Presidential Address Attempt: 2

Well, it's been a little over a year since President Obama delivered his first address to the students of the United States. If you remember, I wrote a short piece in protest of the fact that I was disallowed to view the address based on a teacher's whim.

This year, however, that did not happen!

This year, I heard about the address once. Not from my teachers or from an administrator, but from one of the faculty who works with special education in my school.

My question is, what's the deal? Why is our involvement in the world still based on an arbitrary decision? I understand, of course, that it is not completely impossible for students to view or hear or read the message. That's not the point.

The point is that we should be encouraged by faculty of the school district to get involved. We should be immersed in the politics of the real world.

"Education is about more than getting into college or getting a good job. It’s about giving each of us the chance to fulfill our promise."
-Barack Obama

Education is about more than getting into college or getting a good job.

Education is about more than getting into college or getting a good job.

Education is about more than getting into college or getting a good job.

It should be, but sometimes I doubt the priorities not only of my classmates, but of some of the people that keep the district going. Is it really about more than that? What would the superintendent, BOE, and administrators think if all of the schools bombed the CSAP or the ACT or SAT at the expense of learning? What if the learning that took place could not be shown on a scantron?

What is the priority? Education, or reputation?

Prove me wrong.

(Note: none of these statements should be viewed as personal attacks. They do not necessarily reflect my opinions of the workers in the St. Vrain Valley School District.)

Mutability

This is a poem that we read in my English 11 class, I quite enjoy it, and hope I get to analyze it further at a later date.

Mutability

WE are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;

How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,

Streaking the darkness rediantly! -- yet soon

Night closes round, and they are lost forever:

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings

Give various response to each varying blast,

To whose frail frame no second motion brings

One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest. -- A dream has power to poison sleep;

We rise. -- One wandering thought pollutes the day;

We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;

Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! -- For, be it joy or sorrow,

The path of its departure still is free:

Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;

Nought may endure but Mutability.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Education, Important?

So, as many of you know, or should know if you're alive, President Obama gave a speech today regarding the importance of education. I, unfortunately and much to my chagrin, was not allowed to see the speech. Not because of my own choice, or my parents deciding to have me opt out, but because watching the speech did not fit into my teacher's lesson plan well.

I have nothing against this teacher, I respect her very much, and enjoy her class quite a bit, but it is ridiculous that I was not allowed to see the elected leader of our country talk to me. It's true that the school district said that the regularly scheduled activities of the day would not be interrupted, but really, what is more important; The president telling us to stay in school and get a good education, or learning for the umpteenth time how to use commas correctly?

Though that was intended to be rhetoric, I will answer the question. Commas are easy to use, and if you don't have it down by the time you're 16 or 17, you're pretty much doomed anyways. How is one to respect what you're trying to teach if you don't allow us to be a part of the outside world? There is more going on than incorrect comma usage among teenagers.

When the clock finally reached the hour, and it was 10, I packed up, and I sat. I tuned out the class. If they won't allow me to have the president tell me that education is important, why should I believe it is? (Well, I am educated and I love learning, but I'm trying to make a point).

I've heard that Obama said that you really can't get anywhere in life without a proper education. Well, here's a news flash for you, Mr. President, you went through school, you got elected president, you worked, you learned, but it doesn't matter. Those who are learning now don't get to hear what you have to say anyways, even if they want to. Which, in the words of my father, is complete bull "pucky."

"Protocol concerning the president’s address to students

September 3, 2009, Department of Communications

At 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time, on Tuesday, September 8, President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of America. During this special address, the president is expected to speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school.

The St. Vrain Valley School District is not interrupting regularly scheduled activities for the broadcast. Some classroom teachers may choose to use the address for curriculum purposes. Teachers incorporating the address in their class will provide parents an opportunity to opt out their student from the activity and receive alternative academic work."

Yes, we could recieve an opt-out for this, if our teachers were deciding to show it. Why not an opt-in? Why were we not allowed to leave the classroom to go listen, and just have to make up any work by the next class?

Admittedly, I am a minority because I am genuinely interested in what the president has to say, and most others would be gleeful to just get out of class, and then spend the time talking to their friends instead of listening to the president.

I feel that I had the right to hear the president speak to us encouragingly taken away from me. While explaining the situation to my sister, she stated, "You're a minor, you don't have any rights." While this is probably more truth than lie, I still feel like they took away the oppurtunity for me to keep up with politics.

Another issue that I had with this whole speech ordeal was how much it got blown out of proportion.

From CNN.com :

"Many conservatives over the past week expressed a fear that the president's address would be used to push a partisan political agenda.

...

'Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me,' suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH last week, before the text of the speech was released.

'I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.'

...

But Amy Veasley, a parent from the Dallas, Texas, area, said Monday she was surprised by the controversy.

'The president of our country wants to call our students to action. I'm not sure why parents wouldn't want their students to hear out the leader of our country,' she said.

