavirus would disappear by Easter. 

Even after his hospitalization and subsequent release, the President said, with no evidence, that he was immune and that people shouldn’t allow this virus to dominate our lives. What his most recent tweets don’t mention, however, is that he received what is arguably the best bespoke medicine in the world; after all, he is President of the United States. His actions and total disregard for the well-being of others are a slap in the face to anyone who has been affected by the coronavirus. The medicine that helped him recover may be impossible for an average person to receive. If an average working person were to be hospitalized, they would leave with whopping medical bills, and that’s assuming they’re insured. The President? We pay for his healthcare with our tax dollars because he and his administration officials refuse to put on a $0.50 mask.