Featured Image: Kite flyers competed in a synchronized kite show at the festival. Photo by Avery Trigg
BERKELEY, CALIF. — As you walk up the hill, surrounded by endless rows of vendors you catch the smell of kettle. You look over and spot Ron Mallory of Kettle Korn moving back and forth in his tent as him and his business partners are busy popping slightly caramelized popcorn for the thousands of attendees.
Some of the hundreds of kites flying above the Berkeley Kite festival. Photo by Avery Trigg
“We like it because it’s nice and cool,” says Mallory, adding that because kettle has to cook at 700 degrees, the cooler temperatures of Berkeley —- which was around 68 degrees and partly cloudy on Sunday —- keep his work space cooler. Mallory, a contractor in his day job, enjoys the kite festival particularly because he said he is “amazed at the size and length of the kites.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Reporters from the Teen Observer headed to Pier 39 on Monday to ask people about what they believe is the most important issues in the upcoming presidential elections.
Those who spoke to us had a range of different important issues to them.
Shaela Agunnupe (right) said, “For me, i think the most important is race and immigration, but definitely race.” Joshua Adger said, “There are so many important things, but most important is education.” Photo by Lorena Esparza“I think the most important issue is the economy and making sure everyone has a job,” Austin Glaze said. Photo by Lorena Esparza“There is a lot to choose from; they are all so different. All have aspects that are important: foreign affairs, domestic affairs. Depends on so many things. However, domestic affairs is probably most important. It’s things going on at home,” Darin Camponuevo said. Photo by Lorena Esparza
SAN FRANCISCO — The Teen Observer asked people at Pier 39 in San Francisco on Monday to write down the most important issue to them in the 2016 Presidential Election. Answers ranged from education to immigration and the war on drugs.
Bay area resident Chris Whitlock prioritizes the environment. He said, “some people are saying that it’s too late, but if our lives are in jeopardy, it’s the most important thing.” Photo by Victoria Shirley
Dani Whitlock spoke to how equality is important for all, mentioning the LGBT community, women and minorities. She said, “We should be leveling the playing field, not sweeping this under the rug.” Photo by Victoria Shirley
Alper Sengul, a Turkish airline pilot, is not an American citizen but he keeps track of the election by “following the stupid things ‘The Donald’ is doing.” He is passionate about foreign relations and education. Photo by Victoria Shirley
Pheobe Marsh, 18, feels strongly about the war on drugs and is a proponent of legalizing recreational drugs. She said, “I believe it should be legal…What they’re doing is ridiculous.” Photo by Victoria Shirley
Danica Sheets says that immigration rights are the most important issue to her. She said, “Integration into society is important. It shouldn’t be a ‘you’re in the shadows’ kind of thing.” Photo by Victoria Shirley
BERKELEY, CALIF. — The sun shone, kites danced and thousands of people from all over the country flocked to the Berkeley Kite Festival at Cesar E. Chavez Park on Sunday.
Sporting a unique cowboy hat and patriotic mask, Wadell Hunter flew a kite displaying Princess Anna from the hit animated movie, Frozen. Hunter and his wife, Janice, were celebrating their 27th anniversary at the festival in the company of their best friend, Paula Smith.
Wadell Hunter’s “Frozen” kite dances in the air. Photo by Anamaya Shore
“If Mama’s not happy, nobody’s happy,” Hunter said with a smile.
Wadell said the mask’s purpose is not only for style, but also to preserve his anonymity.
“[My mask is] So nobody can see my ugly face,” Hunter joked. It was the Oakland native’s fourth trip to the festival, which roughly 35,000 people attended.
Wadell Hunter flies his “Frozen” kite. Photo by Anamaya Shore
Also in attendance was Martin Turon from Berkeley. Turon did not have a particular cause for celebration like the Hunters, but he loves the festival because he is an avid kite enthusiast.
“It’s really relaxing and it’s a great social day,” Turon said. Sunday was his fourth time at the festival, but Turon says that the beautiful conditions made it the best experience yet.
He bought most of his kites from Costco, but insisted he is not endorsing the wholesale retail company. The kite of his choice was a colorful octopus he purchased at the festival.
“It’s a really solid flier,” Turon said.
Jesse Marvin and his daughter Lily, 6, enjoyed the free entertainment and delicious food.
“Garlic oysters, man…Those are the stuff!” Marvin said as his daughter Lily flew a tiny blue kite five feet in the air.
Marvin was also a four-year veteran of the event.
