Technology

I looked up in homeroom a couple of days ago and, I kid you not, every single student had their head down and was glaring into the screen of their phone. Every single student, probably 15 or so were entranced and there was little to no talking going on. This is not right. Technology should never be this kind of a thing, that is accessed at all times of the day, anywhere, everywhere. I pride myself on not having to take out my phone every minute of every day, but I am often tempted. The effect of technology in society is everywhere, you just have to look up. What surprised me the most was not the fact that the students were all on their phones, but that my 2 homeroom teachers were both on their phones as well, looking at sports and what not. It has become too much. Not only does it annoy me greatly, but it also worries me. What does the future hold? If we have made such a big jump in such a short time, how is technology going to play into my life 20 years from now? What about 50 years? It is incredible to think about the endless potential, but equally scary to think about the possible trouble that can come with this technology.

Sexual Assault

Sexual Assault is a crime that does not simply apply to one group of people, that is what makes it so interesting and complex in discussion. We spent all of class yesterday talking about one specific case in which a girl was raped by two boys, but the vise versa of that could happen just as well. While sexual assault on women is the usual, there are plenty of other cases where this is not what is happening. For example, "Decades of Catholic Church sexual abuse tragedies, the Boy Scouts, Penn State, rape in correctional facilities, sexual assault in the military, recurring episodes at high schools around the country are all examples of entitlement to rape in the face of institutional tolerance," writes  Soraya Chemaly, author of "5 ways sexual assault is really about entitlement." I find this interesting because people would never dare joke about date rape, or any man raping a woman, that would be ridiculous and unheard of. However, I can barely go a day without hearing somebody make a joke a rape in the boy scouts, or in prison (Don't drop the soap), and especially in the Catholic church. Why? I have to ask. How can this possibly be acceptable? Cheamly puts it perfectly, she uses the phrase, "institutional tolerance." That is exactly why we joke about it, because it is tolerated. Rape should never, under any circumstances be tolerated.

In the blog, "Yale Fails To Expel Students Guilty Of Sexual Assault" by Tyler Kingkade, I read about how Yale allowed for six students who had been found guilty of nonconsensual sex to keep living on the Yale campus after the findings. "Yale spokeswoman Karen N. Peart said the university does not tolerate sexual misconduct, but said the school won't discuss the specific cases," but how is that not tolerating what is happening? I think that a large part of this is protecting the legacy that an Ivy league school like Yale beholds, not to mention the money that they need to keep the school up and running. Here is where prioritization comes into play, people need to really slow down and think about which priorities matter and which don't. A blatant assault of any person, man or woman, should rank high above anything else, period. But it doesn't always, and that is the tragedy. To be honest, I do not know what we are really debating here. The issue is sexual assault, and it is an incredibly large issue, everywhere. It is wrong, it is awfully wrong, but the truth is that there are people out in the huge world that are really messed up, for lack of a better word, crazy, and they will sexually assault women or young boys. Instead of ignoring that, lets acknowledge it and fight it. The only way that I can figure is to open our eyes. We all know the truth but we just need to act on it. The people making the decisions for Yale are not helping the cause, they are making it much, much worse. Their priorities are all wrong. The right thing for them to do, in my mind, would be to force those students who committed the sexual crimes out. There can be no toleration if we want any true progress.

Big Trouble in Little Sochi

These 2014 winter games have been filled with excitement, but also filled with plenty of drama. I have always loved the winter Olympics. While many find it boring I enjoy watching these incredible athletes as they take on their frozen tundra's and compete in the cold. The drama surrounding these Olympics really has nothing to do with the athletes, or the athletics either, everybody seems to be talking about the setting. While the country is struggling to feed all of their citizens, Putin has chosen to spend billions and billions of dollars on new arenas and venues for the games. Here the catch, they cant even fill the stadiums up. Every Olympics I have seen in the past the stadiums have been filled to the brim with excited fans, roaring and cheering for their countries. When I watch the Sochi games I have seen a dormant audience. The few fans that are at the events are cheering but they are not even close to the intensity I have seen in the past. More controversy surrounds these games too. Russia does not allow gay right to be promoted, which is completely against my morals, but also against the morals of many of the people watching the games. All and all, Sochi was not the best choice of venues at this time of change and progression.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2014, the World Cup will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This competition is surprisingly similar to this winter's Olympics. Both feature struggling countries, especially Brazil, where the slums of Rio are in some places beyond belief. Yet, the government decided to spend an outrageous amount of money on massive stadiums, attractions, or anything else that could make their events stand out. This is the same money that could be spent on helping the starving, feeding the hungry, curing the sick, or really any act of good. Granted, the World Cup will bring great attention and tourism to the country, but that is not always a good thing. It just seems like the priorities are not set, what is really most important is being pushed back further and further.

