“When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.”President Donald Trump delivered this line in his inaugural speech on January 20, 2017, while addressing a crowd that Press Secretary Sean Spicer, labeled the largest inauguration crowd in history.

The turnstiles click, the train chugs, the children laugh, and the happy music plays. You’ve now entered the euphoric world of franchised milk and honey known as Disneyland.

As dozens of students packed SMC’s Skybox Gym on Thursday, May 11, the big screen greeted them with a stark yet encouraging message on the main projector: “Everyone has a mental health story. Talking about it shouldn’t be taboo.”

Summer weather, with the right amount of spring breeze, made the perfect backdrop for the Latinx Festival, held on Thursday, May 11. Fresh food and other cultural attractions brought dozens of curious students to the quad.

It’s Saturday April 29th, at 10:30 a.m.; on the corner of Florence and Normandie, a big crowd of people gathered on a very hot, sunny morning. A loud crowd of families, adults, kids of all ethnicities walk together in commemoration. Exactly 25 years ago, this same corner was probably a lot quieter.

On April 30, 2017, the world-famous Venice Freakshow had to say goodbye to the community it has known for the past 11 years. Todd Ray, the owner and founder of The Venice Freakshow, had a childhood dream that became his reality when he opened the boardwalk side-show attraction in 2006.

Shoulder to shoulder, red and blue t-shirts hung from a clothesline stretching across the line of palm trees down Santa Monica College’s main quad.

Pierce College’s South Gym blasts with music and the sound of pounding warmup spikes as Orange Coast College and Santa Monica College prepare their teams for one of the most crucial games of the season: The California Community College Athletic Association’s Men’s Volleyball Semifinal Game.

It was the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots that brought accomplished photojournalist Bart Bartholomew to SMC on Thursday, April 27. He covered the riots as they developed in South Central LA in 1992.

On Saturday, April 23, hundreds of scientists and activists gathered in cities nationwide to show their support for fact-based research and environmental protection.

As the first men’s volleyball playoff game of the season commences, the relatively big crowd does not shy away to show their support to either the Santa Monica College Corsairs or Pierce College’s Brahma Bulls.

Southern California has been mired in an epic drought since 2012. Our hills have been painted drab brown through these dry seasons, but the recent rains have changed all that. The drought is over and the rain has brought new, vibrant colors along with it.

The results are in! Meet your Associated Students leaders for 2017.

While The American Dream thrives in my own private bubble of the universe, a few blocks down, near an interstate 405 exit, so many tents are pitched underneath a freeway ramp that it could look like a camping ground if not for the blinking of traffic lights and the passing of rushing cars.

How will the new fitness center fit in to SMC? From the student parking lot on Pico Boulevard, to the library near Pearl Street, to the bleachers of the Santa Monica College field, the new and improved Core Performance Center building stands tall for all to see.

Her eyes betray hidden exhaustion but instantly light up when she speaks. Her black jacket and muted grey shirt are elegantly simplistic, drawing all attention to her statement piece, a scarf – vibrant in its deep hues of brown, patterned by red diagonals, it whispers hints of her rich cultural background, traces of Ethiopia.