Post #4: EOTO Research

The Impact of The United States Postal Service

By Davis Trax

Overtime, technology has been a huge impact on society. It changes our lives every single day. We use technology to get us places, to see what others are doing, to check the time and the weather, to see what messages we are receiving. Messages that we receive. We've had so many forms of communication throughout the history of our planet but even in the history of our country. There is a form of communication and message delivery that has existed as long as our country that, in this century, has been taken for granted and is, in fact, a separate government agency. That is the United States Postal Service.

The beginnings of the USPS can be traced all the way back to 1775, so before the Declaration of Independence was written, during the Second Continental Congress. It was decided that Founding Father Benjamin Franklin would be named the first postmaster general. In the beginning of its time, the transportation of the letters would be dependent upon where in the country these letters were being sent from. If you were sending a letter from the northern states, there were most likely stagecoaches that would come around and take the letters and would deliver them that way, which is extremely close to what we have today. If you were living in the southern states, if you were able to afford sending out letters, you were also a slave owner so your slaves would deliver the letters. Of course, as time went on, the transportation in the world modified and advanced technologically, so the USPS did so accordingly.

In 1792, the Postal Service Act was passed, creating the Post Office Department, which was a cabinet-level department in 1872. In March of 1970, there was a workers strike in the Post Office Department that went up against the US Government. This strike was due to poor wages and working conditions. What started in New York City ended up gathering around 210,000 postal workers and ended up allowing former President Richard Nixon to sign the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, turning the Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service and the cabinet-level department was turn into its own independent government agency.

The impact of the USPS cannot be overstated. It has been serving consistently reliable mail. I, personally, have had no issues with the post service. They have delivered everything I've needed to be delivered and I have received everything I needed to receive. This post service has done exactly what the founding fathers intended. The point of the postal service was to connect people who are far away from each other, and it most certainly did that. Before email, and social media, even if you wanted to send a message to somebody in the town over, you had to send a letter otherwise you would have to bike or drive or walk there. Even though times have changed, the USPS still exists and there are many postal service spots around the country. You can take passport photos there and send packages, which is the main thing the post service does. All in all, our country would not have survived before email and texting if it weren't for the United States Postal Service.

Post #1: My 5 Sources of News and Information

 My Top 5 News Sources

By Davis Trax

My interests these days are all over different topics ranging from sports, to music, to amusement park content! There are many great ways to obtain information on these topics from multiple different sources, but when it comes to me, I have a very specific few that I use more than others.

1. CBS Sports

I love searching Google for sports news especially in basketball, football and baseball, and somehow the most current and updated news doesn't come from some of my other favorite sources - Adrian Wojnaroski on his podcast or Shams Charania on The Athletic - but instead it comes from CBS Sports. I always get really good updates on the college basketball games and on recent rumors with Aaron Rodgers. They always get me up to date on all the news in sports.

2. Coaster Studios

Everybody has a hobby. Some people enjoy singing (I do too) and dancing, and I like watching a POV of my favorite roller coaster. I love amusement park content. I just enjoy amusement parks and rides so much. And I have lots of different content creators that I enjoy watching like ElToroRyan and Air Time Thrills, but my first channel and the most consistent channel is Coaster Studios. They always have great videos on roller coaster reviews, park reviews and park vlogs. Their tremendous content has actually forced me and my roommate to make a YouTube channel of our own. I've even gone into Planet Coaster, a roller coaster video game, made a coaster and have edited it into a hype video.

3. Instagram

I love Instagram so much. It is more of a personal news source, meaning I see more of what is happening with my friends and I see the news that they post, but it also gives me a chance to see news for some of my favorite sports teams, music artists and roller coaster enthusiasts - Boston Celtics, Harry Styles and Park Pros. I am able to see pictures and videos of sports plays, concert performances, roller coasters and I'm willing to scroll for an hour straight.

4. ESPN

As you can see, I love sports. I am a sports media major and have playing sports all my life. ESPN has so many different ways to obtain it's news. You can get it through social media, TV or even the ESPN App. The easiest choice for getting updates on NBA scores, articles on the upcoming Super Bowl and thoughts on the NHL All Star games. I have been watching ESPN since I was 7 years old with my dad, and there might not be a more trustworthy source. Almost.

