Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Donate
The Post - Athens, OH
The Post

MULTIMEDIA

The Post

Letter: Hands Up Walk Out to protest, show solidarity

Oct. 20, 2014

About a week ago, three Ohio University students and I traveled to Ferguson, Missouri for protests and rallies orchestrated by Hands Up United. We came back to Athens with many images, conversations and memories burned into our heads. I remember walking through the streets of Ferguson under nightfall as residents stepped out of their homes to join us. I remember chanting at police officers, demanding justice and that they join the right side of history. Most of all, I remember the fire I felt when I realized how much work, and how much anger had to be shown to make one black person’s life matter.That is why we planned #handsupwalkout at 12:01 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22. We are walking out because Mike Brown’s body was left in the street for four and a half hours. We are walking out because John Crawford was gunned down in an Ohio Wal-Mart because he was holding a BB gun and he is gone from his family forever.We are walking out because these injustices happen everywhere and the only way to stop them is to mobilize. We want to live in a society that holds empathy for another human being above the status quo of an unjust system that systematically dehumanizes minorities.When I stood in Keiner Plaza in St. Louis during a rally last Saturday, a woman shouted into the microphone with her fist thrust into the air, “We need to show this country that we do not trust it to keep us safe!” This is the core of the movement for many. By walking out, we are starting on the path towards social justice and shedding ourselves of passivity, which allows for these atrocities to continue. By participating in #handsupwalkout, we stand in solidarity with Ferguson and with one another.Ryant Taylor is a senior studying creative writing.

PostSecret

Post Secret: Long-distance couplings need well-balanced lives

By Erin Fischer | Oct. 20, 2014

I’ve written about online dating before and how I met my partner via OKCupid. Since he lives in Columbus, we are now in a long-distance relationship.I know a lot of people who are or have been in long-distance relationships while in college. The circumstances of college often allow you to expand your social network beyond just your campus, or perhaps you might be attending college far away from your hometown. Though many people think long-distance relationships are bound to fail, I think in many cases, they can be great learning tools for communication, trust and respect. They’re only doomed to fail if you’re not up for the challenge or mature enough to handle it.As I love lists, here are my tips for making a long-distance relationship work:Communicate … About Everything: Seriously, you need to have prime communication skills in order to make something like this work. Not only do you need to keep your partner in the loop, but also you should establish a communication plan that you can both agree to stick to. Otherwise, it can get easy to become too busy or too obsessed that you focus all of your time and energy in on them. Talk about your level of comfort and coordinate your schedules to figure out what sort of communication styles are going to work the best. If you have at least some privacy, scheduling phone or Skype calls is a great way to stay in touch and hold one another accountable.See Each Other As Often as Possible: Just like you should make time to communicate, you should make time to see each other in person. Obviously, it will depend on how long the distance is between the two of you. There are also the other factors of money and freedom: what are your class and work schedules like? How much does it cost to get to one another and who is going to pay for those expenses? Where are you going to stay when one of you visits? How are you going to eat? What are you going to do together? These are questions you should talk about before visiting.Pursue Other Interests: As hard as it is not to obsess or want to know exactly what the other person is doing, force yourself to step away from the computer. Find hobbies or activities to do on weekends when you’re not together, hang out  with friends or just go for a workout. Having time to miss each other is important, but in order to do that, you can’t be thinking about someone constantly or foregoing activities in order to spend time with them. Have an Endpoint: When entering a long distance relationship, you need to think about the end game. The fact is that if one of you doesn’t move to where the other one is, or you both don’t relocate together, the chances of your relationship making it for the long term are very slim. You’re probably not going to want to have a relationship filled with emails and Facetime forever, so you need to figure out what the end is going to look like. That doesn’t mean that if you can’t end up together realistically, you shouldn’t pursue the relationship. It just means you’re going to have to figure out what the end point is. A lot of people think there is no point having a relationship that doesn’t have the potential of forever, but I disagree. You can learn a lot from relationships of all kinds and besides, how many people really stay with their college sweetheart until they’re 80? The bottom line is: long-distance relationships are doable, but like everything else, they won’t work unless you do, too.Erin Fischer is a senior studying women’s and gender studies. Email her at ef102312@ohio.edu.

