Month: October 2016

With such an extensive career in journalism and foreign affairs, how does one introduce a person such as Carla Robbins? So while this is just a feeble attempt to accomplish just that task, it may be worthwhile to state now that before she had become a renowned journalist, Robbins had first earned a BA in political science from Wellesley College first. She later received her master’s and PHD in political science from Berkeley college. Yet what some may not realize at first glance, is that Robbins began her professional career as a reporter for Business Week first; before later becoming a deputy editor for The New York Times; to eventually holding her own lectures as a professor at Baruch college.

On describing her professional origins, Robbins told me, “It was just a natural progression. I covered Washington, I was a foreign correspondent, and then [having] a chance to be a senior editor at The New York Times was a fabulous opportunity.”

While in Washington Robbins often had the privilege of meeting with various senators, secretaries of states, presidents, congressmen, and more. It was a “great front row seat” as Robbins puts it. And often times it is this very front-row seat advantage where much of the fun of being a reporter actually exists, according to Robbins. Because when you are behind the scenes, “It’s a good chance for someone to understand what [those who are featured in my reporting are] thinking” Robbins said.

Due to her experiences as both a journalist and a foreign diplomat as well, Robbins has been able to report from many countries too; such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, and even many of the beautiful countries of Latin America. Yet perhaps one of the more rewarding aspects of being a journalist came from working as an editor for The New York Times where she was able to finally hold on to her own opinions. “And that’s the difference between being a working journalist and an editorial writer or a working reporter and an editorial writer… because now I can actually speak my opinion” says Robbins.

Onto current events, Robbins looks forward to having our nation’s first woman president, potentially sworn in if Clinton snags the election from Trump next month. And if America does indeed elect their first female commander in chief this November, would this mean anything for us Americans at an international level? Robbins suggested that it is long overdue. “It’s remarkable that we’re so late to the party,” she said, adding that female presidents have been elected even “in more traditionally male dominated societies.” And as it relates to our nation’s security being managed by a woman, Robbins added that Clinton “will suffer the sling and arrows of every democrat on that front, but I don’t think it is because she’s a woman.”

As an election of many potential firsts, Robbins wonders if Clinton might appoint more women to key cabinet positions too. “I mean she may very well choose Michèle Flournoy to be her secretary of defense.” Yet “If you would had asked me [that question] nine months ago I would had said oh I’m not sure if [Clinton] really would [appoint a woman as secretary of defense].” But now, with the election so close, things look different. Could a man be our [next] Secretary of State?” she joked.

Today, Robbins is an adjunct senior fellow for the Council of Foreign Relations. In addition, Robbins is also among the staff and faculty members over at Baruch college. So even though it is not uncommon for Robbins to be seen running “around tables on the defense budget” at foreign affair meetings, Robbins realizes that her career as a journalist has only enhanced her role as an academic too. “My experience as a reporter makes me a better lecturer and a better academic,” she says. Suggesting that it is directly her intellectual training which has “gave me depth to the way I perceive situations and certainly encourages me to do a lot deeper research when I report a story” says Robbins.

Interestingly enough, Robbins had even shared with me that her mother graduated from Baruch College as well. And when asked if she felt that her career in journalism was better than her involvement with academia; Robbins had told me that “The hands on nature of teaching is incredibly gratifying in a way that I didn’t expect, I really love my students and Baruch is a really special place”. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and [journalism and teaching] are just different phases of my life, and one isn’t better than the other.” Finally, she adds, “I think I am also a lively lecturer because I can also talk to my students about my [own] experiences.”

Teaching Future Voters Today

Celia Kim walks into the classroom and sets her bag on her desk. Students settle in as she writes the day’s class objective on the chalkboard.

It is the day after the second presidential debate and there is the same question on many of her students’ minds: why is Trump still in the race?

Kim, a social studies teacher at P.S. 191 Museum Magnet School in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, often finds the students in her class discussing the election. As this will be the first presidential election in her teaching career, she discovers students are quick to bring up the topic that has been the center of newspaper headlines for months.

These middle school students, aged approximately eleven to thirteen, will be able to vote two election cycles from now and the knowledge they learn in this cycle may influence the type of voters they become.