5. Twitter

My favorite news source. I find out literally everything on Twitter. Everyone I've mentioned above I follow on Twitter - CBS Sports, Instagram, Coaster Studios and ESPN - and even more. I follow all my favorite sports teams, athletes, sports organizations, musicians, news outlets. The great thing about Twitter for sports is that you're feed is a lot easier to control than some other social media outlets. Twitter is used by so many times and even though I love Instagram, I like and use Twitter much more. 

Post #3: Eight Values of Free Expression

 Eight Values of Free Expression

by Davis Trax

The value of free expression that resonates the most with me was pretty clear early on into reading this. I saw promoting tolerance and thought about how tolerant we have been in society towards people who express strong opinions and how I've learned to be tolerant towards others when thinking about if I was in their situation, but I didn't think it would be able to beat how I feel about this one.

The third value mentioned, titled "Stable Change" says, in a personal sum-up, that we should be given a place where we can freely express anger or sadness and that because of this, we will be able to steer clear of resorting to violent actions in order to resolve our own personal issues. I agree with this, having personal leverage in this mindset, but it does need one limitation.

I have spent years coping with anger by talking about it out loud to myself. Whenever I am alone in my room or in my house, I am able to conjure up my words and formulate my thoughts out loud so I can better understand how I need to approach the situation and how to better myself from it. It is the most effective thing I have ever done to help coordinate my mentality on certain matters and if I hadn't, I may have not had the same quick resolution to the problem.

I know that I am not alone in this because many other people and even celebrities do the same thing. But instead of talking out loud to themselves, they resort to a more public setting.

Twitter can be such a great way for famous people to connect more with their fans by posting tweets throughout the day of what they are doing and why they're doing it and all sorts of other things, but it can also be the grounds for some pretty strong opinions that they can put forth. They use it as ground for argumentation. Lately, all they do is post their opinions and then news sources write lengthy articles on their own interpretation of the tweets that could totally misread the persons thoughts.

My final verdict is: Yes, there needs to be a place where people can go and vent and be expressive, but it needs to be controlled and it needs to be private. There is no need for random people to have to see problems celebrities are facing on Twitter and there needs to be room for people to move around and flail about if they're that upset about it. If there is a way we can implement a place where people can safely offer their emotions up to their problems in a safe, private setting, then I support it so much.

We can offer so much more to ourselves and society when we are able to think rationally about our choices and the best way to do that is by getting all of the emotion out of it prior to taking it more public and seeking out help from others. 

Post #2: History of the Supreme Court

History of the Supreme Court

By Davis Trax

One thing that I learned that I didn't previously know was that John Marshall basically created and established Judicial Review in the case of Madison v Marbury in 1803. Judicial Review is so important to the checks and balances of the judicial branch, and I was glad to learn more about it's creation.

Personally, I think the biggest takeaway from this article was learning who our current Supreme Court justices are because after the unfortunate passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, I wasn't actually aware of who ended up joining the Supreme Court afterwards.

The most surprising thing that I learned was in the early days of the Supreme Court and the Judiciary Act of 1789. More importantly, I didn't realize that originally, there were only six judges and that they didn't hear any cases within their first term. I am glad they were able to change the number of justices to nine. It should've at least been an odd number so that there would never be a three-way tie.

The video and the History post definitely changed my viewpoint on the Supreme Court and the judicial branch as a whole. Personally, I think their checks and balances are the best out of all of the branches, so I definitely think the Supreme Court is cooler than I thought. I just think it is amazing that we hear so much about our President because of the affairs he deals with, and so without any other knowledge, people can assume Biden is the leader of the nation. He isn't. He has equal power with the judicial and legislative branch. He can't do any unconstitutional without getting exposed by the Supreme Court and he can't give and Executive Order without the judicial branch reviewing it. I just think that is pretty badass of the judicial branch. 

High Point University A Capella Takes on Disney World

BY: DAVIS TRAX

 

Q News

 

High Point University clubs have had an interesting year, with not being able to travel in September, to having the mask mandate uplifted as of November 15^th. The three a capella groups are taking advantage of both and are working together like this for the first time ever.

 

BRINGING THE GROUPS TOGETHER

 

The HPU Toccatatones, Petal Points, and Offbeats are the university’s premier a cappella groups, with the Toccatatones being all-male, the Petal Points being all-female and the Offbeats being co-ed.

