Elizabeth Piper

Yael Even, Staff Reporter

Grade: 12
Future college: Texas A&M University
Future Job: Pediatric trauma surgeon
Years in theater: 7
Inspiration: People involved in the Dallas theater community

Wingspan: What all do you do?

Piper: “I do orchestra, soccer, I coach soccer, dance, in school and out of school.”

Wingspan: How has it affected your life?

Piper: “I think it brought a lot of good into my life, I get to meet a lot of new people and have a lot of awesome experiences. But it also makes it a bit more complicated when all my schedules are completely on top of each other.”

Wingspan: What’s been your favorite memory?

Piper: “I think my favorite memory has been doing the show that I just finished The Cupid And The Redhead. It was my first professional show and I’ve got to work with a lot of amazing people and I got to share that with my classmates in theater.”

Wingspan: What do you love to do more, dance, orchestra or theater? Why?

Piper: “I don’t really know which one I love to do more, but I really like theater because it kind of combines all three into one. It combines music and dance and acting which is obviously amazing.”

Wingspan: How do you prepare for a show?

Piper: “Personally, I get there really early. I take a lot of time to do my makeup it makes me feel more prepared even though I don’t really need to. I try to relax and talk to my friends, I don’t like stressing right before shows happen.”

Wingspan: What have you learned about yourself through the arts?

Piper: “I’ve learned how to be a bigger and bolder person, I don’t have to be quiet all the time. I’ve learned you can want and love to do more than one thing. I can love to do theater and art and still want to have a career in science, and that’s okay.”

Wingspan: Are you considering to pursue dance, orchestra, or theater it as a career?

Piper: “I don’t plan to pursue any of those things as a career, but I do want to continue to teach dance and coach soccer and hopefully do theater in the local community wherever I end up.”

Flat earth

This one is ridiculous, and probably half the people that “believe” are hopefully just contrarians, or it’s satire. But yes, haven’t you heard? Space is fake and the Earth is flat. Some with PHDs in pseudo-science still live in the Dark ages.

But to truly comprehend the scope of Flat Earth “Theory”, you have to see where they’re coming from. Not many people know of “Operation Paperclip”, the top-secret CIA operation where thousands of Nazi scientists were brought to work in the United States, the UK, and the Soviet Union. NASA was the prime agency in which they were assigned to. Also among the wider population “Operation Starfish Prime” and “Operation Fishbowl”, where hydrogen bombs were detonated in the upper atmosphere trying to ignite the Earth. This was another NASA-CIA operation.

So we’ve established that NASA isn’t exactly the most benevolent force, but that was decades ago, right? Well some argue that the same scientists train people, and there could be more operations we know nothing about.

Back to Flat Earth. If you’re easily swayed to certain ideas, then you can probably be convinced the Earth is flat. Common arguments against Flat Earth Theory would be gravity. If there is no core to pull us down, how does it work? The common answer is that the Earth, a disc, is accelerating up at the same rate as gravity, 9.8 m/s². Pretty sound, right? I’m convinced. Well what about all the money NASA uses? What’s that for? Some (not all) think it’s funding for a breakaway government for life on Mars, or goes straight to the military or astronauts to keep them quiet.

Who knows.

The Earth could be round, a disc, a triangle, or even a rectangle. But however outlandish or strange some ideas may be, it is important to see why someone believes what they do, instead of shutting them out.