A Baltimore, Maryland, teacher who asked not to be identified bemoaned the fact that the country has 'become so polarized that we believe that our president is an enemy and not our leader.'

In many cases, the president has become an enemy to conservatives. Their perception of him trying to brainwash their children in an 18-minute span in which he did not mention politics, and only encouraged them to go forth and conquer, is ridiculous.

This country has become increasingly paranoid toward itself. In the "Golden Age of America" something like this would not have happened. Though, back then Obama would not have been in office, and if he were he would very quickly fall victim to McCarthyism.

In conclusion, so that this doesn't just turn into an angry rant about the loss of American values, and how we're all in trouble because things aren't the way they used to be, I'm going to wrap-up. I am upset that I didn't get to hear Obama's speech, I am upset at the way the school district handled the situation, and I am upset with the people at my school with the "NObama" and other "Anti-Obama" shirts.

Pretty sure this is my longest blog post, and it was nice. Good to get things off my chest. I want to get this into the eye of the admins somehow, not sure how though.

National Day of Silence

This was my response to the National Day of Silence last year, and I'm reposting for those of you thinking of inviting me. No answer is a no. Disregard the links, I'm not sure if they still work. Thanks for reading.


As many of you know, today, April 25, 2008, was the National Day of Silence. If you support gay/lesbian/bi people you aren't supposed to speak for the whole day. This is the information I recieved from many students at my school, though the Website for the National Day of Silence doesn't suggest this action. On the page with the "5 Things To Do For The Day of Silence" it clearly says that you should plan on having a silent lunch, followed by a discussion about how you have been affected by LGBT, and how others that have made the choice to be homosexual have been silenced by discrimination. This was not a day in which you weren't supposed to talk at all, though it is a good excuse to avoid discussions, or public-speaking, but one of the things that the website even suggests is that you should discuss the people affected by discrimination. This was supposed to be a day about speaking up about LGBT rights, and what's the best way for hundreds of thousands of supporters to be heard? Well, by not speaking at all! Wait...that doesn't make sense. How can not speaking out about what you believe in help? Call me not-understanding, you wouldn't be the first today, but that does not make sense. How can you be noticed if you aren't doing anything. You are supposed to echo the silence of opressed LGBT supporters, and the Gays/Lesbians themselves, but isn't this just being more submissive to the "Greater Power". Was MLK shot because he said nothing at all about an important issue? Saying nothing will not bring about "equality" between sexualities.

Oppression can only survive through silence.
Carmen de Monteflores


This quote is very true. If everyone were silent about things they believe in, they will never change. Opressors don't just wake up and think, "Oh, they're nice and silent, I should really just leave them alone from now on. They aren't harming anyone." These kinds of things just don't happen. Freedom of Speech. The first amendment. Please use it people. In America there is so much oppurtunity to get heard, why waste this freedom on not having anything to say. I strongly disagree with the acts of those that took the vow today. It may be for a good cause, but I don't believe it did very much for it. I believe that to change the world you must scream you're thoughts from the rooftops, protest, hold rallies, not eat a silent lunch. To make a difference, you need to be noticed by more than middle and high schoolers. To make a difference, if you really strongly believe in your cause, you need to go out of your way to be different. A lot of people who "vowed" still whispered to their friends, this is makeng even less of a change. You need to believe to change.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi changed much of the world with speech, not silence. He was the change he wished to see. Are you? If you follow this quote, then the change you wish to see is that LGBT supporters do not speak up, and just take the bashing. That was not what the purpose of silence was, though that could be the outcome.
The Day of Silence did not do much. Neither do "Gay Pride Parades", or the "Gay and Proud" bumper stickers. I understand that people want to be heard and eventually viewed as being the same as everyone else, but the currents acts showed more difference than equality. This is most likely the reason for a double-standard that has popped up for Straights and Gays/Lesbians. Gays/Lesbians can have parades, bumper stickers, days of silence, and be completely proud about who they are. Now lets imagine a Straight Pride Parade. Maybe 100 people walking down a street, yelling out, "I'M STRAIGHT AND I'M PROUD!" This would be seen as a ploy to harass Gays and Lesbians. If you drive around with a "Straight and Proud" sticker on your car, you will be seen as a gay basher. Many things that groups can have, and act in, can not happen with another demographic.
Mixing the two groups doesn't seem to work either. A friend of mine told me about her school's GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). When she and her friends went to join, they were ignored. It's because they were not gay. The other members went as far as having a secret meeting and not telling the others about it. That is not becoming allies. Actions like that can only cause more turmoil.
Segregation in groups made to bring together Gays and Straights. This is not progression. Silence for a day if you support LGBT is causing more difference between the two factors. Gay Pride Parades are bringing apart the groups even further. The things that are supposed to help the cause are really hurting it. They are showing the differences between people, not the likeness. There are better ways to gain equality. Integration not Segregation.

Realizations.

-The difference between Ignorance and Apathy: I don't know, and I don't care.

