Meet the Man Who Runs the Editorial Page for the Buzz

August 28, 2009

“Effing adorable,” that is how he describes himself, and to say the least, he is just that. Tyrone L. Heppard is a 24 year old young African-American man born and raised in Johnson City, New York since May of 1985. He attended and graduated from Johnson City High School where he claims he became a “dedicated Wildcat. Rarrr!”

At Broome Community College, he strives to become a journalist. A passion he says he has because, “I feel that not only people have the obligation to know what’s going on around them, but they also have the responsibility to report the important things to each other with honor and integrity; I want to be a part of that. I want to report the truth.”

When he is not studying things like reporting, image theory or media and society, he is found listening to some of his favorite music performed by bands and artists like Warren Zevon, Pantera, Queen, T.I., My Chemical Romance or Motley Crue on his Mp3 player. He also enjoys the movies Clerks and Mallrats as well as the book American Psycho.

However, do not ask him if he has a Facebook account. He gets very defensive in saying, “I despise MySpace and Facebook.” If you want to contact him, you better ask for his cell number, he does have one of those. Spiders and conservatives are also on the list of dislikes. But as for the “likes” column, he says that music, games and beer are more like “loves.”

He recalls one of his worst experiences being when he got hit by a van on the way to work (GameStop in the mall of course, because Tyrone loves his gaming) while riding his bike. He wasn’t injured but he remembers it well. I think we would all remember getting hit by a van pretty well, no matter the circumstance.

Tyrone, the one who wants to make the world laugh, and accomplishes that really well when he opens his mouth. Honestly, you never know what will come out if it. Therefore, I leave you with this last quote from him, “Ashley, since we have two classes together, why don’t you buy the book for this class and I will buy the book for the other class, and we can just share. We will save money. We’re in a recession you know?”

The Hectic First Day at “Where It All Begins”

August 24, 2009

Anyone in the vicinity of Broome Community College (BCC) on the first day of school can’t help but notice the traffic. Naturally, Front Street is a nightmare to begin with; it always gets a little more frustrating the first week of classes. This semester, I had my first class at 10 a.m.—I hoped by that time, things in the area would be cleared up traffic-wise.

They weren’t. The cars were backed up to Timbuktu trying to turn into BCC using the South Entrance, Lt. Vanwinkle Drive. Nevertheless, there are those people who are in the “wrong lane”—the lane that goes straight past BCC to go either to Upper Front Street or the North Entrance at College Drive—and “decide” at the last minute or at the most inconvenient time that they want to be in the turning lane to the South Entrance.

After searching, and searching… and searching for a parking spot that only exists out near the jail, I finally park my car and head to my first class … in Titchener Hall, conveniently located near Front Street, on the far side of campus from where I am parked. The long walk to my first class gave me the opportunity to observe everyone. I mean everyone!

Everyone and their brother seemed to be on campus; most probably didn’t have class until later, but needed to go to financial aid—always a nightmare for the first week of school—or they just really needed to see all their friends they didn’t see over the summer. Whatever the reason, everyone enrolled in BCC was on campus the first day; they were all there and outside walking around.

But not exactly “walking.” Most seemed to be doing a power-walk or an undefined jog. They all seemed like they were in a hurry, like they were really late to where they needed to be, when, just like me, everyone was probably actually early in fear that they would be very embarrassed the first day arriving late to class. Myself, I was there at 9:30 a.m., giving myself a half hour to get to my class, and to find a planner before they were all gobbled up. But I noticed that most people’s hurried walks were frequently accompanied by hops, jumps, quick side-skips to dodge the geese feces that littered the sidewalks of the campus.

Most students were prepared to begin college. They got their financial aid in order and went to the bookstore to pick up their books, which can range from $200.00 to $500.00. Like everyone else, I have done most of these things in preparation for my first day back to Broome Community College.

The first day of classes can and most likely will be nerve-racking. There is so much to think about: will my courses be exciting? Who is my professor is and what will he/she be like? Do I need to make some changes to my schedule if I don’t like the content of the courses I chose? How can it not be nerve-racking?

I, knowing my way around (having been going to BCC for about 5 years), ended up at my first class at a decent 9:45 a.m. This gives me fifteen minutes to sit and observe more people, like the ones who are completely lost, roaming around the teachers’ offices wondering if it’s the classroom.

