Category: Editorials
Biden Administration Immigration Reform
Leaana Khan
Co-Editorials Editor
Image Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Rio Grande Valley Sector
During his campaign, Joe Biden made many promises to resolve issues surrounding immigration and border policy. While his administration has certainly acted on a lot of these promises, a good portion of them remain unfulfilled or incomplete. A select few have even been completely disregarded by the administration.
One of the biggest upsets from the Trump administration was the separation of migrant children from their families. The Biden campaign made the task of reuniting these families one of their top priorities during the election. They established a task force dedicated to finding the families of these children. However, as of April 2021, none of the families separated under Trump have been reunited. While it seems easy to blame the Biden administration for this major shortcoming, the reason that no families have been reunited stems from problems during the Trump administration.
Continue readingGun Violence, A Preventable Situation
By Allison Diaz and Erin Peters
Staff Writers
Why are weapons of war being sold to people? If bearing guns are to protect ourselves, why do we hold more fear instead? It saddens us to see people getting murdered and wounded due to gun violence, especially since it is something our government can prevent with stricter gun regulations.
About 50 mass shootings have been reported in the United States since March 16, where eight people were murdered and one injured in shootings that took place in three Atlanta-area spas. And in the past few weeks, there have been a hefty amount of mass shootings. More than eight people were killed and numerous people have been wounded.
In Chicago, Illinois, a seven year old girl was killed after being shot multiple times at a McDonald’s drive-thru lane. Her dad was shot in the torso and is in serious condition. No one is in custody but the shooting is under investigation.
Continue readingMilk: Let’s Talk About It
Cow milk and benefits of alternative milk
By: Ada Wang
Staff Writer
There are many different kinds of milk, each with different benefits and drawbacks to them. Starting with the most common one is cow milk. Cow milk has the benefit of calcium which is widely known as being necessary for building and strengthening bones, but it also carries out important functions in our body. It allows our muscles to contract, our blood to clot, and our heart to beat. Cow’s milk is one of the most accessible and well-known foods that is rich in calcium. The downside of whole milk is that it is full of saturated fat and calories, making it bad for people with high cholesterol and heart problems. My parents always have milk in our fridge and I had been drinking it since I was a child. I dislike the aftertaste, and a year or two ago, I have tried to avoid it to the best of my ability, opting for milk alternatives instead.
Soy milk is the most nutritionally balanced alternative of the bunch and most similar to the nutritional value of cow milk. Soy milk is a good source of protein, vitamin A, B12, and D as well as potassium. It also has no cholesterol which is good for those with heart problems. Soybean is also fairly easy to grow. There are many speculations about the cons of soy milk, including lower fertility and issues for people with thyroid conditions, but none backed by consistent evidence and research. The only clear disadvantage of soy milk being that soy is a possible allergen. Soy milk was one of the first milk alternatives I tried and I enjoy the taste of soy milk. I have tried sweetened soy milk to unsweetened soy milk that tasted more bean-y. It took a little to adjust to the taste of the more bean-flavored one, but after a bit, it tasted just fine, and still better than dairy milk to me.
Continue readingVaccine Passports and Post-Pandemic Travel
By: Bella Kaguyutan
Staff Writer
As more and more people worldwide are getting vaccinated, non-essential travel will soon return. Travel post-pandemic will look much different than it did before 2020. The concept of vaccine passports has been proposed as a method to allow travelers to prove vaccination before entering a foreign country. This would allow people to travel to other countries without having to go into a quarantine period. While some may be against it, some countries are already lining up plans for vaccine passports.
The topic of vaccine passports has stirred controversy worldwide even though required vaccinations are not a new concept. All states within the US require children to be vaccinated before attending school. Except for certain medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions. In addition, most colleges require a meningitis vaccination prior to attending if the student plans to live in on-campus housing.
Certain countries have already begun the use of vaccine certification and others are lining up to begin soon. In Israel, citizens are enjoying newfound freedom through the use of the Green Pass. The country currently has the second-highest percentage of vaccinated citizens in the world and the Green Pass gives these citizens access to hotels, gyms, and theatres. Iceland, Croatia, Romania, and many other countries are also allowing fully vaccinated travelers to enter the country.
Continue readingOnline School: Why it might be a better option for many students
By Lizzy Hughes
Staff Writer
Image source: https://www.the-rampage.org/4573/features/online-school-in-september/
For most of this school year, students have attended school virtually to stay safe and healthy during the pandemic. With online school came the freedom of staying home and waking up at a later time to log into class.
The number of classes each student took changed, and students could choose an extra subject that they wanted to take, without the worry of midterms or finals. For seniors, taking four classes each semester was a lot less stressful, and students were able to focus more on their college applications or plans for the future.
Many students find it hard to go to school if they struggle in classroom environments, or if they worry about their appearance in front of their peers constantly.