Kim’s goal is to guide them, not based on her personal views, but on principles she believes, as a teacher and a role-model, is important for her students to understand. “As a teacher, it makes me even more anxious about making sure my kids know how to one, differentiate between fact and opinion; two, analyze how facts are used to support claims; three, become critical thinkers in order to be open-minded, culturally sensitive [and] life-long learners,” she says.

Teaching social studies facilitates much of the election conversation. Kim relates the prevalent issues found in the election by drawing thematic connections to their current unit of study.

However, there is a fine line between Celia Kim, the individual, and Ms. Kim, the middle school teacher. She struggles to balance her personal views with objectivity. “It is very difficult to be unbiased,” says Kim. “I recognize some of Trump’s strong qualities and have spoken about the various scandals around Clinton. But I think spending more time in school talking about how close-minded people negatively impacts your personal growth makes it clear who I’ll be voting for.”

As an individual, Kim acknowledges there is a certain appeal to the two polarizing candidates. “It’s intriguing…it really goes to show how divided our country is,” she says. “It’s interesting to walk through communities that claim to be democratic [and] be strong supporters of a certain candidate.”

Kim speaks of the outspoken, Republican candidate, Donald Trump. When I ask who she will be voting for, she says, “Clinton,” without hesitation. (She quietly admits she had wanted Sanders to be president.)

With a fervent opposition to Trump, she wonders how his supporters were taught as children.

“It makes me more determined to ensure that my kids have access to a curriculum that fosters multicultural sensitivity rather than multicultural tolerance.”

Promoting multicultural sensitivity has been the forefront of Kim’s principles. Being a child of South Korean immigrants, she disapproves of Trump’s views on immigration and the wall on the Mexican border. Her students, many who have a Hispanic/ Latino background, worry about a Trump presidency. “[My students and their families] are people of color and have grown sensitive and very aware of how the world treats people of color in the larger sense, like police brutality,” she says.

Although social studies and politics often come hand-in-hand, Kim has not always been interested in politics. It was only after she started her graduate class to become a teacher did she become interested. “As teachers, we are supposed to instill in our kids a passion for our government, and the desire to participate as knowledgeable citizens… I never really got to learn how to participate as a ‘knowledgeable citizen’ as a student before,” says Kim.

Her former teachers, she recognizes, were also active participants, having encouraged her to vote when she and her classmates became eligible.

Because New York is a predominantly Democratic, or “blue,” state, Kim’s students have uniform feelings on Trump. They question why people are voting for Trump, wish death upon him, and attribute to him many colorful names.

In non-blue states, teachers face a different set of challenges with their students than Kim.

The New York Times published a feature article on Wisconsin-resident, Brent Wathke, another middle school social studies teacher. Living in a swing state, one of Wathke’s greatest concerns is keeping class discussion civil. “The campaign is ruining a lot of classes,” he said. “You have kids saying, ‘We need to have a wall to keep Mexicans out.’ Well, what do you do if you have kids who are Mexican in the class?”

Wathke worries about the effect of the election on his students—a sentiment many teachers across the country hold.

Kim believes there is one thing the mindsets of teachers, regardless of who they will choose to vote for this election, have in common: “The need to educate our students to be critical thinkers, to think for themselves, is always going to be at the forefront of our minds.”

 

Although my opinion on this topic isn’t definitive yet, it might be my wish anyway to focus on our nation’s Federal Loan forgiveness offers; for our courses’ next opinion piece article.

Some topics of this article then can be on

A) Whether grace periods of loan repayment should be expanded

B) Should qualifying factors for loan forgiveness be more broad (for example, not just those who work in the pubLic sector should be eLigiBLe for Loan forgiveness, but those in the private sector as weLL)

C) Should there be more forgiveness for those who don’t meet the requirements of student loan forgiveness (e.x. some requirements of loan federal forgiveness might be that you must make ten years of straight payments, but what if someone misses one or two payments during their last year, should they now have to start again at scratch to be eligible in the future for loan forgiveness? But of course there might be safety measures against such a re-set all ready so it might be too early at this stage to use this example as well)

Moving on then,

Another point to realize as well however is that most people who take out loans should be prepared to pay them bacc. Or out of such reasoning, some might assert to borrowers ‘don’t borrow on what you don’t mind returning (plus interest). So in the tone of a Devil’s advocate, it might be worth it for me to write a paragraph or so on how any Loan forgiveness at all, is more than generous given the nature of what a loan means for anyone that partakes of one.

