The Earth is Not a Commodity: How Capitalism Perpetuates Global Warming

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

Capitalism is designed to promote competition and social inequality (Parjis, 1995) which cannot accommodate a climate change movement meant to benefit the entire earth and its inhabitants with an even distribution. As an international leader, the United States government along with its citizens must shift from a mindset of social and economic capitalism toward a political framework that encourages collective equality. In the U.S., capitalism privileges wealthy, upper-class, white individuals who hold positions of power (Keister and Moller, 2000) over the rest of the country’s diverse constituency. This constituency must be invited into the climate change movement, and granted equal access to technology and research geared towards addressing dangerous levels of human-induced climate change.

Capitalism as an economic and social theory, as popularized by the United Sates, will not work as a tool for organizing the climate change movement because the environment is not a commodity, nor is the environment a human construct.

Introducing STATIC Staff ’12-’13

This year, we’re excited to announce that our staff has expanded from 2 to 20! Here are the folks who make STATIC happen:

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Holly Fetter is a Texafornian majoring in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity while pursuing her M.A. in Sociology. She’s also writing an honors thesis about civil society in China. She’s been involved with a lot of student groups, from FLIP to Las Hermanas to Stanford Students For Queer Liberation. She’s trying to figure out how to get people with privilege to talk about it. She wears a lot of blazers. She is the Managing Editor of STATIC online.

Jovel Queirolo is a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area majoring in Biology. She is interested in the intersections of the sciences and the humanities, particularly the patterns and themes that emerge in both. She’s really into ants. And Star Wars. She is the Managing Editor of Static in print.

FINANCIAL OFFICER

Lea Gee-Tong is a senior studying Human Biology who is involved in queer student activism, education programming and outreach, and cultural competency health research and advocacy.

WEBMASTERS

Joel Kek is very interested the intersection between technology and social change. Along these lines, he is also involved with Stanford in Government and Code the Change.

Leah Thomas is a senior majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in education. She is active in the queer community and seeks to create safe spaces on campus.

CONTENT EDITORS (BLOG)

Elizabeth S. Q. Goodman, who also goes by her middle name “Quirk”, is a mathematics PhD student expecting to graduate in 2014. She admires cities as many admire “Nature”: strange humans and strange art are interdependent, powerful, beautiful. She enjoys living and volunteering in San Francisco, but is also excited to have joined Stanford Students For Queer Liberation.

Alex Nana-Sinkam is a Senior studying International Relations, minoring in African Studies and (fingers crossed) Art Studio Photography. She currently feels strongly about: using art and other unconventional methods to address and articulate issues in international social health. She is currently into: honest words, pop chips, Frank Ocean. She is currently trying to: write more, eat breakfast, look forward to (rather than panic about) the future.

CONTENT EDITORS (JOURNAL)

Angela Cenzon is a senior majoring in Human Biology with a minor in Political Science and is excitedto support activism on campus after spending her junior year abroad.

Edward Ngai is a news and politics junkie who loves running, the Canucks, and oxfordcommas.

LAYOUT EDITOR

Dania Marinshaw is a junior from North Carolina majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Design for Human Performance and Wellness.

OUTREACH COORDINATORS

Raymond Luong is currently a sophomore majoring in Management Science & Engineering. Aside from his major and STATIC, he’s interested in sociology, pop culture, digital media, and laughing.

Gabriella “Gaby” Moreno is currently a sophomore considering studying Anthropology and or CSRE with a concentration in community development. While at Stanford she’s worked for the College Board in improving student access to higher education. She has also worked with Street Yoga, a Portland Oregon non profit facilitating healing for youth and families at risk through meditation and yoga.

Thanh D. Nguyen likes making art and owning pillow pets…for justice! He is primarily interested in refugee issues and international human rights.

Lina Schmidt is a sophomore interested in writing and playing music. She is also a member of SSQL and is excited to be on the STATIC team!

Caitlin Wraith is a junior from New Jersey in Stanford’s Urban Studies program, concentrating in Education. In her free time not spent as the WestFlo PHE, Caitlin engages in queer and feminist activism on campus, reads biographies, watches documentaries, and spends time with friends.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

Kristian Davis Bailey is a junior from New York studying Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity. He’s interested in how to use media to discuss identity, privilege and power. He’s also interested in building a coalition of justice-minded students on campus.

STAFF WRITERS

Annie Graham is a junior from Phoenix, Arizona majoring in English, and is a founding member of the group Stanford Athletes and Allies Together- ensuring that a safe space exists for queer and allied athletes, on and off the field of competition.

Abaho Katabarwa is still doing this journey thing, but so far he was born in Uganda and has lived in Atlanta. As a member of EPASA, FLIP, and EJHS, he hopes to make his first step to increasing opportunity in underrepresented student populations.