Continue readingBiden’s Budget and the Ever-Increasing Military Spending
Lydia Jensen
Co-Editorials Editor
Sean Rayford / Getty Images file
Bidens 2022 Discretionary Budget Proposal, released on April 9th, unveils a lot of changes in the budget that depart from the Trump Era. This contrast can be mostly blamed by party lines, with Biden making more increases as opposed to Trump’s ‘cuts’ of many departments. One part that stays the same throughout both presidents and parties, however, is the ever-increasing military budget.
The budget proposal is 58 pages long, and includes changes to many of the important departments, but the ones that are increased the most mark an interesting departure from what we began to expect.
Education is the largest of these funds, with a 41% increase, which is almost more of an increase than the bottom 7 on this infographic from the Washington Post illustrates.
Continue readingBrood X Cicadas 2021
A Delight… Or a Disaster?
By Morgan Lane
Staff Writer
Get those umbrellas and rackets ready. Starting in the beginning to Mid-May of 2021, the East coast will begin to be infested with large, monstrous bugs called cicadas. When the ground temperature reaches an average of around 64 degrees, the millions of Brood X, or, “Eastern Brood” cicadas will doom states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, Ohio, and Indiana, among others.
For four to six weeks, the loud cry of the cicadas will be ringing all throughout the state, even in one’s own backyard. They are only around an inch or two long, but with the overwhelming quantity of them, the sound will be nothing short of a choral disaster. The loud noise they create can reach up to 100 decibels, and they can be loud enough to cover the sound of a plane flying in the air. It’s been said that the sound tends to reduce at night. But, it is possible that stubborn outliers could stay out and disturb people’s sleep. “Cicadas are quite loud so if they do make noise at night, it’ll be hard to sleep,” says 10th grader Vy Tran. Scarily enough, Hammond’s Officer Scott adds on, “…They made a lot of noise. You hear them all night long.” But thankfully, the demon spawn only have one main reason for being above ground: to create the next generation.
In a nutshell, the generation creation cycle consists of boys crying for girls, girls going to boys, mating, egg laying, and dying. Pretty useless, right? The booming, “cacophony of stupidity,” as Hammond Teacher Mr. Livieratos describes it, is actually just mating calls. Male cicadas are making their call out to females, in order to reproduce. Once they do so, the females create small slits into tree branches to set her eggs. After the male has found a female to reproduce with and the female has laid her eggs, both will die a few weeks later, leaving the eggs on their own. These eggs will eventually hatch, and the cicadas will come out of them and make their way to the ground. For 17 years, the babies will lazily indulge in tree roots until they grow up and repeat the same process their parents did.
Continue readingGeorge Floyd’s Death, BLM Protests, Derek Chauvin’s Trial, and Police Convictions
By Ariyanah Shelton
Staff Writer
Police brutality may have caused a black man named George Floyd to lose his life by using over aggressive force. On Monday May 25, 2020 a man named George Floyd lost his life after police were called by a clerk at Cup Foods reporting that Floyd had used a counterfeit bill to pay for his purchase.
After being approached by an employee of Cup Foods about the use of the counterfeit bill, Floyd refused to reenter the store to talk about the bill in question. According to an article written by Nicholas Burroughs and Jack Healy in Independent, titled “George Floyd: Inside the Minneapolis corner store whose worker made the 911 call that led to his killing,” Floyd was sitting in a car just outside the store when a white police responding to the call arrived. The actions taken by the police in the next few minutes will forever be remembered by all the bystanders watching.
Protest, after protest, after protest, occurred not only in the United States but all over the world. People of all races protested, and continued to protest for justice, and to put an end to all the brutality coming from officers who were hired to protect the people. They were tired of the wrong decisions, the racism, the anger, the lack of training, the way they overreact to situations, and the number of black lives that were being affected by police officers actions.
Continue readingThe Art of TaeKwonDo
A Sport Outside of School
By Gabrielle Fernandez
Staff Writer
2017 Para Taekwondo Worlds ⒸWorld Taekwondo
School sports mostly consist of basketball, football, volleyball, track, and others depending on what school you attend. The majority of sports involve working with a team, and while socializing with others and working in a team environment can create skills for the future, there are a lot of individuals who prefer to work alone. The perfect sports for individuals who want to immerse themselves in exercise are martial arts, and more specifically, TaeKwonDo.
Continue readingDana White and the UFC’s COVID-19 Response
By Joseph Gray IV
Staff Writer
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, masks and social distancing have been mandatory. Most sports fully stopped pursuing their season, but not Dana White! A close friend of the Trump family and owner of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Champion), Dana White has decided to take matters into his own hands.
UFC events have been held on the island of Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. Dana and the UFC have taken heavy COVID-19 safety measures such as testing, masks, social distancing, mandatory quarantine, and virus-killing mist tunnels to combat the virus. At the start of the pandemic though, Dana was faced with obstacles. At the beginning of COVID, the UFC’s Vegas 9 Event turned chaotic quickly as fighters had to drop out one after another, many of them catching COVID. Despite this, the event went on and Dana seemed quite proud of what he had accomplished.
Continue reading