Jesse Marvin and his daughter, Lily, watch as his kite becomes untangled. Photo by Victoria Shirley
Michael Barr believes terrorism in the United States and abroad is here to stay.
Attempts to stop militants or radicals from disrupting everyday life only will make terrorists more vigilant. He cites a fracture between two cultures that he feels will be “long and demanding.”
Barr, an aviation and aircraft safety expert in California, is among a dozen people interviewed this week after a high-profile terrorist attack in Nice, France who said terrorism here and abroad is a part of everyday life now. Others responded to attacks of the last year including those domestic incidents in Orlando and San Bernardino, plus foreign attacks in Paris and Brussels, and said they see no end in sight.
“To stop living a normal life in constant fear is a waste of precious life,” Barr continued.
In the past 12 months, more than 500 Europeans have been killed by acts of terrorism in Nice, Paris, Brussels and Turkey, according to a Teen Observer analysis. That’s on the minds of American University students and graduates getting ready to travel abroad this summer and fall.
Alex Mazzarisi, 22, an American University graduate, is headed in August to Copenhagen, Denmark. Mazzarisi was at the World Trade Center in New York City two days before the 9/11 attacks. She said people should not let fear dictate their lives.
“There is, unfortunately, no way to prevent being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mazzarisi said.
John Horgan, a professor of Global Studies and Psychology at Georgia State University, said terrorism will continue because it’s an effective short-term strategy. He said further policymakers here and abroad may never be able to eliminate terrorism.
“We need to get better at devising smarter strategies to combat terrorism,” Horgan said in an email.
“If our response is based on fear, or is devised in the immediate aftermath of tragedy like we saw in Nice, then we will lose,” Horgan continued.
Mary Rutenbeck, 20, a Wake Forest University student working in Washington, D.C. this summer, will spend Fall studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. She believes Americans aren’t worse off than 20 years ago, but said that “the media makes people more aware” of incidents abroad. She hopes 20 years from now, society will be better off.
Mary Rutenbeck, 20, a Wake Forest University student working at American University this summer, will study abroad this fall. Photo credit Alex Mazzarisi.
Kenneth Cardwell, who works at a Tenleytown hardware store, believes politicians aren’t doing enough to stop terrorism. He says leaders are “telling people what they want to hear.”
Eric Duvall believes terrorism and political responses to it don’t matter. Instead, he said it’s beyond human control. He doesn’t see an end to the attacks around the globe because “there is nothing man can do to correct the problems down here.”
Kristen Luft, 19, a summer teaching assistant at American University, plans to study abroad in Paris next year and admits there is a higher risk of terrorism there. But, it’s not stopping her.
“It is built on ideas,” Luft said of terrorism. “It’s harder to kill off ideas.”
Ken Martin sells the newspaper Street Sense in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue. Photo credit: Kyla Jackson.
Jacqueline Davis shopped at a CVS in Tenleytown, where one-bedroom apartments can fetch $300,000 and single-family homes go for more than $1 million.
A longtime District resident, Davis, 66, worries for low-income residents who may not be able to afford staying in the city. She agrees with the D.C. City Council’s decision this summer to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“I feel very good about it,” Davis said.
In June, the City Council voted to raise the minimum wage from its current $11.50 to $15 an hour by 2020 for non-tipped workers. People interviewed this week in Tenleytown expressed mixed reactions to the increase, with some saying it’s necessary in a city where the cost of living is increasing and others saying they fear prices may go up as a result.
Victoria Alukpe, 21, a political science major at American University, said no one can survive on minimum wage. She feels the increase will help people match their pay checks with what they pay for.
“Everyone is working to survive,” Alukpe said.
Through her studies in political science, Alukpe has come to support the idea of a higher minimum wage, joining many District residents and workers who agree with the minimum wage increase.
D.C. living does come with a hefty price tag.
Zillow.com statistics note that the price for a one-bedroom home in D.C. in 2016 sold for an average $370,000. That’s been steadily on the rise and is expected to continue going up. Five years ago, the average one-bedroom cost $319,000.
Transit costs also add to a low-wage worker’s monthly bill. Metro riders can expect to pay $237 for a 28-day pass, according to the WMATA website.
Ken Martin, 62, a D.C. hat vendor who was offering the Street Sense newspaper outside CVS on Wisconsin Avenue, has a different take on the minimum wage.
“The whole thing is just wacko,” Martin said.
Martin disagrees with the minimum wage increase. He feels it will also raise the cost of living and minimum-wage workers won’t get ahead as promised.
