The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/amiribanks/page/3/)
Tragedy struck on Friday, and so the world weeps. But for whom? The world certainly weeps for the 129 and counting who have fallen in Paris, as it should. Once again, hundreds of lives have been lost to terror, and so the world has responded to this global tragedy, because terror is terror is terror, and a human being is a human being, period. Yes, when extremists strike, the whole world listens and responds with fear, fury and anguish.
There is such thing as ugly science. You know, the kind that leads to media sensationalizing, fear-mongering by the ignorant and the miseducation of the masses (look up the “scientific” root of the anti-vaccine movement for one infamous example). I’m already sick of talking about ugly science, which doesn’t deserve more than a few sentences condemning the stuff to hell for its negative effect on the STEM community. Bad scientists, on the other hand, do exist. They may not be bad people, but money, political corruption or the pressure to publish often leads them to bad decisions.
When a Sun article titled “Consecutive Trespasses Reported Thursday” began to circulate on my news feed, I made the mistake of hoping for the best. Naturally, The Sun would recognize why the image of a completely unrelated black man should not have accompanied a story in which the perpetrator was clearly described as white. I had trusted that The Sun would then publish an editorial, pledging to commit to more thorough reviews of how image placement affects presentation of information. There would be an apology for this gross lapse in judgement, and The Sun might even dare to use the R-word a couple times. The editorial would not be followed by any actual changes in protocol, but The Sun would have at least saved face.
This column began as a disruption. Disruptions, those problems that can’t be solved immediately, also can’t be forgotten through passivity. I think the creators — the comedians, artists, singers, musicians, filmmakers, writers, sculptors, dancers and painters of the world — are the people who must constantly disrupt themselves or seek out disruptions. They refuse to be at ease for more than a moment, and spend most of their lives checking in on everything that occurs around them or inside of them. They take a single second in their life, wash it in contemplation or bliss or discontent, then wring it dry until their creation sputters out and become art.