Many of the girls (including myself), were dressed really nicely; you could tell they’d done their “school shopping.” Most probably sat up Sunday planning their Monday morning “first-day-of-school outfits” to make that great first impression.

My outfit was not so extreme, just comfortable jeans with flip-flops and a generally nice button-up shirt. Nothing so complicated as my classmate who walked in with heels that made her about a foot taller than I suspect she really is. She will most likely learn her lesson to never wear them again, if only because of the goose feces.

By the end of the first week, there will be a lot of girls who do not care anymore whether they look like runway models and will be wearing their favorite comfy pair of sweats with a hooded sweatshirt and hair still wet in a bun.

On the first day of school, we all can agree that whether it was stressful or not for us, we all are there for one reason… to learn and get a higher education. Just because we are there for the same reason, we also have realized that this is “Where It All Begins.”

She Stepped Out in…(gasp!) SHORTS?!?

August 19, 2009

Should she or shouldn’t she? This question has not too much meaning on America and doesn’t really stir up a controversy. We all do it. We dress ourselves on a daily basis, picking the right outfit for the moment. What is appropriate and what is not appropriate is taken into consideration. However, when the weather is hot and the humidity is off the charts, there is no choice but to wear shorts to stay cool. We all wear them, whether we wear them in public or not, everyone has had shorts on at one point or another in their lives.

So can someone please explain to me why current headlines and news are so excited over the fact that the First Lady, Michelle Obama stepped out while vacationing at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, sporting of some shorts? Can I please get an answer as to why a poll taken shows that 16% of Americans think that that wardrobe was inappropriate for her to wear?

She was vacationing for one thing. On vacation she can wear what she wants. She is having family time. She wasn’t at a press conference she was vacationing. I am surprised she was wearing anything at all… the weather in New York is 90 degrees I can only imagine what it is like in Arizona.

I think that the reason that 16% say it is inappropriate is because she was showing “too much leg.” Which prompts another question, if she were at a beach; would she not be able to wear a swimsuit?

Modernmom.com said it perfectly, “All across the Internet, people are calling them "short shorts". Honestly, calling them short shorts is a bit of a stretch. The shorts in question actually seem to be more of a mid-thigh length.” There are shorts that come in all different lengths. The length of hers… appropriate. They could not be “short shorts.” They covered her very well all the way to mid-thigh. They showed no butt cheek, gave no camel-toe and definitely were not skin tight. She looked clean, cool and… under control.

I think that the First-family has more to worry about, like health care, that they don’t need us breathing down their backs about their shorts.

A New Life to Deal With

August 19, 2009

When I was 19 years old, I found out I was three months pregnant with my first child. I was still in high school and just recently moved back in with my mom. I had been living with my boyfriend and his parents for almost six months when I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. It was an abusive relationship that I think I would have died in if I didn’t get out. When I got back home to my mom, it was Thanksgiving. When I found out in early December of 2003 that I was pregnant, I immediately called my ex-boyfriend and told him. His exact words were, “Good thing you still don’t live here with me, because I would have thrown you down the stairs to make sure you didn’t have that baby.” He continually asked me to have an abortion, but I never wanted that. I didn’t believe in it and definitely didn’t think it was right for me. I was scared like anyone else who is young and unwed and now unexpectedly pregnant. I had really only one choice to make, and whatever that decision would be- it would impact the life my unborn child forever.

By the time I showed up at the Life Choices Center (then called The All Woman’s Help Center), I had already decided on adoption and found a couple ready and eager to become the adoptive parents of my child. A lot of things were testing me when I was pregnant. I had Satan telling me to have an abortion and God telling me that giving this child life was the best gift I could give him or her. I had classes every week with Della. At the time, the Life Choices Center wasn’t too familiar with dealing with a young woman that was giving her child up for adoption. There were no classes for it, no videos to watch, nothing that would really help me after the fact of the adoption. But Della really filled in the blanks. She made me comfortable with the fact that I was making the right choice and that this may not be an easy road, but it was a better alternative than abortion. For the first time, I was able to know what was happening inside of me. I was able to know that she was there when I needed to talk and she understood without being judgmental.

