The Reckless Face of Humanity: Online Communication and Respect

By Shaughn VanGinkel, senior Communications major at Silver Lake College 

It's October 25th, a cool, breezy day at the Spartan Stadium where the crowds are roaring and shouting for their teams to take the field. Enter Michigan State vs. Michigan, a long lasting rivalry to clash once again on the battlefield of the Spartans. Just as the players are taking the field, Michigan performs a rather odd pregame ritual of driving a large wooden stake branded with their name into the soft, rich soil of Michigan State. Each player of Michigan State looks on in brewing anger as the hammer pounds the stake into their field inch by inch. Coach Dantonio cannot stand to see another second of their soil being pierced by another team’s logo and immediately calls out disrespect against their long lasted rivals. This fire lights within the players and the game progresses with Michigan State crushing Michigan in the second half of the game.

The drama involving the stake burns through sports media and launches heated debates between sport debrief specialists as they wonder whether or not the unsportsman-like conduct of Michigan’s pregame ritual is to be tolerated. They go about debating in a civilized manner to see if the situation is able to be worked out between coaches and players.
As this story hits the freedom and public access of the internet; however, that civility immediately decays in the comment sections that are opened for debate once the incident is turned to article format. People of all backgrounds unleash verbal cannon fire on each other as more people log on to view the article.

It absolutely amazes me how quick people are able to retort to freedom of speech with any argument. It doesn't matter what the subject or so called “opinion” is about, because there are many people that ironically use the words “freedom of speech” like a sharpened blade against any equal foe. It feels less like an unalienable right and more of a backup against disagreement, and it happens every single day for the most ridiculous of reasons.

            I can't stand it when I look at the comment section on Youtube or the posting sections of Facebook and witness personal information and harmful grammatical usage being spewed from the fingertips onto the keyboard, and with access of technology becoming easier and integrated into our own brains, the problem only thickens. Respect? Forget about it! It's the freaking internet, right? It's not like you can actually be held accountable for your own verbal atrocities...right? WRONG!

            The greatest sensation we know as the internet has officially become the burial ground of everything you have been drilled on as a child. Respect, morality-hell, even intelligence has been known to take a dive off the face of our humanity once you jump on a popular website. Many seem to have gotten the idea that just because an individual is not directly in front of you, there is free reign to scorch and strip them of happiness in order to fuel your own personal ego. A perfect example of this is the increasing wave of hatred that plagues the religious. I decided to pay a visit to Youtube and look up some videos on “The Amazing Atheist.” His name immediately makes the hair upon my neck sharpen as I scroll through many of his feeds as I knew immediately this man was some kind of pseudo-intellectual thinking he has the world all figured out. Listening to some of his videos, I began to feel proven wrong a little bit. He knows quite a bit about his historical facts, but his common sense seems to be lacking.

He continues on with the video, continuously attempting to debunk and rip apart any idea of religion. I realized then that this wasn’t about debunking any kind of theory; this was just underlying malice candy-coated in the form of a Youtube video. It’s as if the video itself was based on disrespect! With his arguments lacking any real fire power, I whisked down to the comment section to discover horrendous examples of what the ugly face of disrespect looks like. The insults ranged from “godtards” to “atheist f***” and became gradually worse as I scrolled through the feed of the comment section.

Of course “The Amazing Atheist” isn’t the only one guilty of this kind of disrespect. Another youtuber by the name of VenomFangX, a pro Christian channel, possesses recordings and live streams gushing with disrespect against atheists, slandering them and threatening the fear of hell with each and every word he utters. Some of his content is actually so vulgar that his videos get taken down a regular basis just by the Youtube administrators themselves due to their conflicting views and sometimes illegally ripped audio files.

One of his few videos I was able to locate, it's lengthy but his comment sections are the real threat. 

