REST IN PEACE GURU

"One of the meanest and the cleanest
And still I'm kind of feindish when I'm at this
Been doin this for eons peons best to catch this
vision of excellence precise rappin ability"

MARCH 4TH RALLY

March 4th Rally! Students discuss what happen and what’s happening now!

How was the rally? What is the atmosphere on CCNY's campus after the rally? Don't let the fight for public education stop was the word on CCNY's campus before and after the March 4th rally!

It was a beautiful day for a march; the sun was setting as student activists crossed the avenues of Manhattan with signs that read "NO BUDGET CUTS TO CUNY". In the middle of the March as students approached FIT students were stopped by a barricade that separated them from the front of march. Students could not hear the speeches and were cut off so that cars could go down 29th street and the rally could be suppresses or made to look less impactful. Student activist begged the police to let them over the barricade. The idea to jump over the gates and blocks was in the air but fear of being arrested discouraged students. One protestor encouraged everyone to go back and forth around the rally, soon after the police conceded and opened the gates. As the sun began to set, students were not allowed to enter FIT to fight for the student metro cards and cuts to transit. Cheers, such as, "Let Us In!" was heard throughout the streets. Students found them blocked again, this time trapped in front of FIT behind the barricades. Students began to push the gates and the police pushed back. The pushing continued until finally, again, they let us out but there was no way into FIT buildings. After the confusion the march ended. On the Wednesday after the march there was a post March 4^th general activism meeting in the Hoffman Lounge. All student activists were invited to discuss what should be doing the next coming months and how students can support each other.

After the March 4 rally students, faculty and administrators from CCNY took a trip to Albany on March 9 to lobby for CUNY and SUNY. From City College, Davey Czyzyk from SER (Students for Educational Rights), Shannon Ayala from SEJ (Students for Environmental Justice and WE ACT @ CCNY (West Harlem Environmental Justice @ CCNY) and Lisa Lui from USG (Undergraduate Student Government) were students that went as well as Stanley Fritz, NYPIRG project coordinator.

On March 10^th students from SER, ISO, SFJ, CAN, CARE, Convent Collective and NYPIRG as well as "independent parties" came together to discuss connecting, the education movement. The Undergraduate Student Government is making great efforts to engage students in the discussion of a proposal to raise the student activity fee. The momentum is continuing on campus as students continue to raise their voices in the fight for education.

