Silent Graduation

Diplomas Denied Over Graduation Cheers



The student eagerly rises from his seat, anticipating his turn to walk across the stage to shake the hand of his principal for the past four years, then to feel the smooth paper of his diploma settle into his hand--the piece of paper that declares he has struggled and succeeded through four years of high school madness. He wears a huge grin on his face, eager yet patiently waiting for his name to be called--and then he hears it. His name is called, and you can hear it reverberate through the auditorium as he proudly and confidently strides toward the principal to receive his certificate. But the reverberations of his name are swallowed by his equally excited family and friends, and along with the reverberations go his diploma.

How depressing.

Can you imagine what that student felt? The feeling of his heart dropping into the pits of his stomach, the feeling of rejection, the knowledge of a diploma denied.

It's understandable that adminstrators would want to keep this ceremony quiet enough for parents to hear the names of their children called out. But what is worth more: the sound of the student's name being called as a declaration of his success, or the tangible evidence of said success in the form of a diploma? Really now...can't we all just be happy for each other? Their children all struggled through four years of the same high school--let them all rejoice collectively, as the one body that they truly represent.

Another student who was denied a diploma, Nadia Trent, said: “It’s not fair. Somebody could not like me and just decide to yell to get me in trouble. I can’t control everyone, just the ones I gave tickets to.”

Good point. What if those cheering had malicious intents at heart? No good, no good.

Assisted Suicides

Kevorkian Speaks After His Release From Prison

I must admit, I admire the man for his persistence, even after eight years of imprisonment. At the same time, it's just a little unnerving once I take into consideration what it is he's being persistent about.

Assisted suicides? It's almost like putting dogs to sleep. Is that what we have been reduced to? God made us the way we are for a reason--we actually are on a different level than mere animals, contrary to what people may want to believe. Though I don't understand why they would want to equate themselves to the likes of animals in the first place...

The guy may be a little extreme, but at least he has a passion for something. And he cares about the government that guides the country--even if he cares about it in a negative light. Too many people stumble through their lives, clueless as to what it is the government is doing to alter their very lives. So many people today lack passion; they have no motivation, no direction, no desire to do anything anymore. It seems that people like to settle for the mediocre, the lukewarm, the comfortable.

If only people like Kevorkian were passionate about the right things...if only.

California on Iraq

California Primary Ballot May Include Iraq Question

“He grew up during the Vietnam War and saw all those young people take to the streets,” Ms. Trost said. “He said, ‘Now they can go to the ballot box.’ ”

Too bad it seems like "young people" really don't care. In comparison to "young people" during the Vietnam War, at least.

I can't say that I've actively taken a stand on the war. Yet I can name four people off the top of my head who were relatively close to me who either fought or are fighting in the war. Why is it that we don't care anymore? I digress.

What does this mean for presidential campaigns?

Win or lose, the measure would be toothless, but pollsters and political scientists said it could change the dynamics of the primary race here, in part by making it difficult for presidential candidates to avoid the subject while campaigning in the state.

Good luck, potential Presidents.

N Korea = full of

...excuses.

"Because of the intervention of foreign powers, the implementation of what is agreed upon between the two Koreas is being suspended, and the inter-Korean relationship is being edged out by foreign powers," the North's Korean Central News Agency quoted Kwon as saying in Seoul.

The North -- which staged a short-range missile test last week -- also took the South to task for its joint military exercises with the US, and urged it to repeal its tough National Security Law and reject outside interference.

Looking back at these past few decades, all North Korea seems to have wanted is for the United States to clear the peninsula completely. Thrice, I believe, did North Korea attempt to have peace talks with South Korea; thrice did they fail. But why? Why did these talks fail? Well. It was always on the part of North Korea to rough things up a bit.

I think that the North Korean government just wants to purge the peninsula of any US influence, to reach their ultimate goal of reunification. But their means of reunification is for the North to take over the South by force.

I think it'll be a long while before North Korea will ever become cooperative with South Korea and the United States, let alone the rest of the world.

The Watcher

Rise of the Internet Police State

“Quite often,” observes Lawson, “if you go in and actually read what you’re clicking ‘I agree’ to, it says ‘I agree to let you track my activities online and use that information for whatever you want.’”

Holy cow. I really should start actually reading those agreement things...oh dear. This article makes the government, or the "Internet Police State," sound a lot like the secret police or Gestapo of Nazi Germany. Okay, so maybe not a LOT like them, but enough to bring them to mind. Though we in America may fall victim to this Internet Police State and find that our every action is being watched and recorded, it's not half as bad as those perhaps in China.

Whatever the case, I don't know what this nation is coming to. I'm not even that surprised that our every move is being watched, but at the same time, it does make me a little nervous. And I don't want to become the over paranoid described in this article.

Ironically, the internet once promised a veritable democratic revolution of wide open communication. If current trends continue, we could well end up paranoid and close mouthed, afraid that everything we do will be recorded, forever available for use against us at at any time, in any way.

It seems that America is become less of a nation defined by its people, and more of a nation defined by its regulations.

China in Darfur

The world is dying...

The point of this article is that China is screwing the US over in terms of our attempt at helping out with the crisis in Darfur.

Morally, the world is dying. Mass murder, moral depravity, etc.

Physically, the world is dying. "Together the two nations' output of the harmful gases will surpass that of the United States by 2015 and Merkel, who is having trouble winning Washington's support on the environment, believes that without their help efforts to fight global warming will fail."

When will it end? Is there even a light at the end of the tunnel?

This just reinforces my last entry...

Generation F*cked: How Britain is Eating Its Young

This piece is mainly about how the UK is neglecting its young and focusing only on the older generation. Adults, parents, have placed their children under excessive amounts of surveillance, only to observe disgustedly from a distance.

It's almost as if consumerism has swallowed the minds of middle class parents, urging them to spend all of their money on their own comfort and to purge even the earth of all of its resources, to a certain extent. Yet it has also swallowed the youth, for it is no longer mainly those who live in poverty who wreak havoc among and throughout society by means of crime and chaos; it is the the children of those who have money, who can afford to buy their children what their greedy, twisted little hearts desire. These children, the youth, lack nothing physically. It is a lack of morals that runs rampant in the UK...but why does it even matter? Because this isn't just something that the UK deals with--it's something that we're dealing with here in the States.

Corporate America is eating everyone alive. And we don't even realize it.