       His comment sections, like The Amazing Atheist’s, are a continuous battleground of numerous different parties unloading their verbal weaponry and unleashing fire on all who oppose their point of view. What’s even worse is the fact that I saw the EXACT SAME insults splayed all over the comment section of Venom as I did with The Amazing Atheist.  Keep in mind, this isn’t some crazy argument about religion or atheism, this is the horrifying reality of people of all backgrounds ripping each other at the throat simply because they all have their own belief system or viewpoints. 

            Many other hot button topics are plagued with disrespect and hatred. In the weeks and months leading up to the political elections, you may have noticed some of your favorite news channels being flooded with political information about what the Democrats, Republicans and Liberals are up to. This is the time of year where I roll my eyes 180 degrees into the back of my head so I don’t have to witness the putrid amount of mudslinging that is burned into every 20 second commercial between airing times. 

        People, this is the new face of humanity. You would think that with a popular news site like Fox News, you would find the comment section to contain writing that is credible and comments that encourage each other as fellow Americans to make the right choice as a team to not only better our nation, but even our allies outside of the border. Instead, you are greeted with the unpleasant, humanistic rage focused on demolishing the opposing party of all of its ideals.

On October 14th an article was posted of Hillary Clinton's speech talking about the educational system and its apparently ineffective methods of being affordable to students. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Clinton is discussing. It’s an important idea that has been expressed by many for years and for those that are concerned for the educational upbringing of future generations. The main beauty of this article, however,--or rather, hellish experience--is in the comment section as it is with Youtube and Facebook. The comment sections is brewing with insults ranging from “Killary Clinton” to “Hilarity Clinton” and even the common “dumb c***” insult. This is one of the only speeches she has given so far this year and people have gone as far as to already tear apart her name internet wide and news wide. That’s not even mentioning the numerous amounts of people that counteract by slandering the ideals of other politicians when compared with Hillary’s, which can be viewed in the exact same comment section! There are even people insulting each other with remarks that have nothing to do with the actual article itself!

            "Eugene2012" and others appear throughout the comment section writing similar "comments"

              Where does this fueled rage and hatred for others stem from and why is it so easy to wield as a weapon? Honestly, I cannot form an answer for you. Maybe humanity has lost touch with its humbleness and instead prefers to thrive off the idea of ruling with a steel plated ego, or maybe most humans fear the idea of mental anguish and hide themselves in a palace of loneliness and security from others. Whatever the case is, I encourage all of you to look to your hearts and the next time you are writing a song or novel or even when you are about to write a comment on Youtube, for the sake of respect, treat your words like an offering not like a sharpened blade. A respectful word leads to respectful actions, and respectful actions lead to a healed world.

Shaughn VanGinkel is a Radio/Communications Major At Silver Lake College.
His hobbies include singing and performing and is heavily involved within his community of Two Rives and their various festivals. 

Seven Sparks: Another Week's Worth of Writing Prompts

By Courtney Dekanich, English major at Silver Lake College and editor of The Novice

November has arrived, and as the leaves continue to fall, a faint hint of winter’s chill can already be felt in the air. Leaves and snowflakes, pumpkin and peppermint – they all share the days as winter draws closer and the countdown to the holidays begins. This approaching changing of the seasons, this time of ever growing happiness, thankfulness, and cheer, often serves as sources of inspiration for writers and artists, all those who seek to create.

If you’re having a bit of trouble getting started, here are a few more prompts from the staff of The Novice that could help you through another week. Take a look at the prompts, see what they inspire you to create, and send your work to thenovice.slc@gmail.com. If you send in your work, your submissions will be considered for publication in the upcoming edition of The Novice, Silver Lake College’s own literary and art publication.

Happy writing!

1. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, write about the thing in life which you are most thankful for.

2. Write about the most terrible Thanksgiving dinner disaster you can possibly imagine.

3. If you were asked to make a float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, what would it be?

4. You have won an all-expenses paid trip to the location of your choosing, and it lasts for the entire winter season. Where are you going (and why), and what will you do there?