Oronde Tennant




Students at CUNY heeded the call, in the face of tuition increases and continued large-scale budget cuts to our university, and organized with others around the city to stop the devastation of public education. With attempts to close 19 schools in New York City and to eliminate free student Metro Cards alongside the budget cuts, the problem is grave indeed.
Gov. David Paterson has proposed cuts of $104 million from CUNY, decreases in funding for the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), elimination of grants like the Vallone Scholarship, and tuition hikes of several hundred dollars. All of this comes on top of cuts of $160 million in the last two years, and a tuition increase of $600 last spring. He has also proposed the Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act, which would allow CUNY’s Board of Trustees, composed of numerous wealthy business people, to increase tuition rates as they please, without state authorization. These austerity measures were made particularly offensive in light of the fact that CUNY’s president Mathew Goldstein is receiving a $40,000 dollar raise, bringing his annual salary to $580,000, in addition to a 14% pay increase in November 2008.
In New York City, a citywide coalition of students from CUNY colleges as well as private universities such as NYU and the New School, teachers from the Grassroots Education Movement, MTA transit workers, and university staff took shape around the fight to stop the budget cuts. In addition to stopping budget slashes, the coalition demands that CUNY education be upgraded and made available to all high school graduates through reinstatement of open admissions policies. Furthermore, they demand the elimination of tuition fees, that resources for schools be increased not cut, and that school closings, teacher firings and pay cuts halt.
At City College, there was a steady simmer of activity leading up to March 4. As soon as the semester got going, an ad-hoc coalition of student groups, activist organizations, and students frustrated by the growing financial pressure on them began meeting weekly in the Morales-Shakur Center to plan out the campus activities on March 4th.
On March 4th, the group Students for Educational Rights (SER) held a musical event in the NAC rotunda to grab the attention of the student body for the downtown rallies. Other activist groups such as the International Socialist Organization tabled in the rotunda, and distributed flyers for a post-March 4th town hall meeting to keep momentum going. Many students stopped, curious to know what all the agitation was about. Some were not aware of the serious attacks to their education coming down the pike. Yet, after talking to activists about the cuts to CUNY, chanting with SER folks on the bullhorn, and writing their demands for education on a huge banner in the rotunda, about thirty students showed up to head downtown to the rallies. The group of protesters shouted “Who’s school?! Our school!” from campus to the train station. On the train, students solicited riders for support in their campaign to keep education accessible to all. They appealed to them to join the protest before gathering with the countless other New Yorkers around the city to defend our education.
It’s important to note that the actions at City College were good steps in opening up the budget cuts fight to a broader layer of the student body, though the turnout on March 4th, overall, was small. The weekly City College coalition meetings as well as the town hall and the Day of Action sharpened their political awareness, got students involved in organizing other students and communication and strategizing for unified action.
To keep up momentum and develop the movement at City College, we may look to the successes of student actions in California. UC students and staff are fighting back against a proposed 32% tuition increase for UC students and large-scale layoffs of university employees. In an economy as deeply troubled as America’s, there’s little likelihood that many of UC’s poor and working-class students will be able to stay in school if the already heavy tuition fees of $7,788 are raised to the proposed $10,280 next year.
At UC Santa Cruz, a student strike on March 4th shut down the campus for the entire day, energizing students on a mass level to take further action to defend their education. They did this with a small core of people who actively organized for months beforehand. Aside from successful militant actions last semester, this semester they created large study groups called “How to Win A strike,” discussing successful workers strike tactics from history. Strike Committee meetings were advertised publically, and began drawing new students long before March 4th. The organizers created a strike pledge campaign that committed countless students to join the strikers’ picket lines. They reached out in solidarity to student organizations and anti-racist groups on campus, and made connections to university unions on campus, without whom, they claim, the strike would not have been possible.
These are tactics that any and all student activists and organizers should look to emulate as the struggle heats up at CUNY. We have the power to get our education back, and that power must be organized.

Written by Sam Kimball

BANNED BOOKS

Compiled by Agnieszka Rybak

One, who assumes that times when certain books were prohibited from reading are long over, is mistaken.

In the year 1650 the first book was banned in America, things do not differ that much in the literature world aside from the fact that books became available in electronic form. But what books are banned or censored one may and should ask. Banned books are controversial books that are challenged by government, religious organizations and individuals.

In the past, these books were burned and, even, possessing them was seen as an act of betrayal or heresy, which was punished with death, torture, or prison time in some cases.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), in 2006, there were 546 attempts to ban books from the shelves. The attempts were formally written complaints filed in libraries or schools requesting the removal from shelves of certain books because of their claimed inappropriateness. The ALA also reported that so far books were usually challenged or banned based on political, religious, sexual, or social grounds.

The American Library Association reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2008 that out of 513 challenges the 10 most challenged titles were:

• And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to any age group

• His Dark Materials a trilogy, by Philip Pullman

Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

• TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

• Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence

• Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya

Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group

• Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

• Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen

Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group

• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

• Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper

Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Although some titles we find today in libraries or in books stores are not considered controversial to you now, that might change soon. Without our intervention they might disappear from shelves forever because as soon as books are banned or challenged, they are not printed anymore and “magically” removed from shelves.

Therefore, the ALA every year, through its Banned Books Week event, encourages people, both young and adult to grab the banned books and get involved with the issue by staying inform, organizing a Banned Book event or spread the word about affairs. More ideas on how to get involved can be found on www.ala.org.

BLACK PANTHER SUITE

HIP HOP OCCULT: AND WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON?