As for those to interview or feature in this article, perhaps individuals who weren’t profiled by me for our last article (but who sent out a response BACc to me anyway), might some how be willing to provide their insights or komments and might be relevant for this opinion article too (e.g. John Liu: The Professor Who Was New York City Comptroller)

And if it proves difficult for any reason to find the proper facts or sources to cover this topic on Loan forgiveness; then another idea might be to focus on campus life, At Baruch, or cuny-wide, and to just offer my opinion of a few areas such as whether the food choices at Baruch’s cafeteria is varied enough, or even if there are even an adequate array of recreational activities for students At Baruch or CUNY, etc.

Darcey Lehman, 20, is much like your average college student. She goes to class, hangs out with friends on the weekend and tends to dye her hair a different color every few months. Currently it’s platinum blonde. She also has tattoos, mostly wears vintage clothing, and tends to stand out in a crowd.

Like many other Americans she’s been swept up in the coverage of the presidential election. However, she’s also living in Milan, Italy, studying fashion design through the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Each year thousands of students from the across the U.S. study abroad, according to the Association of International Education over 300,000 students studied abroad in the 2013-2014 academic year. For these students voting becomes much more difficult from abroad. This is where Lehman comes in.

Before moving to Milan she had been living in New York City but hadn’t registered to vote there or in her home state of Michigan. “We had a special meeting here with all the American students and the professors,” she said. They assisted them in registering and getting their ballots, but Lehman didn’t think that many would end up voting.

However, with the prospect of a Trump presidency looming she decided that now was the time to take action. She said when talking about the process of registering, “I thought it was going to be so complicated and for everyone else here it was super complicated.”

Unlike some of her fellow students she was able to register and get her absentee ballot via email after explaining that she didn’t believe she would be able to get her ballot in time had she requested it by mail. But she said that had the process been more complicated she wouldn’t have even registered to vote in the first place. This can be a problem for many voters, most of the time the process has to done by mail something Lehman said deterred others. According to the Election Assistance Commission in 2012 over 25 million people voted using absentee ballots, and over half a million voted from overseas. However if the majority of students overseas voted that number would increase.

From her apartment in central Milan, with it’s window overlooking a cobblestoned courtyard, the problems facing America seem far away, the news is filtered through social media, the latest scandal that has everyone up in arms may make barely a splash there. Studying abroad puts you in a bubble. “I feel super disconnected here to be honest; I feel like there’s a lot going on in America that we don’t know about here.”

When studying abroad you become self-isolated, everyday life tends to stay within the city your studying in, among the other students in the program. Lehman has lived abroad before and the experienced this before. The isolation of people, and students in particular, wasn’t new to her but because of the election the difference is a more notable one.

“I think I’m missing out on the chaos and vibe of being there during the election,” Lehman said. Although she also considers the tone of this election to be a negative one. But as she put it there is something in the air during the election cycle, a manifestation of change as it’s happening.

Even without the daily media coverage of Trump Lehman’s main drive behind voting comes from the embarrassment she would feel as an American if he won. “I would even consider moving out of the country if he became president,” she said.

 

The entire tone of the election has caused her to feel embarrassed about American politics, “They sound like children bickering…it’s embarrassing to even watch the debates,” she said. She went on to compare Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to small children.

“I just don’t want to vote for either of them,” she said, but she doesn’t want to throw her vote away. Overall she said, “It does feel kinda pointless.”

After learning about the recent scandals that Trump’s been involved in she said her low opinion of the candidate had gone even lower. However, she also wasn’t surprised but the news, “I view it as just obvious if people can’t see it they’re smoking crack or something.”

Despite the negative tone that’s consumed the last weeks of the campaign Lehman still plans on mailing in her ballot. Part of that comes from living in a swing state, it makes her feel like her vote might be just that little bit more important. “I hope we go blue again,” she says referencing her support for the democratic nominee, “I would hate for Trump to get Michigan, not where I’m from,” she adds with a laugh.