5. The Christmas season often makes people nostalgic about their childhood; what was the best part of the Christmas season as a child? What do you miss most?

6. Write a letter of protest against the one holiday movie or television special you cannot bear to watch again.

7. This Christmas, the last tree left on the lot looks a lot like the one from the Charlie Brown Christmas special – and it’s all yours. How do you decorate it to make it look nice?

No Bad Habits Here!

By Shaughn VanGinkel, Communications major at Silver Lake College

            Well, here I am writing my first blog post ever. A blog? You might as well just call it an online paper. Now that I’m in that mindset, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be facing writer’s block at some point, burning through draft after draft with phrases and sentences leaking from the deeper corridors of my brain.
             Writer’s block, how that pair of words so deeply etches itself into my writing habits. It forces me to halt what I’m doing as my thoughts accidentally get their shoe laces tied together and crash on their face, being unable to continue any further. Some people would call me lazy, and think that I am simply making excuses for myself. Others would call me inept, doubting my ability to scribble anything on paper worth reading. While I respect such opinions because of how often the cases arise (writer's block, brain lock whatever you want to name it), the reality is that many writers such as myself have our moments of struggle. Thankfully, however, a great many of us have adopted some rather interesting methods to continue our writing and to sidestep the constant accusations of laziness against us.

            Let’s face it, people. Writing is simpler than we think. We experience it each day through our various means of technology. We flow from one text message to the next and pound the keyboard with one Facebook message to another. Why then is writing professionally such a difficult task? Whether it’s an English assignment or even a novel, many of us have faced these struggles one right after the other, trying to think beyond our slanged and twisted language that we communicate with each day.
             I remember back in the 8^th grade when I used to write descriptive book reports from the various stories I was pretty much forced to read despite my lack of topic interest. It wasn’t necessarily the story itself that disinterested me, but the idea of trying to manifest the story into my own words on to paper. THAT by itself was a nightmare to me in my young age. Hearing the teacher’s words “write a paper” was equivalent to getting smacked across the face by a red dodge ball on the four square court outside, the words themselves leaving behind a burning sting. The same thing occurred every time I would attempt to write out a paper. I would deliver an okay intro, and then immediately lock up the moment I tried to form a body. My mind would blank and my hand would tremble as I would sit with the paper lying before me, unfinished and mediocre. Eventually, I would simply give in and walk back to my bedroom, knowing that I would have to explain to the teacher that somehow this was not due to my laziness. But, I decided that after so many repeated attempts and blanks, maybe my mind just needed to see things other than wooden pencils and blank pieces of white paper.  

Photo: Sherri Seals via Pinterest

            I pushed myself away from the table and strolled outside for a fall nature walk. As I stepped outside amongst the dancing red and orange leaves, I began to feel a sensation like no other. I was fascinated by the colorful artwork that was moving before my eyes and my brain began to trigger something rather amazing. It’s as if at that moment, information began to overflow, words and colorful sentences appeared and vanished before my eyes as if my paper was being written without me lifting a finger. Fascinated, I hastily returned home, flying through the leaves fearing the sensation would soon leave my presence. I immediately jumped to my chair and wielded my pencil as I burned through each word, each sentence and every line filling like a glass of water and the paper itself was my resulting pitcher. What a rush! I had never experienced an information flow like that. That was when I first discovered the term “gateway." To me, a gateway is a means of being able to trigger my thought process when I seem to have run out of steam or to put it simply, refueling.

            From there on, these gateway methods have been present through my life to this very day, and as I have gotten older I found these interesting writings habits out of the blue. From the nature walks to more simple methods of just having a glass of water to refuel my system, whatever little triggers helped me to wash away writer's block, I would be more than willing to use. Many of my puzzled friends would always ask why exactly these methods worked for me when suffering from writer's block, and honestly, I can’t give anyone a straight answer.
             Many of the “professionals” would say that the explanations of these methods could simply be broken down by science. But why make an effective method of writing be so complexly explained, especially when nearly every one I have academically been involved with has their own tendency, such as twirling a pen or drawing a picture to illustrate the words in front of them? 