“People just don’t do the math,” Martin said. “Everybody wants more money, but they don’t realize that more money is not enough money.”
Marinella Yada, 52, believes in-depth tests to determine mental competence should be required before an individual is allowed to own a gun in America.
Yada, interviewed Monday at a Tenleytown Starbucks, said that an abundance of firearms but a lack of access to mental health care is one reason why the United States continues its struggle with gun violence.
“The government needs to be more consistent with profiling and dig deeper to find out more about people,” Yada said. “There has to be more effort from all levels of government.”
Yada represents a growing number of Americans who feel people suffering from mental illness should have their restrictions on firearm ownership tightened. In January, a Pew Research report found 79 percent of those surveyed agreed with laws to prevent mentally ill persons from buying guns. That support was nearly identical across party lines.
A half dozen Washington, D.C. residents and visitors felt mental health issues are key to gun ownership laws, especially in the wake of high-profile shootings in Orlando and Newtown.
Danielle Higgins, 25, who sat at her laptop at a Tenleytown Panera, said no citizen needs to own a gun and more guns in the hands of anyone means more violence in society.
Doug McKenna, a 42-year-old American University employee, agreed with Higgins that guns were not meant for the general public to carry and use.
“I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to a well-regulated militia, and people stockpiling AR-15s and ammunition are neither well-regulated nor a militia,” McKenna said.
Paul Daily, 45, said he agrees with Americans’ Second Amendment rights, but says for those with mental health issues, there may need to be more safeguards.
“Everybody has the right to bear arms,” Daily said. “But people need to realize that there’s also the issue of mental health, which is a much bigger issue than just guns.”
Sixty percent of mass shootings committed in the United States since 1970 have involved a mentally ill shooter, according to the National Institutes of Health.
But, those statistics differ from others offered by the National Association of Social Workers, which claim the majority of violent gun crimes are actually committed by those with no mental health diagnosis. There have been a few instances which involve a mentally ill shooter, but these should not exemplify the community as a whole.
However, most of those interviewed this week maintain that while gun ownership should not be prohibited for the mentally ill, stricter requirements must be employed should they choose to obtain a firearm.
“With pretty much any diagnosable mental health condition, there needs to be restrictions on gun ownership,” McKenna said. “Anything we can do to reduce the number of guns in people’s hands is a good thing.”
After traveling to Switzerland, Australia, China, Japan and Germany, Stephanie Viehman arrived back to America noting one substantial difference between those countries and her own: gun control.
“They can’t conceptualize why anyone would need them,” said Viehman, of Ohio, about people in other countries with stricter gun laws.
In the week after the June 12 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, the U.S. Senate addressed several issues related to background checks and, once again, found itself nearly divided along party lines with some legislators and Washington, D.C. residents saying special interests are once again in charge.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy introduced a measure that would have strengthened background checks for those trying to acquire guns. Further, the amendment, known as S.Amdt. 4750, would have put in place research on criminal and mental health history, immigration status, indictment status and drug use as a part of its background provisions.
It failed, garnering only one Republican vote.
“I’m disappointed by the results tonight, but far from surprised,” Murphy wrote in a news release on his website in June. “We knew breaking the NRA’s stranglehold on this Congress would be a long, uphill climb.”
This country is rising up to demand safer, stronger gun laws. Millions of Americans are speaking out & they will not be silenced.
On the Republican side of the aisle, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa introduced an amendment that sought to “address gun violence and improve the availability of records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” according to Grassley’s website. Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein vetoed it saying it didn’t go far enough to protect the public.
“If we use very narrow lists, if we do that, we’re left with a bill that has no teeth and misses many individuals who shouldn’t be able to purchase guns,” Feinstein wrote on her website.
Residents and visitors interviewed this week in Northwest Washington, D.C. said they don’t trust adequate legislation addressing gun control will happen this year–an election year in which 23 Republican senators are up for reelection–and said many leaders use the Second Amendment as a shield to stop what they see as important next steps in the gun control movement.
“Today’s lobbying world is clearly why they’re against it,” Washington D.C. resident Paul Alagero, 57, said of background checks. “As much as everybody has the right to guns, it doesn’t mean everyone should have a gun.”
Many believe special interests and lobbying have taken over the debate and make it nearly impossible for conservatives on the Hill to take a stand on any issue related to the Second Amendment.
“It’s crazy,” said Rick Landry, 22, an American University law student.
The National Rifle Association each year donates millions to candidates in both parties although that money largely goes to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which wrote on its website that the NRA “is opposed to virtually every form of gun regulation.”