-There are people in this world that are made to be stepped on. It may sound bad, but they let it happen, and they aren't willing to change it.

Banned Books!!

Good Evening, my avid readers. Ha, yea right. Anyways, I'm here tonight to talk about how important banning books is. Not very. For this unit in my integrated class, we are reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and talking about the freedoms we have in school and in life. It turns out, that the aforementioned book is one of the most challenged books for schools. Why? Well, if you have read it, you probably noticed the 200+ times the word "nigger" shows up. This, being so blatantly put out, is harmful to a certain demographic. I realize that since I am not black, I don't completely understand the affect this could have on people. However, there are things that offend everyone. This book is meant to be satirical! It shows that a moronic, street urchin, learns that blacks are people too. Therefore, implying that everyone else who doesn't realize this, must be even stupider than Huck Finn. Sure, you can watch Mind of Mencia, he throws out racial slurs every 30 seconds, and it's funny. Yes, there is a painful past, and still a lot of racism in the world, but allowing this accurate piece of literature to still harm people, even though it is meant to ridicule the oppressors, is not progress. In an article we read in the class, a man said that the African American race needs to respect itself before others will respect them. Complaining about a book written almost 130 years is not going to gain respect for yourself. Eventually, the word will leave the vocabulary, if they put on some tougher skin, and not let it get to them. Most literature has some kind of bias, and can hurt anyone. Should we ban the history books, because a jewish student seeing a swastika could be offended and hurt because of the holocaust? Anything can be offensive, Huck Finn just makes it more blatant. In all reality, it was reality. The book accurately portrays the way people thought of blacks. If all students could read was books that were completely unbiased and unoffensive, they would see the world as a peaceful place. It's not, there is prejudice for anything. The clothing you wear, the way you walk, the music you listen to, hair color, anything. The fact that blacks use the word with each other, only keeps it alive. The fact that Huck Finn is so challenged for it's use of the word, keeps it alive. Pico v. Island Trees states that a book may be banned for being vulgar. It cannot, however, be banned for being unpopular. It's all up to perspective. I see it as neither vulgar or unpopular. I believe it is just another word, but it's the meaning an idividual puts behind it that makes it offensive. Slavery, and oppressing blacks was wrong, but it's time that we leave that ugly past behind, and start off with a new page.

iTunes 8 and Twitter

Today while I was at home being a sickie, I downloaded iTunes v.8. I was very pleased with the new add on. The newest version of what I assume to be one of the most used applications in the united states, if not the world, has added a genius sidebar. No, it is not automatic customer service, it merely shares the same name as Apple employees. When I finished downloading, I was given a prompt to "scan" my library, and a brief explanation as to what it would do. As I read through it, I realized it was something I needed for a long time. It is similar to Pandora with how you choose a song, and it finds other songs in your library with similar qualities. It doesn't stop there however. In the sidebar, it also suggests music that you has similar qualities, or is by the same artist. From the sidebar you can choose to sample and even buy the songs if you like. One good part is that you can go back to a song after you've listened to it, unlike Pandora. Although, because it has to be music you own, it is less of an actual Pandora's Box affect, unless, of course you own every piece of music ever recorded and sold. Another one of it's downfalls is that, with my 2500+ library of songs, it took almost a half hour for it to scan all my songs, and group them together. Also, as long as I am comparing it with Pandora, there is no way to have a song not played in a certain Genius Playlist. At least, I have not found one. Other than the few tweaks I would add, however, I think that this will definitely be a great addition for iTunes. While I'm on the subject of new technology and such that I am trying, I may as well talk about Twitter. This is, if you do not know, a medium for people to exchange what they are doing. All you have to do is sign up for an account, and started following, or be followed by people. People will either Text, IM, or use Twitter on the web to change their status. This change will then be sent to everyone who is "following" them via text, IM, or on the web. Me, being the nerd that I am, thought of some great ways that this could be used. Teachers could use it all the time. They would just have to have their status on Twitter be the homework, or students could "tweet" answers to the teacher if they are shy in class. Teens could keep in touch with their friends or parents by just sending out one text message instead of waiting the extra few minutes for 10 or more to send out. I know, I sound like everything needs to be instant, but in all reality, it does. Things like Twitter, and even iTunes8 are. Sure, it took 28 minutes for my music to be scanned, but a Genius Playlist was developed in less than 30 seconds. With how fast people have gotten at texting, Twitter could be used to alert police or other entities of attack, rape, break-ins. It may sound crazy, but it has a bigger potential than the "OMG! I broke my nail!!" that it sees everyday. It is convenient, fast, and free. That's how we like things these days. If it's difficult, we don't like it. Slow? We can go without. Costs too much? With our faltering economy, free is the only way to go. Look at that, I went from being excited about new things I tried, to criticizing Americans for their outlook on life. Oh well. Anyways, these are both great things to try out. If anyone actually reads this, feel free to follow me.