Lewis Marshall is a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering. He is the former president of Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics @ Stanford.

CONSULTANT

Ingrid Heller, aka ABCrane, is the founder of Gungho Publishing company and has just released two nonfiction books on her economic philosophy and green franchising vision. She is currently collaborating with local musicians and theater professionals to launch her musical stage play, Kangaroo Fu, which reveals her economic model through song, dance, martial arts and an incredibly fascinating story line.

If you’re interested in getting involved with our crew, please email StanfordSTATIC@gmail.com. Frosh can apply to be interns using this form, and the deadline is October 10th at 10 PM (PST). We’re always looking for new Staff Writers as well, and you can find that application here.

STATIC’s First Birthday

by Jovel Queirolo, ‘14, + Holly Fetter, ‘13
STATIC Co-Founders

One year ago today, STATIC was born. What started out as an idea and a WordPress page is now a real publication with 140 posts and over 60,000 views. We’re officially a Stanford student organization, we have a stanford.edu URL, and now we have an incredible staff of 20 students committed to expanding the progressive voice on campus. (Look out for an upcoming post introducing the new crew!) We’re also expanding to print form this year – we will be publishing our first print journal in January, after our merger with The Stanford Progressive. Our pieces have been cross-posted at sites like Racialicious and PolicyMic, and other universities have reached out to ask how they can start similar sites at their schools. Basically, we’re really stoked about how STATIC has grown over the past year. And this couldn’t have happened without each of you.

We thought we’d celebrate the site’s 1st birthday by sharing some highlights of the year with you.

The Science of Collaboration

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

Every great scientist in history and the Pogonomyrmex Barbatus species of ant, often referred to in my lab as Pogos, have two things in common. They have always relied heavily on their peers in their respective fields – whether that is a field of science or a field of desert grass and mesquite.

This summer, I watched and participated in collection of data about the Pogos. Every morning I woke up sometime between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. (depending on the day’s assignment) to eat a small breakfast of yogurt, granola, and coffee usually while blinking awake with my fellow field researchers. We then drove from our mountain research station about 30 minutes to watch the sunrise and arrive at the research site.

The first ants to leave the nest mound are the patrollers who tuck their abdomens down and drowsily mark paths with their colony scent. How and which way they decide to go is a mystery.

Blasting the Canon: On the Need for Inclusive Syllabi

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

As an overeager high school senior, I unknowingly submitted myself to four years of stereotypes and no years of the dreaded IHUM – I decided to do SLE. Structured Liberal Education (SLE) is a Stanford program that offers first year students the opportunity to learn about history, literature, philosophy, and art without having to leave their dorm. At this time last year, our SLE cohort excitedly began the treacherous journey into modernity. I expected that the spring quarter readings would really resonate with us Millenials, but I found myself disappointed. For my final paper, I decided to review my intellectual experience in SLE in an effort to understand the dissonance I was feeling between my life and those we studied. I analyzed our “great books” syllabus and found that 6 out of 60 authors and thinkers were women, and predominantly white, upper class men filled the other 90% of the curriculum. With the ratio of female and male students and section leaders at about 1:1, I began to wonder what it means to receive a liberal education that so blatantly excludes other identities in this postmodern era.

Listening, Healing

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

Before last Wednesday, I believed that interfaith dialogue could go one of two ways. It was either a time spent sharing praise and false curiosity in an attempt to avoid more charged discussion topics, or the conversation would quickly dissolve into a vicious screaming match.

My weekly meetings as part of the Fellowship for Religious Encounter (FRE) only reinforced this perspective. I would enjoy a dinner generously provided by our mentors and the Office for Religious Life, then spend the next hour disagreeing, agreeing, arguing, and refuting. I quickly attached myself to members of the collective who shared views similar to my own and distanced myself from those whose politics I disagreed with.

But last Wednesday, we broke through the layers of awkward silence and fiery debate. We finally listened to each other.

Progressive Summer Opportunities

Looking for a meaningful way to spend your summer? Stanford activists share their most memorable experiences.

ACLU National Prison Project
Sharada Jambulapati [sharjam@gmail.com]

I helped in the office by responding to prisoner mail and conducting research on legal cases, prisoner rights, and state correctional budgets. I enjoyed being in DC with top lawyers working on prisoner rights issues.  I was able to visit local jail facilities with lawyers and attend congressional hearings featuring Justice Breyer and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Van Anh Tran [vananht@stanford.edu]

I worked mainly in APEN’s Development Office and learned a lot about the work that goes into fundraising for a non-profit organization and grassroots fundraising techniques. This organization generally worked with the older immigrant population in Oakland’s Chinatown and the Laotian community in Richmond, California. In the past, they had campaigns to prevent Chevron from expanding their refinery in Richmond (which they succeeded to do!) When I worked there, there were efforts to teach the very pivotal population of Oakland’s Chinatown to vote. Near the end of my time that summer, APEN was starting an effort to create a coalition among the various environmental justice organizations in California to develop a grassroots effort to combat climate change and affect state policy. Also near the end of my time there, APEN was starting a campaign to combat the Dirty Energy Proposition (Prop 23). As an intern, I wrote letters to potential donors and allies and was able to attend many, many meetings–from attending a workshop for the elderly in Chinatown to listening to amazing Asian American activists speak about their experiences during the 1960s in APEN’s partner organizations in San Francisco. I was able to attend many rallies and was able to do precinct walks (related to Prop 23).

