Get a move on! > Why people who stand on escalators are a plague on society Chandler Walter Assistant Editor e’ve all been there. Rushing down the SkyTrain escalator, seeing the bus sitting in the distance, exhaust leaking out of its tail pipe, the driver slowly treading towards the mechanical beast. You can make it. By gods, you will make it. If only this guy in front of you would keep moving. “Go Go GO!” you shout at him, silently, in your own head, as the bus doors close. You hurdle over the Compass Card fare gate, get tackled by a TransLink security officer named Neal, and watch as your bus drives off into the sunset without you. Your commute has been extended another torturous 15 minutes. Naturally, the stationary man on the escalator is to blame, and all those related to him, whether related by action, or by blood. Human kind has created many marvelous feats of engineering. We've laughed in the face of evolution, trading in our mediocre legs and weak lungs for rubber, engines, and cup holders. We've corrected eyesight, harnessed the power of the sun, and—most miraculously of all—created escalators that make us travel faster. Literally stairs that move you more quickly in the direction you are going. But we've become lazy. Instead of using these great revolving stairs of steel to hurtle us more efficiently Publ dibbdbl SEE GULL ULL bbl cit ddl dobisbididtebibih HANH MHA ANT WRN TT TREAT TTP towards our ultimate goal, we simply stand. All human motor functions cease. We allow ourselves not to be pushed forever onwards, but to be carried. And I think that it is despicable. “But going up stairs is hard,” you shout at me, in your own head, staring at a newspaper (or a computer screen— there’s that technology we talked about earlier). Well life is hard, and if you aren't willing to put in the effort to walk upa few steps, there's really not much I can do about that. But at least stick to your side (not of the argument, of the stairway). We live in a free world, a world where people can move about in however fast of a motion that they so desire. You may not walk up escalators, hell, you may not even walk down them, and that is your right. But don’t you dare take that right away from me. I’m looking at you, person who stands in the middle of the Photograph by Analyn Cuarto escalator. I’m looking at you, lady who places her suitcase beside her on the escalator. And I’m especially looking at you, teenage couple who stop to make out while riding on the escalator. Have a little bit more awareness of those behind you, and move over to the right side. The slow side. The wrong side. And eat my dust. Whistleblowers are still the good guys > Despite collusion with Russia, leaks are crucial to keeping government honest Greg Waldock Staff Writer he role whistleblowing has in politics is hard to overstate. It places an enormous pressure on governments to remain legitimate, knowing that corruption, collusion, and mistakes may be displayed for the public to see. Unfortunately, the largest role whistleblowing has played recently was an involvement in getting Donald Trump elected, potentially in collusion with Russia, and something that terrible can make it easy to forget all the good that WikiLeaks and its ilk have done in politics. In 2006, Julian Assange established WikiLeaks, a website built to hold documents hacked from government databases that reveal corruption and illegal activities. In the early 20108, WikiLeaks would come to the international stage as both Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning used the platform to leak documents regarding international spying and military atrocities in Iraq respectively, along with evidence of large-scale corruption in both the Democratic and Republican parties. These three people, along with several others from countries around the world, have changed modern geopolitics and created a system that can hold governments accountable in a way that could never have been done before. During the 2016 American election, WikiLeaks was strategically releasing files seemingly with the intent to cost Hillary Clinton a presidential victory. Thousands of documents, internal memos, and emails were revealed in 2016, proving that Clinton and the DNC were up to seriously illegal and unethical stuff during the past few years. Of all the documents leaked, almost none of them related in any way to the Republic Party or Donald Trump. While the idea of a whistleblowing agency | Ta LM Ny P Mi | ue being controlled by a government— apparently Russia in this case—is terrifying and undeniably horrible, an even worse outcome is the American government using this as an excuse to crack down even harder on people who try to bring crimes and corruption to light. Faith in WikiLeaks is shaken, as it should be. The entire organization may have been compromised by a government, or it uncharacteristically chose a political leaning. This is not okay. But what’s Julian Assange, Image via dailydot.com even less okay is allowing the American government, or any government, to take further actions against the whistleblowers that have been an unbelievable positive for our countries, even if it means WikiLeaks remains unfairly biased against the Democrats. A single ethical whistleblower is more trustworthy than an entire government, especially when that government has so much to hide.