Living in Italy has changed the tone of election for Lehman because it’s changed how she interacts with it.  The pace of life is different in Italy; as a country it functions differently. The election isn’t a constant factor in her life the way it can be on this side of the Atlantic. Because of this it can be easier to ignore what’s happening in the U.S., some she admitted has been the case as more of her time has been taken up by classwork. Yet she still plans on voting because to her it’s important.

For this Op-ed piece I would like to address the lack of diversity and the cultural appropriation that has been ongoing in the fashion industry for many years. This season’s past fashion week there several designers who incorporated African cultural in their shows, from the hair, to the jewelry, and overall theme.

Examples of this are Valentino’s spring/summer 2016 show displaying cornrowed hair and masai beading as well as Japanese designer Junya Watanabe, who intertwined kente and batik fabrics (which are traditionally found in West Africa)  displayed his latest collection. The issue with these themes is that the models who are casted in these shows are either all white or a majority are all white.

Another new similar issue that has come up the Amy Schumer parody of Beyonce’s formation video that is being criticized for cultural appropriation.

On the past Friday, Governor Cuomo signed Bill A8704C which makes hosts who rent out an entire apartment/home/units while being absent illegal.

This Bill meant to monetize home-sharing industry. Due to its rapid growth, home-sharing companies such as Airbnb have a hard time to control all their users’ activities. Therefore, the city decided to take actions in their hands.

Today, dozens of Airbnb hosts protested in front of Cuomo’s office. On the left hand, hosts with sings “I love Airbnb”, on the right side, protesters with support of Linda B. Rosenthal screamed “No to Airbnb because it raises our rents.”

I tried to speak to both side. Interestingly, hosts were the friendliest people, all of them wanted to share their stories. The protesters, did not want to speak at all, although they were the louder people on the street.

Rosenthal, person who actually wrote Bill A8704C, on another hand, was very nice and happily gave an interview. Non of Airbnb’s officials that were present there wanted to comment. They told me to speak to hosts because hosts have a right to say whatever they want. I thought it was a strange twist.

In my paper article I want to focus on that twist and investigate what causes it.

The Undecided Voter

Kevin Wang

It’s September 26th, 2016, and Ray Liang sits on his couch in disgust at what he’s seeing in the first 2016 Presidential Debate on his 48-inch Vizio television. A cool breeze fills the room on a windy night. Liang takes the final sip of his Corona as he listens to Republican nominee Donald Trump speak about his immigration policies. Liang throws his remote in anger at the floor, breaking the remote into two pieces.

“To have to choose between one of these candidates right now, we might as well blindfold ourselves at the voting booth and hope for the best,” says Liang.

Liang, a 27-year old graduate student at Mount Sinai and the eldest child of two immigrant parents, never found a need to tune into an election before. In Liang’s pursuit for a PhD in biomedical research, politics were rarely in any of his studies. Although Liang registered to vote when he was 18, he never made it a goal to go to the voting booths and select a candidate. He’s never truly agreed with the ideals of the Republicans but has never been satisfied with the accomplishments of the Democrats to give them his vote. Liang is an undecided voter.

Undecided voters have the attention of political candidates because of the ability to sway the election results. In American history, two political parties were created to promote democracy. Over time, third political parties would emerge but retain only a small percentage of support. In recent years, undecided voters impacted the election to boost one specific presidential candidate to presidency.

The impact of undecided voters changed from 2012 to 2016. As opposed to the 2012 election, Nate Silver, an American statistician, reported the amount of undecided voters in a FiveThirtyEight election update. “Both candidates, in other words, are slowly gaining votes from undecided voters and from third-party candidates. Emphasis on “slowly,” because there are still a lot of these voters up for grabs. About 15 percent of the electorate isn’t yet committed to Clinton or Trump, as compared to just 5 percent who weren’t committed to President Obama or Mitt Romney at this point in 2012.”

Recently, the FiveThirtyEight election projects the forecast shifted to Hilary Clinton retaining 49.5%, Donald Trump as 43.5% while 7.1% remain undecided or for a third party candidate.

Liang indicates he feels the pressure to vote now more than ever. The impact of his vote will determine the presidential candidate in the end.