I was an emotional mess. I was scared to go to school with a growing belly, knowing that I would be graduating with the concern that I could go into labor that same day. It was hard walking the halls of my school that senior year, my belly surpassing my feet, and me being the only one with a backpack with wheels, because I couldn’t lift too much. But somehow- the same school that I feared being rejected and I had been before I was pregnant now accepted me with open arms. I don’t think it is because they thought it was cool for me to be pregnant, but they knew my situation, knew I was scared and that I must be on the brink of going crazy with all the decision I had to make, and they were sincere in helping me. I had friends and they wanted to know all about the pregnancy. They helped me with my books and walked me to my car, and I felt accepted more than I felt like I was an outsider. They didn’t make me feel like I did something wrong and that would haunt me for the rest of my life. But I think that the reason I felt that was because it started at the Life Choices Center. Before I was accepted elsewhere, I was accepted there by Della and all her coworkers.

I was getting points for doing different things that I already did in my everyday life, like” Get good grades, go to work, go to church… etc. I was able to use those points to get things I needed for me and the baby. It was great to be able to check in with her and let her know the details of how the adoption was going and deciding things for when the day came. Della really helped me know that my walk with the Lord would help me the most. And to this day she is right.

The Life Choices Center changed the way I felt about this pregnancy. In the beginning I just wanted it to be over. I wanted the nine months to go so fast that I couldn’t remember it. But with help from Della, I was able to cherish the fact that I did something great by not only giving my biological son Ethan life, but I gave a couple something they tried so long to have. And thanks to the center, I can now explain in a good way, why I did what I did when Ethan’s questions arise.

Editing: As Easy as 1-2-3?

August 13, 2009

“Aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.*” Looks like a mess doesn’t it? (Unless of course, you can read it.) Supposedly everyone can read it, but I have heard there are some people out there who can’t. However, whether you can read it or not- I am sure everyone has had a chance to see it before now since this is one of the most popular forwarded emails. I know I have received it at least half a dozen times.

The thing about this messed up paragraph is that the last line holds so much truth. “This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole.” When we write and type, we all make mistakes. It is especially easy when typing on the computer. There can be some letters mixed up like “jsut” for “just”, or a letter can be forgotten like “othr” for “other”, or a letter could be replaced with another letter by mistake like “fell” for “feel.” But if you are typing in Microsoft Word, you expect that it will catch your mistakes before you proofread and edit. However, that squiggly red line doesn’t appear under a word that isn’t misspelled. It wouldn’t appear under “fell” because that is a correct spelling. Microsoft Word doesn’t know what you meat to say, and really it doesn’t care as long as the grammar is correct.

Here is a perfect example. As I was typing, I forgot the “n” in “meant” and it became “meat”, which Microsoft did not catch because of the correct spelling, because the program does not read my document to know what was really supposed to be said.

Therefore, if I (the writer) were to edit this myself, I may not catch the word “meat” either because I know what it was supposed to say and therefore may just skim over it because it has mostly all the right letters. And perhaps maybe my editor won’t catch it in the first read either. THAT IS OKAY! But some people just find nit-picking a habit. They always correct people’s grammar and pronunciation and… it is annoying. I do it too- to a degree.

When we read our work, we do not read each letter of a word. If I were to start reading the last line I just wrote, I would not read it like this, saying each individual letter: “W-h-e-n w-e r-e-a-d…” Instead, I would read each word as a whole: “When we read…”

There are sometimes when a writers writing must be perfect and flawless such as when they are a professional. Journalists for CNN, NY Times and anywhere that is even local should never have mistakes or obvious ones anyway. But for people who use a site like CNN for the iReport! to post their works, and they are not paid professional writers, are they not allowed a simple mistake or two? Are they supposed to have their “works” edited professionally just to post it as a reader submitted article that may or may not be read by others? Some people like editors say that everyone’s writings should be edited before posting.

So, whose side are you on?

Binghamton Visitors: What Did You Pack?

August 6, 2009

In some place of the United States, people still have their summer clothes hanging in their closets and have their winter clothes tucked away in a tub or box in storage somewhere until the weather starts changing to fall. In some places, winter never really happens and summer sticks around year long. In other places… well, places like Binghamton, N.Y., we should always have both summer and winter clothes on hand everyday… just in case.