Written by Nathaniel Thomas

Since its creation, Hip Hop has introduced and incorporated many new trends, from shell-toed Adidas to iced out medallions. These have been represented by one of Hip Hop's elements, the rap genre. Over time, we have seen Hip Hop culture morph and shift into many “altered ego” states from the era of Black consciousness (i.e. Public Enemy) to its cinematic and underground Mafioso persona. As we've entered a new decade, Hip Hop has taken on a new persona, which is the mystery of the “occult”.

Hip Hop, at least for the last several months, has been heavily using occult symbolism as a form of stylistic creativity. We are bombarded with these symbols via music videos and fashion statements. Particular symbols consist of “the eye and pyramid,” secret hand gestures, the goat’s head (better known in the occult as the “baphomet”), and one symbol that is being heavily used—the skull and crossbones.

We see these occult symbols displayed on clothing items such as belts, hats, tee-shirts, and jackets. Also, these symbols have been a part of a brewing controversy because of their implementation, and the implications of their meaning, in recently released videos by Hip Hop artists such as Lil’ Wayne, Jim Jones, and especially Jay Z. In this article, I will briefly explain these occult symbols and then let you decide what’s really going on in Hip Hop.

When many people see or hear the word “occult”, they immediately associate it with the word “evil.” In order to understand the occult, we must understand its meaning. The world “occult,” by standard definition, means “hidden from view” or “secret.” So, for example, if someone is hiding secrets from you, he or she can be said to have “occult knowledge”.

To start by looking back in history, during the twelfth century, there was a cabal that originally consisted of nine men who were known as the Knights Templar. This “secret society” became extremely wealthy due to their protection services used by Kings and Popes. They would hold bizarre rituals to initiate new members into their organization, which consisted of blood sacrifices, sodomy, and one that even promised reviving a comrade who died during battle. To perform this ritual, the Templar believed that they only needed a person's skull and two bones crossed in order to resurrect him from the dead.

Many of the Knights Templar went underground to avoid being captured, beheaded, or burned at the stake. While in hiding, many of them decided to travel the seas to make their living. They become mercenaries of the sea, calling themselves “pirates.” Their mission was to raid other ships to ensure their wealth. These pirates became the most feared at sea because of their brutal force. They used intimidation and fear by incorporating the skull and two crossbones as their logo on a flag, raising it high enough for opposing ships to see.

To this day, there are organizations that claim to be descendents of the Knights Templar, such as the “Freemasons” and the infamous Yale University fraternity group which, by no coincidence, is named “Skull and Bones.” Skull and Bones is a secret society referred to by some as the American version of the “Illuminati”. It is rumored that they simulate the same bizarre rituals for new initiates.

The skull and bones symbol was first adopted by heavy metal/rock bands. It became controversial when its exposure by the Hip Hop culture was seen in part as some sign of allegiance, but to whom remains a secret. So, is it a mere coincidence that in Jay Z’s video “On To the Next One,” there’s a person dressed in an all-white costume holding swords representing a Knight Templar? Can Hip Hop be sending a message and alerting us that the “secret” is finally out? Or can this just be another endeavor to add to Hip Hop’s creativity?

Another occult symbol displayed in Hip Hop is the “all-seeing eye” and pyramid. These symbols have also been used to also show allegiance to some sort of “movement” going on in Hip Hop. For years we thought that Jay Z’s Rocafella records hand gesture was the symbol of a diamond shape. It turns out to be a representation of a pyramid with the person using the left eye to look through it. The “all-seeing eye” can also be found on the back of the one dollar bill and on such corporate logos as AOL Time Warner and Columbia Broadcasting Station.

In ancient Egyptian mythologies, the eye is present in the stories of Isis, Osiris, Set and Horus (also known as Ra). It was also used in such secret societies as the Freemasons, the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and the infamous Illuminati.

If we go back to the lyrics of Mobb Deep's Prodigy on L.L. Cool J’s hit “I Shot Ya,” what was Prodigy talking about when he said “secret societies trying to keep an eye on me,” and what “eye” was he referring too? Also, why do so many rap artists implement the Rocafella hand gesture even if they are not affiliated with the label? Even those who are not affiliated with Hip Hop throw up this gesture, such as Bill Gates and Madonna.