Hazing

Hazing is a problem because it is not always seen as a problem. As we read in the Rolling Stone article in class, most think that it is "just the way it is." I don't think that it is just the way it is though. No person should have to be put through all of the dehumanizing things that the students at Dartmouth, and I'm sure many, many colleges around the U.S. But here is the conflict, there are some positive things that come out of hazing. The one thing that gets me is when you are a freshman, scared and being punished by the upperclassmen, you are going to be put down so much and be beat down for so long that you will eventually desire to be like those upperclassmen. This to me seems like an unbreakable cycle. The only way to stop it, and this is beyond unlikely, is if every upperclassmen as a certain fraternity were to stop bullying and hazing the underclassmen right now, this instant. This would never happen though because those kids who are upperclassmen now were once in the exact same position that the underclassmen are in, its an awful cycle of violence. Being a freshmen in high school I longed for the day that I could be the big man on campus, walk down the halls with no fear, even maybe push a freshmen or two.

To me, the powerful bonds, the lifetime bonds that are created are not worth swimming in a pool full of human waste. Nothing is worth that. What annoys me the most is fraternities have great potential, the potential for friendship is there and the power is great, but it is misused.

The question that is on my mind is: How do you stop hazing? As I have said before there seems to be an endless cycle of unity, but some say otherwise. "Have the members of your group/organization work together on a community service project.  Visit a ropes course to work on group cohesiveness, communication and leadership skills," says StopHazing.org. And I think that many sororities and fraternities do successfully do these things occasionally, but why do they always revert back to the old drinking games? StopHazing.org also says, "Plan special events when the entire chapter gets together to attend a movie, play, or church service. Plan a "membership circle" when actives and pledges participate in a candlelight service in which each person has a chance to express what membership means to them." This, to me, seems a bit ridiculous. I mean, cmon, how many frat boys are going to want to all go to a church service together early on a Sunday morning. The Key to me is to be realistic. We know a few things, frat boys will drink, and they will haze. So, there needs to be a way to cut those two things down and control them.

Legalization in Illinois

Marijuana legalization has taken over the media lately. Turn on the news and you are sure to see a story about Colorado, probably with a lame pun for the title. Go the internet and you can find countless statistics, facts, and news in regards to marijuana and its use in the nation. To put it simply, its everywhere. The Medical Marijuana Project's online website is a great place to go for this type of news. After looking around, I noticed a few things that made me scratch my head. First, In Illinois last years there were nearly 50,000 marijuana possession arrests. That is a ridiculous amount of money, time, and effort that the police took to arrest those people who were in possession of the plant. Second, and this is the one that gets me, 75% of Chicago murders went unsolved in the same year. Now those two statistics may not immediately feel connected, but they are. Say that marijuana was legalized in Illinois, then the time that the police took to arrest 50,000 people for minor crimes like marijuana possession would be spent on something that I deem much more important, catching murderers. It is really all about your priorities, and I prioritize catching murderers and rapists over a few stoners.

Bullying: First Impressions

In issues we have taken the time to discuss a topic that is present in the lives of every student and even the teacher our class, bullying. This is high school, and where there is a large amount of people there will always be some sort of bullying. However, I am extremely proud to say that for all of the kids at my high school, there is very little bullying going on. The bullying that we are talking about it mostly bullying kids because the kids think that they are gay, and I am proud to say that this high school is extremely open and accepting compared to most. But while we are very, very, accepting of everybody here, there is of course still bullying. I see it playfully in the halls, but it is there nonetheless and I think that as a body of people we need to be a lot more careful with our words. While their is not much bullying, like old fashioned pushing into lockers or swirlies, I've seen a lot of racism and shoving around pushed under the rug. I just hope that it never escalates to anything that I have seen from any of the movies that we have watched. The one movie, Bully, a documentary which focused on a boy being absolutely tormented everyday, had an enormous impact on me and everybody else who watched it. It is hard to watch that and it is hard to believe that their are people who are that bad in the world but the one thing I took away from the movie is this: feel bad for the bullies. Whatever they are doing is because of something they have experienced, something wrong in their life, and that is the truth.