            Truthfully many of the “experts” (I’m really stretching that term) will say something along the lines of “These actions/habits are due to certain brain wave patterns or certain synapse triggers etc. etc.” Heck, all you really have to do is Google “writing habits” or “good and bad writing habits” and then count how many times you see the words “studies show…” Scientists are struggling way too often to explain simple matters that don’t actually need some pseudo-intellectual textbook explanation. The way I like to express my own writing habits or what the experts call “nervous tendencies” is that it’s something that calms me down. It helps my papers get back on their feet, it relaxes. That’s all the explanation one ever needs whenever you twirl your pen or drop everything and go for a short nature walk. IT REFRESHENS YOU.

            All the same can even be said for myself as a novice lyricist/poet. Music writing is pretty much the same as fictional writing except there are some extra elements that one must think about. While the words themselves are important, you must also think about whether or not you actually want your song to rhyme, the structure of the beat of the song as well as the melody, and what kind of attitude you want the piece to project as your pen or pencil etches the story in front of you.

            “When the glimmer of her eyes

Captivates me from across the street,
The beauty of her full gaze

Shall stay the movement of my feet.”

Just the beginning scratches!

This is just a taste of some of the lyrical complexity I try to develop as I come up with new song lyrics. These four lines alone took me quite a while to develop in the sense that I needed to not only split it up into four phrases to make it melodically captivating, but so it also makes some lick of sense to the listeners and performers! The amount of writer's block intensifies when it comes to all these different elements that must be intertwined. To compensate, I intensify the amount of study habits that I have at my disposal! Sometimes I will go on an extended nature walk while carrying a bottle of water with me in order to sustain my energy. I have learned that using multiple different habits is actually useful for more difficult projects. It’s as if my own mind automatically projects the amount of habit usage I need in order to complete my assignment or writing project, whatever allows the words to glide across my sheet to form the final piece of story I so desperately desire.

I honestly enjoy the many different study habits that I have developed throughout my many years of writing and I am unashamed of the power and influence they have given me over my writing to this very day. Of course, I’m not saying to go out and smoke 20 packs of cigs a day seeing as those have clearly awful side effects, but there are many alternative means of allowing one’s writing to flow. You don’t need some crazy intellectual who thinks he/she knows all to explain it to you nor do you need to completely destroy yourself, but to find your happy medium. Your writing must be fluently expressed from your heart and through your own mind. I encourage everyone to try different writing habits and see what will actually trigger you to become a more fluent writer. It’s never a weakness to stop your writing to go out for a nature walk or to have a glass of water by you at all times to get the ol fleshy word processor going!

The Novice: A Silver Lake Reflection

By Courtney Dekanich, junior English major at Silver Lake College

Another year at Silver Lake means another edition of The Novice! Formerly Silver Reflections, The Novice is Silver Lake’s own literary magazine, a celebration of the Silver Lake community’s original writing and artwork. For any writers interested in submitting work, send us your poetry and prose! For any artists interested, send us your photography or photographs of your sketches, paintings, or sculptures.

How does one go about submitting their work?

All you have to do is email your submission to thenovice.slc@gmail.com.

We’ll be accepting submissions until January 17, 2015.

After all selections have been made for the spring publication, recognition will be awarded for best poetry, prose, and visual art. All submissions will also be entered in a drawing for a $25 gift card.

While every edition of our campus literary magazine has been special, unique, this year’s is something of a milestone – this spring’s publication will be its 50^th edition!

I’ve had the privilege of being a part of The Novice over the past few years, helping to go through the many submissions of writing and artwork that we receive each year, helping to make the difficult decision of which pieces are included in each final publication. In working on The Novice, I have come to realize that it’s so much more than just a literary magazine.

