Harassment at the State Meet

On Friday and Saturday of this past weekend, the Boys State Swim Meet was held at New Trier. Me being a swimmer, I had to work at the meet. Although at first I was bummed, it turned out really well; although it was claustrophobic with the mass amount of people, I was right on deck and I was able to see all of the races. One of my jobs was to guard the girls' locker room door-to make sure only female officials and coaches went in. Why I had to guard it, I don't know, because those were the only females on deck. But I was sitting right next to the Evanston team, and during the whole entire meet, they were trash-talking New Trier. At first I just ignored them-I knew they didn't like us. But then one of them went off on one of my friends on the team, and that got me really upset. I was debating whether I should say something to defend him and our team, but I didn't. I didn't want to get involved and have them all hate me too. As I think back on it now, I realized I should have.

This goes back to the rules and morals stuff we learned in elementary school and junior high. That if a friend was being bullied, you should defend them. But, if you're actually in that situation, it's harder than it sounds. Would you defend someone who was being harassed? Even if they weren't your friend?

Miley Cyrus Gets Sued

This past weekend, Miley Cyrus was sued a whopping 4 billion dollars in "damages" for taking a picture with slant-eyes; aka portraying an Asian-American. When I heard this and later saw the actual picture, I though, "Seriously? They're suing her billions of dollars...for this?" The woman suing Miley is from Los Angelos and claims that Asian-Americans are now "victims" from her discriminatory acts. She was also accused of being racist. I think this whole thing went way overboard. She's a teenager whose already made some mistakes before. Although she may not be the best role model, I think everybody should just leave her alone. The picture looked like she was just having fun with her friends. Yeah, it was a little stupid, but it wasn't stupid enough to have to pay 4 billion dollars because of it.

Here is the link to the story: http://www.inquisitr.com/18005/miley-cyrus-sued-for-4-billion-over-slant-eyed-picture/ What do you think of what Miley did? Did she deserve the punishment?

Wheaties or Weedies

On Sunday, one week ago, the swimming phenomenon, Michael Phelps, was caught smoking a bong. Apparently, he was at a party in some college town and someone took a picture of him. What I don't understand is why he would think no one would take of picture of that.

In my math class this past week, we've been discussing this "horrible" act. When I found out he had smoked pot, I did some research and discovered that if a swimmer is caught with drugs, even if it's their off season, they are banned from the sport for four years; therefore, no 2012 Olympics for Phelps. I think it's a pretty harsh rule, but when I found out Phelps only had a three month suspension, I though, "What?! That's it?" I understand that he's a college kid, and that after four years of continuous training, all he wants right now is to have fun. But, while getting high at that party, I think he forgot that he's a role model for young swimmers. I'm glad that Kellogg dropped him as an endorser; he deserved it. As for the three month ban from swimming, I wish it were more, but at least he got something. It wouldn't be fair to just let him off the hook just because he's Michael Phelps.

What do you think of the situation? Was his punishment fair?

Mythology

This past week in AIS, our class has discussed the difference between myth and reality. There are myths created for so many things, like the Rosa Parks myth. Stories fabricated to make them sound more exciting and interesting. The myths that follow me everywhere are the ones about New Trier. The difference about New Trier "myths" is that most of them are true- a reality. What bothers me is that just because a lot of the girls in our school are wealth and have UGGs that I am too, and therefore am "snobby and spoiled" as other schools call us. Over the summer, I worked at a country club with a bunch of Glenbrook South students. When I told them I was from New Trier, they looked at me like I was a martian and every time I mentioned New Trier, they always turned the comment into something about money and wealth. For example, when I talked about New Trier's water polo suits and how they were all leather, one of the workers replied, "Oh..the expensive kind...".

Although we do live in a wealthy district, New Trier shouldn't give other schools a negative connotation. I think other people make up these negative "myths" about New Trier just to have something interesting to say.

What other myths are there about New Trier and why do you think they're made?

Lack of Water

In class this past Friday, we discussed the scarcity of water and how we waste it. And since that discussion...nothing has changed in my life. Although walking out of class I felt bad about how I waste water and even though I said to myself, "I'm going to be careful with how much water I use" I never followed through with it. I'm pretty sure I took a long, hot shower that following night.

I still think it's sad how much water people wast just because we have a lake right next to us. It's especially sad when you think about how many elder, adults, and children who die each year due to the lack of water. Even though many people feel this way, I think for a lot of these people, like me, they won't change their ways. Our nation is so used to having access to water and to having a lot of it, that it will take something pretty drastic to change our ways. It's the same logic with our economy. It became so bad that families finally had to start cutting back on everything. I think that this kind of disaster will have to happen in order for people to also cut back on water usage.

What do you think it's so hard to us to cut back on the amount of water we use?

TV Tokenism

I am proud to say that thanks to Mr. O'Conner's and Mr. Bolos' TV Tokenism lessons this past week, I am now viewing TV programs critically. And what I've seen and analyzed makes me think about what I was doing before these lessons when I was TV watching. Now, whenever I see a non-Caucasian actor or actress, I immediately tune into their character. A month ago, I would watch the shows I love (Gossip Girl, Pushing Daisies) without thinking twice about how the characters acted. This makes me worry about young children or junior high students who are watching shows like this, totally unaware of the differences between the African American characters and the white characters. Because shows are so dominantly white based, it could easily send kids the message that in real life, African Americans are how they portrayed in sitcoms: usually never the main character, just a non-complicated, bland person. Obviously those are bogus statements.

I'm glad that our class was taught TV Tokenism. Not only should the critical viewing concept be taught in high school, but also to younger students as well so they, too, can understand the flaws of television.

Another Side to Video Games

Yesterday I went to my friend's house and when I got there he was playing a video game. I'm not into video games (I'll do Guitar Hero, but that's about it) so I didn't know what he was playing, all I knew was that he was shooting people. As I was watching him kill and murder, it got me thinking about video game controversies. I realize people make a big deal about violence in games, about how it negatively effects children's' minds, but the violence wasn't the thing that bothered and confused me. When I saw the women figures in the game, I was honestly shocked. All of the women were wearing pretty much the same thing: a skimpy, revealing "shirt" and skin-tight pants. Although I know the producers of this game probably only made the women like this to attract males to buy it, it still upset me. If a real life woman wore this kind of clothing and then tried to do the stuff from the video game, she would fail miserably. It's unrealistic and offensive.

How do you feel about violence and/or the exploitation of women in video games?