PRACTICING COMPASSION: Infusing Activism With Altruism

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

Stanford’s Project Compassion recently brought evolutionary biologist (and revolutionary) David Sloan Wilson to campus to discuss the evolutionary significance of altruism and compassion. He defined the term compassion, in biology, as awareness of suffering and the wish to relieve it. He defined altruism as concern for another’s welfare even at the expense of oneself. He explained that altruistic and compassionate creatures often sacrifice themselves for others, which is seemingly “not fit.” In evolutionary jargon, fitness means one’s ability to reproduce and pass on one’s genes.

The answer to this evolutionary puzzle, Wilson says, is that altruistic and compassionate groups are favored by natural selection even if an altruistic or compassionate individual is not. He presents a case featuring water striders – the research conducted by his former student, Omar Tonsi Eldakar.

POST-POWER PUPAE: What Leaders Can Learn From Anarchist Arthropods

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14

“Look to the ant, though sluggard – consider her ways and be wise. Without chief, overseer or ruler, she gathers the harvest in the summer to eat in the winter.”  -Proverbs 6:6

For the past month or so, I’ve been spending about three hours a week watching video footage of harvester ants for an ant behavior project I’m working on in the lab of biologist Deborah Gordon. The more time I spend with the ants, the more intrigued I become with the relationships between an individual ant and its colony. Perhaps human activists can learn from harvester ants and their ability to see their lives as a part of the colony’s life. No ant is born or raised to do one specific task. Rather, at any given time, ants do tasks that will benefit the colony and enhance its chance of survival. For example, if there’s a lot of food around, more ants switch into foraging mode to gather food. If a part of the nest is damaged, then more ants switch into nest maintenance mode to repair the nest.

The ants appear to be quite selfless and are able to live in harmony with their fellow ants without any sort of “power ant(s)” orchestrating their work. In Ant Encounters, Stanford Biology Professor Deborah Gordon explains that, “An ant does not perform according to instructions – from some inner program, or from other ants of higher rank. Ants use local information, such as chemical communication, but they do not tell each other what to do… An ant’s behavior depends on both what it perceives in the world around it and on its interactions with other ants.”

What if humans could perform according to local information without telling each other what to do? What if our actions depended on our surroundings and on our interactions with other humans?

Welcome to Static

by Jovel Queirolo, ’14, and Holly Fetter, ’13

Welcome to Static, a site for Stanford activists to connect and create.

Self-identified progressive activists are invited to write and submit pieces (journalistic, literary, creative, artistic, whatever!) that provide a progressive perspective. There’s also a list of active activist groups on campus, and a calendar of events. This is a place to put your critical thinking skills to use as you engage with the posts, poetry, and people that sustain this site. Not all content needs to be political, but it should reflect a creative resistance to the norm – a response to mainstream dialogue about communities, ideologies, politics, and action.

In the summer of 2011, activist/journalist Amy Goodman addressed students at the 7th Annual Campus Progress National Conference — a conference focused on inspiring “young people to promote progressive solutions to key political and social challenges.” Goodman spoke about her recent book, Static, describing how that title reflects the way in which alternative publications effectively fuse activism and journalism. As an advocate and a storyteller, her work serves as a type of static that is understood as a “criticism, opposition, or unwanted interference” into the mainstream political discourse.

Our Static is just that – the electric sound of young activists disturbing the atmosphere. We don’t intend for this site to be a space defined by negative energy, one whose foundation is built exclusively on challenging and undermining other perspectives and arguments. Rather, we believe that there is a positive creative potential in thinking critically about what is happening on campus, in the United States, and internationally.

At Stanford, the work of progressive activists often goes unnoticed – unless it is controversial enough to attract the attention of campus press. As a result, our stories are only told about us, and never by us. We’re here to reclaim our power to self-narrate, and to lend visibility to incredible activist-identified individuals that are making change in the Stanford community and beyond.

This site is only valuable if it is useful to you. Please send us any and all Static feedback, as we take all input seriously. If you’d like to get involved, as either a member of our Editorial Board, a Staff Writer, or a Contributor, please contact us at StanfordStatic@gmail.com.

We welcome any and all submissions that reflect our mission of creating a space for progressive-minded Stanford activists to share ideas, stories, and events.