“Voting has always been a luxury to us and yet I always stood on the sidelines. The qualification of the candidates can’t be seen through the debates. They don’t justify a damn thing. Their rhetoric is just to avoid the question at hand. What’s going to happen when one is president and a crucial life or death question is asked, then what? We flip a coin?” says Liang.

In an interview with CNN, Cook Political Report national editor Amy Walter answered the mystery of undecided voters: “Walter said for the first time that she can remember, she’s having trouble trusting the data that’s coming from the campaign trail, and that undecided voters are struggling to choose between the lesser of two evils.”

“What I hear from these groups, is just this idea of like ‘You know, I don’t know if I trust Hillary Clinton,'” she said. “One woman said, ‘I don’t trust Hillary Clinton on terrorism’ — to sort of get to your point of instability in the world — ‘but Donald Trump is going to get us into World War III.’ So, that’s why people are like ‘I’d rather cut my arm off than have this election, because that’s what you’re making me choose from.”

Liang’s uncertainty in voting for Clinton, the Democratic Party Nomination or Trump reflects a growing population of undecided voters since the Presidential Debates.

Silver commentated election projections after the Presidential debate by saying: “If undecided and marginal voters were willing to shrug off Trump’s performance, then perhaps they really are in the mood for the sort of change that Trump represents, his faults be damned. Clinton doesn’t seem to have as much of an edge on her opponents in the daily free-for-all of the campaign. So if Trump and his advisors don’t like the post-debate storylines, they may try to create a distraction or two — something they’re uniquely skilled at doing.”

In a Times article published from a focus group consisting of undecided voters watching the debate, the surveyors were convinced Clinton was the victor. The focus group gathered and raised their hand in an angry response when they were asked if they were disappointed with this year’s election.

“I have voted in every election since I was 18 years old. This is the first one I’m going to sit out,” said a Republican in the front row. He was one of ten in the group who initially said if nothing major changed their mind, they would not vote for president in November.

During the debate between two candidates that one voter framed as the choice between “a heart attack and a stroke,” the voters largely agreed that they were hoping to see substance from both candidates, especially from Trump, who they felt had more to prove.

With the conclusion of the third and final Presidential Debate, FiveThirtyEight’s poll suggest Clinton has the advantage of winning the election at 85% while Trump is projected to receive 14.9% of the votes. November 8th, 2016 is the date slated for voting.

“At one side, Trump will give us the next Hunger Games, says Liang when asked about who he’d vote for. “Clinton isn’t trustworthy so I might as well start planning my move to Canada.”

In my article i would like to explain why parents should limit/monitor their children’s time on social media. I think that since the rising popularity of social media, there is even more pressure to look and present yourself a certain way. It’s upsetting to see that some people perceive your value to be the number of followers you have on Instagram or Snapchat.

While I believe that social media platforms such as facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have the potential to be beneficial. I believe that they pose a risk to our self-value and the way the youth views themselves.

 

In 1994, Vicente Mayorga and his wife first arrived to the United States from Ecuador in search of better job opportunities. His story resembled that of many people in the United States today, he had entered the country illegally.

Today, Mayorga works as a community organizer at Make the Road New York, an organization dedicated to community rights in Jackson Heights, Queens. In this capacity, he serves the same people he was once a part of.

“One of my advantages was my experience in the immigration system. I personally know what it is like to be undocumented, I understand that pain and I learned how to give people hope,” said Mayorga. “I learned how to help people by assuming the roles of a social worker and a counselor.”

Since his arrival to the United States, Mayorga underwent the experiences of being undocumented. Although he graduated with a degree in business administration and accounting in Ecuador, Mayorga worked numerous jobs similar to many undocumented residents and learned the difficulties they faced.

“Since I didn’t understand how the law functioned, the injustice, maltreatment, discrimination, and exploitation that I lived as an immigrant motivated me to become involved in organizations to learn how the system functioned, what the laws were, what our rights are whether you’re documented or undocumented, and what kind of protection we have,” said Mayorga.

These experiences led Mayorga to be involved in Make the Road New York, where he serves approximately 100 people seeking immigration consultation per week.

Currently, illegal immigration continues to be a debated issue in the United States between those who support an immigration reform that would provide the legalization of those living undocumented in the country and those who oppose it. In particular, this issue has been significantly present in the 2016 presidential election, in which candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have offered contrast approaches and solutions.