 

Up until this point, neither of the groups have done any collaboration in performance or albums. Every project the groups have done have been on their own and have had lots of success, but competition stirring between groups was what held this possibility back for so long.

 

Former Toccatatones President Collin Frankhouser was a part of the competitive period in the history of the groups. 

 

“The relationship between the groups was hot and cold,” says Frankhouser, “because on one hand we were all friends but there was still an element of competition between the groups.” 

 

Frankhouser, when he became President of the Toccatatones, made it a priority that all three groups come together and form one unity and family of fine arts, which was not easy since the boys were just releasing their newest album, Ovation, in fall of 2019. 

 

“The longer I was in the community and the more effort we made to communicate, the closer the groups got and the more fun we all had together.”

 

Frankhouser’s efforts are a part in what lead the groups to come together and eventually plan this trip out. Current Toccatatones President Jacob Janik believes Frankhouser’s effort indirectly lead to the Disney trip being formed. 

 

“All the groups collectively helped bring themselves together, as well as members from all the groups hanging out outside of rehearsals and the parties we have with everyone," said Janik, "but (Frankhouser) is the one who initiated a lot of the activities that allowed us all to hang out together.”

 

Janik, along with Alexa Ondrush, President of the Petal Points and Shannon Conrad, President of the Offbeats, helped make a graph. They were asked to rank group bond and workload on a scale from one to ten. 

Conrad, Janik and Ondrush all believe that group bonding had gone up tremendously since the release of Toccatatones seventh LP, and is at an all time high.

Even with the group bonding being at a high level, all three Presidents have faith that the morale and relationships between the members will only continue to strengthen.

EXCITEMENT FLOWS THROUGHOUT

A constant through this process is the exhilaration each member gets from preparing for the performance. Some can be intimidated knowing how Orlando theme can pull off a spectacle during the holidays.

The Presidents of the group have voiced what excites them individually.

"I love Disney myself and always go every year with the exception of COVID," says Ondrush, "but I haven’t been in the past 3 years so I am very happy to be back especially to perform."

"I'm ecstatic," says Janik, "I feel like it's going to be a good experience in a multitude of ways. It'll be good for us to perform in a different environment. It's just going to be a lot of fun."

"I am extremely excited to be able to go to Disney. Being that Disney is one of the top companies or corporations globally, there are tremendous opportunities that can come out of performing."

Even former Toccatatones President Collin Frankhouser voiced his praise.

"There is a lot of potential to advertise this trip to future singers and to the HPU community as a whole."

Like it has been previously said, a major form of excitement from the group leaders revolves around the groups finally coming together to perform on such a well-known stage.

“In the past the three groups haven’t had the relationship that they do right now," says Ondrush, "and I think our EC’s have done a great job working on that this year.”

"It'll be good for us to learn more intricate, soprano-alto-tenor-bass arrangements," says Janik, "And we get a chance to work those arrangements with the other groups."

"This trip has already been awesome in further building the report and camaraderie between the three groups," says Conrad, "and this has been a great opportunity to work with each other and get a better understanding of how each group runs."

Excitement stems in other ways as well. There is some nervous excitement explained from Janik due to ICCA's happening shortly after for the Toccatatones, but still remains optimistic.

"With the tight timeline we're on and the traveling that we're doing and the logistics of it all, it's a learning experience to see how to deal with tight timelines and getting stuff done when it needs to be done."

Some of the excitement for them goes even further than personal group development and bonds.

DIVING DEEPER INTO THE BENEFITS

 

A big outcome from this trip could be that all of HPU a cappella can continue to work with Disney. 

"I think this is a great opportunity for us and high point university," said Ondrush, "For us to be able to go to Disney and perform on behalf of the school and represent it well, looks great and can lead to future opportunities between the two."

"This opportunity isn't something every group gets the chance to do," says Conrad, "and we get the chance to create a relationship with Disney."

"Especially in Disney Springs, when we do a good job, it'll be a chance for us to showcase to Disney and the parks and give them a chance to reach out to us and ask us back," says Janik.

The groups also want to focus on spreading a positive image about the university and share the name of High Point University down in Disney

"This trip will demonstrate what High Point University is all about," says Conrad, "hard work, resilience and choosing to be extraordinary."

These groups will not soon forget this experience they are about to go on.

RELATED LINKS

Toccatatones ICCA's Video

Disney Park “Sparks Outrage” After Character Was Rude to Guests