That powerful lobbying influences legislation, but a majority of Americans actually favor universal background checks.
A June 2016 Quinnipiac University poll showed 93 percent of Americans support gun background checks. That’s up from 86 percent who favored them, according to a 2015 Gallup Poll.
Viehman argued that a strong group like the NRA should be expected to have a lasting influence on the government. She said if they are that strong and wield that much power, they must represent the views of many Americans.
“Lobbying is what our country was founded on,” Viehman said.
Frank Rivera, a Washington, D.C. resident and American University alumnus, feels that wage gaps between men and women in the United States are unfair.
“It disturbs me, of course,” Rivera said. “When we talk about justice and this happens. I feel helpless, frustrated, and anger.”
White women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. But the National Organization for Women says that number may actually be worse for women in the United States. For minorities, the gap is even wider.
Richard Hawkins, 40, who lives in D.C., said there should be a law put in place to prevent the wage gap between men and women.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 “prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility.”
Women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns in the United States. Photo credit Olivia Azulay.
But many interviewed this week said that isn’t doing enough.
“Just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you should be deprived of employment rights,” Rivera said. “Maybe employers should be monitored, they should be held accountable.”
Katherine Schwartz, a 20-year-old who recently returned from studying abroad in Sydney, Australia said the wage gap is unfair.
Schwartz feels especially angry about the potential to earn less than a man for the same work. She wants to be a mechanical engineer, a career she sees as male-dominated.
“It’s frustrating,” Schwartz said, adding the gap is a “systematic issue since women started joining the workforce.”
Third party candidates run for the presidency of the United States every four years.
They never win, and likely won’t this year, but a leading polling group on politics found this election cycle has allowed a small breakthrough for third party candidates–they’re polling higher than they have in 20 years–with many American voters unsatisfied with the two major parties.
Polling data courtesy Quinnipiac University.
A June 29 Quinnipiac University poll, found when likely voters were asked about the possibility of third party leaders, the popularity of the two major party candidates dropped.
“Usually a potential benefit of third party candidates, even if they don’t win, is that they raise issues that are important to some voters, issues that the main parties are not addressing,” said Jan Leighley, a professor of Political Science at American University. “If the third party candidates can get the major parties/candidates to address these issues, that is an important accomplishment, even when they lose.”
Many people would like to see third parties better represented but don’t think they have a chance of getting a sufficient amount of votes.
Philip Herrera, 24, said his positions are closer to those of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, but he will vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in order to prevent a Donald Trump presidency, thinking Stein can’t win and believing there’s no chance for third party candidates in the current political system.
“We would need to rewrite the Constitution,” Herrera said if Americans wanted to get away from a two-party system.
Some Bernie Sanders supporters will cast their votes for Stein over Clinton, according to the Green Party’s website.
Republicans disappointed with Trump are turning to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. Johnson’s slogan on his website reads, “Make American Sane Again,” a likely knock on Trump’s platform to “Make America Great Again.”
But despite the messaging of third party candidates, polls show their chances are small.The Quinnipiac poll showed Johnson getting 8 percent of likely voters’ ballots. Although Stein is absent from the ballot in 28 states, the poll showed she would receive 4 percent.
Ross Perot, who was not affiliated with a major party, captured 18.91 percent of the vote in 1992 and 8.4 percent in 1996. Since then, a third party candidate hasn’t garnered the same amount of attention.
In 2012, 1.69 percent of voters opted for third party candidates compared to 1.4 percent in 2008.
This year, third party candidates’ numbers are better but not enough to get people to think they have a shot at the White House.
“Third-party candidates can’t win this election,” said Chris Hartnett, a registered Independent voter who is still undecided about his November choice. “They don’t have name exposure.”
Esmat Hanano, 22, is unsatisfied with this year’s election and said none of the major candidates deserve his support. He has not, however, looked into possible third-party candidates and doesn’t know those candidates by name.
Garrett Schlichte, 21, believed third party candidates should get more attention, but won’t be getting it anytime soon. He said more parties and candidates would provide Americans with “a greater diversity of thought.”
Meg Bentley, 42, the director of biology teaching labs at American University, said the two-party system “just isn’t working.”
Although many students, faculty and staff at the Northwest Washington, D.C. campus, agree that the system could be improved with more visible third-party candidates, some say they’re a long way from taking hold of high office.
“Not anytime soon,” said Anila D’Mello, 26, of their chances.
