A Blog on McConnell Center Life

 By George Nalbandian  In 1981, the Dead Kennedys recorded one of their most famous songs: “Nazi Punks F*** Off.” The song quickly became something of a rallying cry for punks who were tired of Nazis invading their subculture. Punk has always been about being anti-establishment and anti-fascist. I bring this up as an introduction because I want to talk today about a much more unfortunate association between Nazism and music, specifically black metal.  Let’s get something out of the way first: is all black metal made by Nazis? Absolutely not. There are loads of fantastic musicians in black metal bands who are otherwise completely normal people with normal political beliefs. In fact, there are also musicians making extreme metal in the left wing. Communities such as r/rabm (Red Anarcho Black Metal) are dedicated to finding black metal that is decidedly antifascist and not NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal). So then why does black metal have a reputation within the extrem...

 By Grayson Ford  I stood on the worn-out hardwood floor of my middle school gymnasium, wondering if my trembling hands were audible through the microphone I clutched white-knuckled. Miraculously, the relentless pulse in my ears paused just long enough to hear the host call my name. There was no turning back. Of my actual performance, I remember little other than the song I sang. I walked away from that middle school talent show with a couple things, however. First, I walked away with much-improved confidence in my singing ability, only strengthened by the first place trophy I now held in my once-clammy hands. More importantly, I left that gym with the ability to share my passion for music with the world. That seemingly insignificant Friday would go on to be one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Music would become the medium through which I would communicate with the world. Before I had the confidence to share my music with others, I was shy, reserved, and eff...

 By Jasmyne Post  What they don’t tell you about college is that you will suddenly have a lot more time and a lot less direction than you did in high school. Yes, your classes are four hours apart. However, you are also expected to read and study for hours per class outside of class time. Also, you need to have a job; also extracurriculars; also a personal life; also a family life- all while successfully getting an adequate amount of sleep. At some point during your college career, you will realize that something has got to give. It is up to you to choose what that will be. As someone who has changed what I have decided to sacrifice several times throughout my last four years at UofL, I would like to offer you the best philosophy I have found to balance everything. When you first read my advice you will want to click away. Or at least that is how I would have felt before I found a way to successfully execute this method. What I am about to suggest is not meant to be easy and i...

 By Ben Barberie  This past week brought with it a grim pandemic milestone. November 17 th marked a full year since the first case of COVID-19 was identified in China. In the months since, more than 57 million have been infected globally and more than 1.3 million have died. The United States claims more than 11.7 million of these infections and over 250,000 deaths. Beyond the tragic toll the pandemic has taken on human life, it has brought social, political, and economic consequences. It has also clearly illuminated the moral failure of the health care system in the United States. Far too frequently, we allow our sense of American exceptionalism to cloud our ability to impartially examine our successes and failures as a country. We do this with many policies and practices, and health care is no different. Take, for example, the fact that the richest country in the world was so ill prepared for the possibility of a pandemic that some frontline healthcare professionals were for...

 By Laura Hinkle   In my time interning this semester, I’ve had the opportunity to engage with various projects through the Overseas Voting Initiative (OVI) team. Our overarching goal is to support policy initiatives that make voting for uniformed and overseas citizens as accessible as possible. One of the ongoing projects I’ve been working on is an initiative related to faxing. Almost half of the states in America have laws declaring that the only methods of return that can be used for overseas ballots is mail and electronic transmission, with electronic transmission specifically being defined as “fax” or “facsimile”. One of my first tasks when I joined OVI was to pull election laws for overseas voters from every state’s election code and document each state’s options for method of return. If a state had fax or facsimile language, I traced the history of the legislation and its amendments to find when this language was put into law. On top of this, I’ve helped in the compilat...

 By Eli Graft    Every single person has been impacted by COVID-19 in some way. Now, I know what you may be thinking after reading that first sentence. You are about to read yet another person’s take on the disease that has dominated the attention of nearly every aspect of this past year. However, I only want to share my experience as a college student during this time. Having COVID-19 is stressful, anxiety-inducing, and downright scary. Many of my peers both in college at UofL and back home in Northern Kentucky had managed to avoid the ominous disease as the worst part of the pandemic raged across the world. February through August, I had yet to see coronavirus truly impact the student population. Nonetheless, I was isolated for this period of time. I would gather bits and pieces of news as we learned more and more about how the virus worked and I would regularly watch the White House briefings updating the nation on the situation. It was pretty early on that scientists ...

 By Isabella Martin   My favorite word is “resilience”. First and foremost, I am a biracial woman of Filipino and Scotch-Irish descent that grew up in a small town in Appalachian Kentucky. I have always heard, “Isabella, you’re so quirky” or “Isabella, you’re different.” This was not about my ethnicity. I am a biracial woman from Appalachian Kentucky that grew up dreaming of exploring the world and, not just reaching but, joining the stars. I remember thinking, “I am a visionary. I’m meant for something greater, something more.” I started dreaming this at the ripe young year of fourth grade. The time that followed included many moments of being brought back down to Earth and the cliché “sitting at my classroom desk and staring off into the stars hoping that I would someday join them”.   I have never attended anything other than a public school. My educational experiences were limited but turned out to be exactly what I needed. My parents and grandparents were the...

 By Paighton Brooks   This year we celebrated the centennial of the passage of the 19 th Amendment which granted women’s suffrage. While it was a glorious day and step forward in the United States for women, I would be remiss in not acknowledging that this initially only applied to white women. It took much longer for Black women to find themselves among the electorate. Even still I can recognize the importance of this milestone. It has an equal importance to me now because this year is my first time voting and 100 years ago women who looked like me could not vote. However, overshadowing my excitement to vote I find myself in disbelief by the state of politics and humanity in America.  So much division, so much hatred, so much violence but where is the resolution? People are hurting. America is hurting. We are still combating the domineering presence of racism that seeps into every crevice and institution of society. This was displayed through the senseless deaths of Bla...

 By Katie Hayden   When I first started running, I never thought I would enjoy it. I find it crazy that, when asked what my hobbies are, the first thing I say is running. I never imagined I would stick with it. I am a social person, and running was a way to stay in shape while spending time with my friends; however, running has taught me so much more. I have noticed so many parallels between the highs and lows in life and struggles in running, and I have learned so many life lessons in the process. Here are a few things running has taught me: Discipline. There are 24 hours in every single day. When distractions surround you and try to consume you, focus in. Remember your goals and push through. Stay the course and you will reap great benefits. Often this requires you to wake up early or stay up late, but in life, we are forced to do this sometimes to meet a goal.  Perseverance. Running is challenging both physically and mentally. It is so easy to want to quit and even eas...

 By Emily Bevins   If there is any piece of literature that modern feminists should blindly hate, it is probably William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” The main character Katherine Minola begins the play as a headstrong, quick-witted woman who knows her worth in society, even if society prefers her obedient, soft-spoken younger sister Bianca. By all accounts, Bianca is the pinnacle of Elizabethan womanhood, and a great number of men seek her out for her docile traits. Katherine, on the other hand, is sought after only by Petruchio. He’s arrogant, foul-mouthed, and can turn any of Katherine’s insults into a sexual innuendo. He is the sole catalyst for the devolution of Katherine’s character. He starves her and deprives her of sleep all while constantly reaffirming his love for her (truly the ideal husband). By the end of the play, Katherine, once willing to verbally spar with anyone at the drop of a hat, is reduced to a housewife more obedient and loyal than a golden retr...