Jessica Ensley

Lean In Further: Feminists may need to conform

By Jessica Ensley | Oct. 20, 2014

This past weekend I spent time at a conference entitled “Feminists Working Weekend.” When I walked into the high-rise conference room overlooking the Manhattan skyline, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew what a privilege it was for me to be there and that a lot of activists and people who want to help in social change would not have the same opportunity I did. The weekend was dedicated to helping us make financial investments, how to fit into different work environments and figuring out what to do with the rest of our lives. It was much more inclusive than I expected, with speakers that ranged from white, cis-gendered women, to women of color and members of the LGBTQ community.The last presentation was discussing how we can improve our resumes and what feminist employers look for in cover letters. A fellow female attending the conference raised the important question as to why we were learning how to conform ourselves when it’s something we, as feminists, fight so hard against in almost every other aspect of life.Resume and cover letter templates are something everyone must use when applying for jobs. We use these templates to fit into an image that is expected of us. Images that are conformative go against most feminist thoughts and theories. So how can we, as activists who want to go into the professional field to create change, accept this type of conformity? Is playing into the system to attempt to change the system really worth it? These are questions I ask myself frequently. Respectability politics is the concept that one must conform to society’s ideals. Those ideals include wealth, whiteness, maleness, ableness and gender roles. I dislike the idea that we must be like the society that keeps us down. I realize that in order to create change in this society that a platform to speak from is needed. While we can create our own platform (like F--kRapeCulture did) the broad aspect of national and international feminist discussion is furthered through larger organizations.Getting hired is important to simply being able to survive. The focus this past weekend was on feminist positions, but one important lesson I learned was that we can create our own feminist space no matter what work we’re doing. You don’t have to work for a nonprofit or create a grassroots movement to make change (although it’d be cool if we did). Say something when a coworker or boss says something sexist. Let your colleagues know you’re a feminist — if you are one or not, see my past column explaining what feminism means — so that they don’t view feminism as a man-hating movement.I’m still juggling my position between a feminist who wants to take down the system and start a revolution and a feminist who wants to be able to work to feed herself. While I do that, think about the messages we send people when we ask them to state their value on a sheet of paper. Each of us is more than what we present to employers, so what can we do to change the conformist ideals? Because right now, I’m at a loss.Jessica Ensley is a senior studying journalism. Email her at je726810@ohio.edu

The Post

Editorial: Students should support top-notch volleyball team

Oct. 20, 2014

Ohio’s volleyball team is really, really good.After starting the season 1-3, the team has won 14 of its past 15 games and is 8-0 in conference play for the first time since 2009.That year, the Bobcats made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after winning the Mid-American Conference regular season and tournament titles.Ohio has talent throughout its roster, as Abby Gilleland and Kelly Lamberti are back-to-back MAC players of the year. Others, such as Meredith Ashy and Chelsea Bilger, have received first-team all-conference honors.The team has the ability to go far — not only at the MAC Tournament later this season, but (potentially) at the NCAA Tournament as well.This upcoming weekend, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois come to compete in Athens, and The Convo is sure to host some epic action. Western Michigan is 6-2 in conference play and a contender in the MAC West. The match against Northern Illinois is bound to be the Bobcats’ most important contest so far this season. The Huskies, currently 8-0 in MAC play, occupy first place in the MAC West. Two teams undefeated in conference play facing off in Athens? That’s must-see action, and The Post hopes to see a large turnout from students.Be sure to head over to The Convo to support some of Ohio’s most impressive (and under-appreciated) student-athletes.Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.

The Post

Best-selling author returns to OU

By Will Ashton | Oct. 19, 2014

Bringing his celebrated wit and wry humor back to Athens, New York Times best-selling humor essayist David Sedaris continues serving his trademark humor to local readers inside the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium Monday night. 

upport Us
Trending
The Post on
Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2016-2026 The Post, Athens OH