Mayorga, who has been closely following the election, explained both candidates have their own problems.

“Hillary Clinton has stated in that her first 100 days she will work towards immigration reform. Obama said the same thing. He said in the first 100 days there would be immigration reform. His two terms have culminated with the highest level of deportations, which his administration was involved in. He was called deporter in chief. Now we have Clinton who is making the same promise,” said Mayorga.

He also expressed criticism towards Donald Trump due to his negative approach to illegal immigrants, which he views as a reversal of social progress in the United States.

“If we are the leader of democracy in the world and someone like Donald Trump becomes president it would be a setback to previous periods of intolerance, threats, and abuse that the United States already surpassed,” said Mayorga.  

Mayorga stated the actions Trump wants to take would be harmful towards illegal immigrants who already deal with issues such as high rates of deportation. According to the Mayorga, these attitudes are harmful toward families that are separated as a result. Although he was never deported, Mayorga personally felt the impact of being separated from his two sons, who were children when he left and were adults when he returned.

“My wife and I came here and we had to leave our children in our country and we saw them again 13 years later,” said Mayorga. “There is an emptiness that remains in the existence of our family that can never be recovered.”

Initially, Mayorga was having difficulty finding work in Ecuador even with his degree. The lack of a financial income ultimately led him to leave his country. According to Mayorga, this is an issue that many illegal immigrants find themselves in and is the reason they are forced to leave their homes and families behind.

Although Mayorga and his wife were able to attain their residency through a family petition in March 2007, he explained seeing his sons again was a mix of guilt and happiness because of the time they all missed together.

“It is outrageous that these laws allow families to suffer because that separation is indescribable,” said Mayorga.  

Despite working with undocumented immigrants, Mayorga stated he does not feel the people he works with will be affected in adverse ways from the results of the election. Instead, he feels his work will be more impacted by the stance they will take towards either candidate if they become president.  

“One side promises to hurt us and we won’t allow it. The other side is promising relief so we need to make sure they keep their promise,” said Mayorga.

Mayorga stated he does not believe Trump will go through with his immigration policies if he is elected president. According to the people he interacts with, they don’t plan on voting for him and those who can’t vote don’t fear him. He added that the community would quickly respond if he were elected and attempted to implement his proposals.

“We would be willing to go on the streets to tell him it’s not going to happen. It is through peaceful demonstrations that we are able to achieve change,” said Mayorga.  

In regards to Clinton, he stated she has to be held accountable for her promise to provide immigration reform and the community needs to work to ensure she keeps it if she is elected.

“There is a bit of hope with Hillary Clinton. If I had to choose between the two, the lesser of evils is Clinton,” said Mayorga.

Regardless of the elected candidate, Mayorga maintained the most important aspect was bringing about immigration reform in the United States.

“There should be a change in immigration laws that incorporates legalization for all, a path to citizenship, and protection at the border without violating human rights,” said Mayorga. “Human mobility should be eased. It isn’t justifiable that capital and goods can move freely and human beings can’t.”

Comradery, Brotherhood, Unison, all part of U.S. military ethos. The military can be compared to the time-old analogy of the giant clock with all the smaller cogs needing to work in unison so the giant-clock can work efficiently. But what happens when all the little cogs that make up this giant military clock don’t always agree on everything?-

In the election of 2016, the major contenders for the U.S. presidency are Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee and Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. Both with very different agendas for the military
The U.S. military has approximately 660 bases around the world and 1,042,000 deployable soldiers. All who believe it is important to elect a commander in chief that is efficient and who they believe genuinely cares about them. They may not, however, all agree on who, they think genuinely recognizes the sacrifices these enlisted men and women have made and the sacrifices they may have to yet make.

“You have to pay attention to the politics, you have to vote for the right person. You can’t just vote for anyone,” says 24-year-old Specialist SPC. Kevin Guevara, a first generation Salvadorian-American, is enlisted in the Army Reserves.
Although at first glance, the last thing that comes to mind when you see him is: Soldier, he carries himself with dignity and walks erect, past a group of children in the middle of a soccer match in a basketball court. As I sit on the bench, he sits on top of the bench and I am forced to look up at him.

