School Lunches

Over the course of my school career I have heard many complaints, and one of the most consistent ones, was about the school cafeteria food. I never started thinking about the complaints until recently when I saw an article about school lunches and how the nations school lunches remain below standards and that some kids are even getting sick from the lunches bought at their school. We are blessed to go to a very wealthy and prestigious public school, but even are school lunches would be called mediocre at best, apart from the spicy chicken of course. The article says that from 1998-2007 over 7,500 kids became sick from their school cafeteria food. Along with this over 8,500 schools failed to have their school kitchens inspected even once in 2008. How can institutions which are supposed to be providing a place of haven for these kids and prepare them for the future, do so poorly on one of the simplest of all things, food. Here at New Trier we have alright food that at least gets us through the day, but what would it be like to go to a school that didnt have as much money? What would their food be like in comparison to ours? As a principle we should at least feed the kids who will be the future mediocre food that is not below national standards and will not make them sick. What do you think? Do you think that school food is alright as it is or that their should be a change?

Iraq war Opposition

In class we have been discussing civil liberties and how the government should include the public opinion when limiting the rights of their citizens. This should also be the same with war, but interestingly enough I recently came across an article in which our former Vice President Dick Cheney shared his view that it does not matter what the public thinks, that the public are in fact irrelevant and he does not care what they think. When told two-thirds of America does not support the war in Iraq his only response and a blunt one at that was, "So?". This leads to me to question our country and how our "democracy" actually works. President Bush was elected....sort of... in 2000 by an extremely slim margin. Even though over 50% of the U.S did not want him as their President, for the next 4 years he made almost every major decision for the United States. This included going into, what many now consider a bogus war in Iraq. In our system shouldn't the government take into consideration what the public views and even base their decisions off of how the public views a certain topic? Why does a man that almost half the country disagrees with get to decide that we will wage war on a country that half of America doesn't agree with? What is wrong with this picture, when a man who is supposed to be in charge of a country is only thinking about his opinion and not paying attention to all of those around him who also have very good ideas that at the very least he should consider. I find it ridiculous that in our supposedly great nation we can have leaders who don't even consider the public opinion, as Cheney says, "No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls." However when the public polls were in favor of him and the Iraq war he used the polls to support his war. Only when the polls are against him are they irrelevant. What do you think about this issue? Do you think the president should be able to do whatever he wants?

BCS Bowls:A rip off?

Since the beginning of the BCS or Bowl Championship Series system in 1998 there have been calls for a change of the system in college football. But not until recently have the protests become serious for a change to a playoff system. This year 5 teams ended up undefeated but only 2 will be playing for the National Championship on January 7, which of course are Alabama and Texas. Although I am confident this will be an unbelievable matchup, it is not the championship game I want to see at all. I would much rather see one of the other 3 undefeated teams get there shot at the title, even though only one of them is in a BCS conference they are all very good teams which deserve to get a shot at the title. This is why I agree with those who say that there not only needs to be a change in the system, but also that there needs to be a 8 team playoff system to determine the actual national champion. If this means 1 less game during the regular season so what, it will be so much better for college football and their fan base. This will also create much more excitement and more games for the best college players to be showcased against each other. Of course, BCS refuses to change the system, and the main reason, although they never state it, is of course money. The system rakes in millions of dollars for those in charge and next to none for those who participate, but are not a BCS conference, as stated in this article. As so many other systems in the U.S., the "lowly" are being screwed by the rich executives, even though they are as good as if not better than many of the big "BCS" teams. Even in college football which is supposed to be fun and a great experience for amateur athletes who are still young adults. This system is clearly flawed and although I will still watch the championship game, I will be thinking about what could have been if Texas Christian University had been in the game instead of Texas.

Darwin Awards

In recent years many of us have become aware of a new award that is giving out to a select few people, or the Darwin awards. This award is given out only to people who have either died in very stupid way, or lost the ability to reproduce, thus taking them out of the gene pool. The awards have gained tons of popularity and have multiple books as well as this website. Of course I enjoy these stories and laughing at the stupidity of others, but this presents a problem, morally is it right to have a entire idea based upon the unfortunate situations of others? I know it is all in good humor, but is it disrespectful to those who have been hurt is the real question. It may be insensitive to the family members or friends of those lost, without the consent of them. My personal opinion is that I do not think the awards are that bad and really like the books and website. But i also have no personal connection to anyone who has been in the stories or really who has died in an unfortunate way. What do you think about the awards? Do you think that they should be allowed to share these stories without the consent of the family?

UC Tuition hike

Recently in the news there have been many articles, such as this one, about the University of California and the 32% tuition increase that they passed recently. After the annoucement there were protests around California as the students were understandably mad at the Universitites for the tuition hike. Many of the students cannot afford the new tuition which is raising over 10,000 annually starting next year. This is a drastic change for many students, and may result in a dropout of many students, who could formerly pay the tuition and were enrolled but now cannot afford the tuition. With almost no financial aid given out to kids outside of California this leads to the UC system elite schools to have either only California kids or very wealthy kids from out of state. This is an absurd amount to raise the tuition suddenly as kids are scrambling to afford the education that was once available to them. As one student said, "Before it was a question of how smart you were. Now, it's do you have enough money to pay for school". What do you think about the education crisis? What do you think the UC schools should do?