This year has been no exception. The weather is in one way never predictable here. You never know what temperature it is going to be until the day arrives… and most generally looking at the weather forecast never helps. On the other hand, the weather is always predictable here. You can always expect the weather to change at any given moment. So far, we haven’t had a summer per say. The climate of 70 degrees has stuck around for quite awhile now, and there have been some chilly nights. At one point, if you have kept your furnace on this year into summer, there is a good chance it may have kicked on one or two nights in July. Then there are days that are 80 some degrees but feels like 100 degrees and the sweat drips off of you the moment your foot touches the pavement.

It is now early August and the weather at this moment is 68 degrees at noon time. Last night it was cool. No reason for a fan or air conditioning. The breeze blew through the windows quite well and kept everything comfortable. But that wasn’t the case on the night before, where every fan running just wasn’t enough, and the air did have to be put on.

For those of us who live here, and those who grew up here, we know not to get attached to weather for too long; because in any moment… it could be different. Welcome to the city of two seasons. For the people visiting, what did you pack?

God is No Longer in the Miracle Business

August 3, 2009

My mom always tells me to pray for everything, and Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Of course, I always feel like something’s are too small to bring to him. My mom on the other hand finds nothing too small of a deal to take to God. Every time I tell her that I have lost something, whether it is a pen, the remote…ANYTHING… she tells me automatically to pray for it. One time, I forgot where I hid my daughter’s bag of crayons in the house after I took them from her for a punishment. With my mom on the phone, she tried to help me think of all the places they could be. In a short silence I heard her whisper and mumble something, when suddenly I found them in the one

For information about Gardasil, go to: www.gardasil.com. Or have the talk with your doctor about it.

place I never thought I even put them… her closet. When I told my mom I found them she said, I just prayed God would show you where they were!

In April of 2008, I was diagnosed with the human papillomavirus, widely known by its initials, HPV. I am sure we have all heard the well-known commercial for GARDASIL. “GARDASIL is the only cervical cancer vaccine that helps protect against 4 types of human papillomavirus (HPV): 2 types that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases, and 2 more types that cause 90% of genital warts cases. GARDASIL is for girls and young women ages 9 to 26.” A Pap test is used to detect abnormal cells which may develop into cancer.

I was not happy. I was scared that mine would turn into cancer. I always have the worst of luck. My doctor told me that he would do another pap in three months to see if they were still there. In August of 2008, I had my repeat pap and the cells were still abnormal. So he said we would wait one more time until February and then if they were still there, we would do something about it.

I was confused as to why we were doing all the waiting, but after awhile it slipped my mind that I even had it. I was feeling fine and going about my normal routine every day. For weeks on end I was having someone at my church pray for me for a something else I had going on in my life at the time, and I was so caught up in praying for that, that in almost a year, I never once thought of having them pray for my HPV to go away.

The week I had my pap I remembered I sat in the waiting room thinking I didn’t really want to know the results when they would come in. However, I knew that I would have to find them out. Soon I heard, “Ashley?” I knew it was time to get this over with. I was told I would have the results that next Tuesday so as I was getting ready to find out the results, I went up that Sunday and had my HPV prayed for. I prayed that it was gone and if it weren’t that it wasn’t turning into cancer.

Finally, Tuesday came. I was getting more scared now with what my outcome would be. That fateful call came on time, and the words were so unbelievable, “Ashley, you are fine. You’re abnormal cells are gone.” I wanted to call everyone and tell them the good news. I was relieved.

Although, it wasn’t until the following Sunday when I realized what had happened. I went almost a year without bring this HPV problem to God. I brought all my other troubles and burdens to Him, except this. But the week I brought it to Him, I was freed of those cells. This was the biggest miracle that I had experienced and realized right away that the prayer had worked.

Pastor Brandon Samuel once said, “People tend to think that God is no longer in the miracle business, like He made the world and then went on vacation. He hasn’t. There is no vacation or sleep for God. He is still doing miracles every day.”

Well, if I hadn’t experienced a miracle and realized it, I don’t think I would have believed it. He IS still in the miracle business.