SPC. Guevara is now in the process of getting his degree in nursing at Saint Joseph’s College but remembers being unsure with how he was going to raise money for his college expenses and as a result he decided to enlist in the Army Reserves in August 2012. “Their help is alright. That’s why I did Reserves. I told myself ‘You know what? I’m going to train for whatever amount of time and then come back to finish school.’”

Upon enlisting he was given the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test given to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the recruit in order to help determine what jobs he/she will be proficient at. Based on his score, he landed the job of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist.

CBRN specialists are responsible for defending the country against chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare. His training consisted of 10 weeks of basic training and 11 weeks of advanced training in which he had to wear a protective suit six hours daily. “It’s tough, man. That suit is heavy, it just gets hot. A lot of people pass out from dehydration. They tell you if you pass out might not pass the course they keep count of how many times you pass out.”

SPC Guevara isn’t a stranger to hard work though. At the early age of 8 he started working in the restaurant that is below his apartment in Brooklyn peeling potatoes and onions and occasionally mopping the basement floors. He still works there now. To him that restaurant is his second home and the workers his extended family.

He learned to like the military lifestyle. “It was tough but once you get used to waking up early and working out and stuff like that, you learn to like it. I actually miss it. Now that I’m here, I feel like I don’t do enough.”
Donald Trump’s nomination for the presidency of the U.S. came as a surprise to SPC Guevara. Although he recognizes that some of Trumps policies could be beneficial to the U.S., mainly policies regarding the national debt he says ultimately it was Trump’s blunt demeanor and remarks that repelled him.

“It’s the way he put himself out to be. He has no filter in his mouth. Him talking about religion, Muslims, and Hispanics, and especially war heroes, it makes him sound like a fool,” he says referring to the Muslim soldier that died in battle whose parents came forward after Trump said the U.S. should ban Muslim immigration, ”He just makes fun of the people that actually care about this country. People that are fighting for their life and risk for this country. I’m bothered by it.”

Originally a Bernie Sanders supporter because of his ideas on helping college students with their debt. He believes that the next president should help recruits more with school stating that unless he is deployed, less than half of his tuition is covered.

For him the only option right now is Hillary Clinton. “They both have their flaws. It’s just which one isn’t that much of mistake.” He laughs and says that if given the chance he would vote for Barack Obama again. ”I think right now, at this point, they would vote for him and leave those two clowns aside.”

Data from the U.S. Census and Department of Defense compiled by the NPR, shows that 66 percent of all military personnel including active duty, reserves, National Guard and Air National Guard are white and according to a poll conducted from August 29 to September 9 by NBC and SurveyMonkey, Trump led Clinton by 19 points among voters who are currently enlisted or had previously served in the U.S. military.

When asked if he believed that race had anything to do with the support Trump was receiving from the military, SPC Guevara acknowledged that there is a racial divide as well as racism within the military. “The majority the people are white. I’m not saying all white people are all going for Trump but a lot of them follow him and defend him on everything. There is a lot of racism in the military.”

However, his superiors encouraged them to stay away from politics in an attempt to prevent future disputes. “In our unit they told to us to stay away from politics especially with everything that was going with the elections. This just started recently.”

He recalls one rare occasion where they openly discussed politics. “We did speak about it once and at least more than 50 percent of my platoon were definitely voting for Trump” “I’m not surprised, I’m not surprised. You see the racism. Even now it just feels weird it being a few Spanish people and the rest are all white. They usually hangout with themselves and talk to themselves and they leave us to the side, the Hispanics, the African-Americans.”

Still, he believes that rooming with his platoon, who at the beginning of their training were strangers with different points of views and different walks of life, became really close. “We were like brothers. We would talk about everything. We had no cellphones, no contact to the outside, all we had was ourselves.”

Today, SPC. Guevara finds himself just being Kevin Guevara, an aspiring nurse who, along with me, accidentally have been spectating a children’s soccer game. In those children he might recognize himself and his platoon; celebrating when winning and shouting words of encouragement when losing. Whatever result the election of 2016 has in store for him and his platoon, they’ll go together, even when divided. He affirms “I know what I signed up for. Everyone that signed up to be in the military knows that one day you could get called up.”