Our campus literary magazine has always been a reflection – as its previous title suggested – of the Silver Lake community, and recent years have proven no exception. The past few years have been times of great change for Silver Lake. We’ve gotten a new college president, seen the construction of a new music building. Even now, construction is underway on our new campus store and, of course, the much awaited Starbucks venue.

And, true to form, Silver Reflections has evolved to reflect these changes. Just last year, we took suggestions for a new name, finally settling on The Novice, revealing the new title at a reading at last year’s Spring Symposium.

For going on fifty years, The Novice has been a commemoration of this change through the talent and creativity of the members of this community. It can continue to do so as long as you, the readers, writers, and artists of the Silver Lake College community, keep on sending us your work.

Courtney Dekanich is a junior English major at Silver Lake College. She is the managing editor of The Novice, SLC's literary and visual arts journal. 

The Scariest Moment: On Writing & Digital Self-Publication

By Courtney Dekanich, sophomore English major at Silver Lake College

Stephen King once wrote, in regards to writing, “the scariest moment is always just before you start.” As a writer, I know exactly what he meant. The moment just before putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard is absolutely terrifying. That may, at first, seem ridiculous, but it really does make a kind of sense. That moment, that small moment, is the last chance of the writer to turn back, to keep the story locked inside and away from the criticisms of others.
 

But, sometimes, it doesn’t matter how terrified you are of starting. Sometimes, the story just has to be told, and you really have no choice but to get it all out. Sometimes, there’s some kind of motivating factor that you just can’t argue with.
 

The knowledge that your grade is depending on it is a pretty great motivating factor.

When I started writing What Lurks Within, it wasn’t with the intention of ever publishing it in any way, shape, or form. I was in high school, and my Sophomore Composition class had been assigned to write a short story. For me, it was the best homework ever. I talked to my teacher as soon as I’d started outlining my story, knowing that it was going to be far longer than the page requirement she had set – and that I was going to need more than a few days to write it. After being granted a two week extension, I started writing a rather lengthy short story that I dubbed “The Whisperers.” I wrote like crazy, the knowledge that a considerable portion of my grade was depending on me handing in a finished story negating my fear of criticism. Eventually, I typed the last period, did a little editing, and printed it off. My teacher loved it, and the pressure was off.
 

“The Whisperers” sat on my flash drive – completely ignored – for the next three years. Then, as I was sorting through my files one day, I rediscovered it. After skimming over the first few paragraphs, I realized that I was more fond of the story than I remembered.
 

Editing began that night.
 

It took me about a week, but I finally worked my way through the entire thing, correcting typos and grammatical errors that I had missed the first time, fixing sections that I no longer liked, expanding on pieces that I didn’t have time to fully acknowledge under a deadline.
 

That was when I discovered what the second hardest part of writing is – getting published.
 

While I wanted more than anything to be published in print, I decided to try something else first – self-publishing digitally.
 

I looked into it, and, while there are a number of different options – decided to publish through Amazon’s Kindle store. From there, the process was pretty simple. Since I already had an Amazon account, step one was done. From there, it was just a matter of following the steps that Amazon has spelled out pretty simply. I entered my book information and set the search keywords for it. I uploaded my cover art and the digital copy of my novella. The final step was setting the price of my story and deciding on royalties. After I had all of my information entered, all I had to do was wait, first for my novella to be cleared for posting, and then for the first purchase notification. Out of the whole process of self-publication, the waiting part was the most difficult. The way that Amazon has their system of self-publication set up makes the process extremely simple, quick and painless.
 

So, for everyone who wants to write, to tell a story, but are too afraid that they can’t get published, no worries; if you’re okay with self-publishing online, Kindle makes the whole concept way less terrifying.
 

So, in the grand scheme of things, the scariest moment is still just before you start.

 

Courtney Dekanich, a college sophomore, is currently pursuing a degree in English at Silver Lake College. She lives with her family. What Lurks Within is her first novella.