Aleister Crowley, the most famous occultist, has a well-known quote—“Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”—that was printed on the sweat hoody Jay Z was wore on the set of his “Run this Town” video and at Yankee Stadium. Crowley's work also adopted the all-seeing eye and pyramid symbols, as well as the hand gesture depicting a goat's head, know as the “baphomet”. We have seen the baphomet gesture used by such Hip Hop artists as Kanye West, Beyonce, Rhianna, Jim Jones, and again, Jay Z.

So what do all these symbols mean? What are they trying to tell us? Or better yet, what are we not supposed to know? It’s easy for us to say that it’s no secret because these symbols are displayed now almost everywhere in Hip Hop. The secret is not the symbols themselves but it’s the meanings behind these symbols that are the most important. Surprisingly, it may not be intended for us to know. Like Jay Z said, “It’s a secret society; all we ask is trust…”

FLASHBACK

Because we strive to connect past lessons with today's struggles, we are thrilled to announce a new feature in our publications --the FLASHBACK! For each issue, we will reprint articles and photographs from the The Tech News and The Paper archives which are housed in our own Cohen Library. We encourage our readers to respond to these blasts from the past, build on their legacies, and spread the word about our college's amazing political history.

INNOCENCE LOST

Written by Sarah Al Motairi
Photograph by Beverly T. Meneses

The time is 3:30 pm and school is out. As I walk the streets of my neighborhood, Kingsbridge Heights, I am taken over by sadness and disappointment. Sadness directed at our youth and disappointment directed at our adults. Ten minutes into my walk I witnessed a teenage boy smoking a joint behind a U Haul van, a teenage boy shoving a teenage girl forcefully (even though playfully) in the chest, a girl rapping vulgarly about her vagina and a boys penis, a young boy (must have been 10 or 11) trying to touch a young girls behind, the word M%&$#^ F%&#$%^ is heard by almost every child and a young teenage girl in Starbucks is bawling her eyes out to her friend about her boyfriend pressuring her into sex.

As a teenager I was a rowdy young thing, somewhat of a bully and most definitely a rebel. However, I possessed a teen’s innocence, the innocence of a child. Other than trying to curse every now and then or trying to meet with a boy I was interested from time to time (which I hardly got away with because my parents were hawks in nature), my mind was focused on fun activities like sports, girlfriend hangouts, writing and school.

Now as an adult, I look into the eyes of our youth and see pain, sadness, unnecessary responsibility and emptiness. I see hyper sexualized boys and sexually objectified girls. I see babies with babies. I see boys lashing out in anger towards one another. I see girls disrespecting their minds and bodies. I see boys disrespecting girls and girls disrespecting boys. I see emptiness. I see aimlessness. I see hopelessness. I see shamelessness. I see adults trapped in youngins’ bodies wishing they could escape; yet, still believing they are grown enough to pave the way to success. And, some don’t care to be successful or even know what that means beyond a catchy song.

I see mothers smiling proudly at an ill mannered young child whose voice is unpleasant and rude to others around. I see fathers neglecting their parental roles totally avoiding being a father or physically present but not mentally there. I witness parents being friends to their children rather than disciplinarians. Today’s youth is lost but not to their own fault. How is a child to direct him/herself when he/she lacks the most crucial thing, a role model to follow and respect?

I remember when I was young it took a village to raise a child. If a child misbehaved the whole community stepped in to educate and direct that one child. The worst parts of American culture seem to dictate new standards to our adults and youth alike. The worst parts of American culture seem to have removed the innocence from our youth; forcing them into an adult-like roles at a very young age. Who is to blame? Parents? Media? Technology? The education system? Our youth? Freedom? An exaggerated form of freedom? Or is it all of these combined?

I do not write this to judge or blame but rather to find solutions; solutions to help our youth heal today, so they can lead tomorrow. I write this with love. I believe that our youth are only as strong as our adults. However, I ask when today’s’ babies are having babies and parents are no longer parents, how our next generation becomes a Barack Obama, a Sonya Sotomayor, or their own version of an educated, respectful and successful adult?