Iraqi LGBT

This morning I walked to my kitchen table only to see the twin plastic grins of the most recent republican candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin, grinning at me from the front of the newest Newsweek. It's a special Republican Convention issue.
No surprise there.
However, I decided to read the publication, which lead to my discovery of a fascinating article: one that dealt with homosexuality in Iraq.
With all of this war going on, it is surprising to hear of an issue so fragile. The humanity of the Iraqi people seems to be going straight through the media sifter, and we tend to look at the issue through eyes that see only numbers, statistics.
The way that Americans see it is there are too many larger issues to attend to than to be concerned at all about simple issues such as these peoples' sexuality and civil rights.
But here is an example of what an ignored issue results in:

These men were allegedly gay. That was their only crime, and they were gunned down in the street by police for it.
"Since 2003, some 430 gay men have been murdered," says Newsweek.
Iraqi authorities monitor suspect behavior in any man who shows signs of a tendency. These measures go to the extent of looking through cell phones, entering homes, etc.
The good news in the midst of this situation is a group which has been formed to hide these men, who want nothing more than to harmlessly pursue their own happiness... Iraqi LGBT.
For those of you who don't know, LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. Here in the US, we've begun to use a longer version, LGBTQ, which just adds Questioning at the end. There's a little piece of irrevalent information for you all.
However, this group consisting and supported by activists abroad has begun "safe houses," where these men hide out in extremely cramped quarters to survive. They don't go out of the house and limit contact with any neighbors.
More than anything else, this issue opened my eyes to the fact that in the midst of mechanical war, there are people. People who just want to exist.
I hope thats part of what we're fighting for, because that, not oil, is a worthy cause.

SATS: Students for Advancing Teacher Salaries

Hello!

This is my first rant in written form for the year...

I am a member of the SATS group. It stands for "Students for Advancing Teacher Salaries" and it all started out when I called a couple of people who I thought would be outspoken and passionate about change for the teacher salary/district situation. I have to sadly admit-I probably wouldn't have done anything if our clubs hadn't stopped. The conflict has gone on for more than a year, and I did not know any student who really stepped up to help the teachers last year. When I found out that clubs were to be nonexistent, I thought about the situation for a couple weeks and I had the sudden urge to help. We take our teachers and our clubs and school for granted, and now that we've lost a part of our student culture, I am hoping the SATS group I helped form isn't the only group of students upset about the situation in our district.

SATS have met a three times now, and we have some plans to intiate before the 17th. We've painted our cars and placed posters in our windows and you'll find more to come in the next couple days. The reason why we are not very public about our plans is because we want to keep it on the down-low-we want to have the biggest impact we can possibly have, and I think the best way to make this all happen is to keep the suspense in the air...yes...suspenseful.

I strongly urge anyone interested in helping to call me or email rhssats@yahoo.com. We need help with poster supplies, window paint, and labor!

I've been inspired by Barack Obama and politics in general-I've come to this conclusion in my head that I belong in politics, whether it be as a lawyer or as a political adviser. Politics may be a dirty game, but there is this inner fire within me that wants to make change.

I also envision the SATS to be the vehicle for change at Rocklin High School-we've never had this active of a group, and I remain optimistic for what lies ahead.

I leave you with my favorite quote:

"Hope -- Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead." -Barack Obama

API Scores

Once again our marvelous school has become number one in Placer County when it comes to our newest API score. This is my third year in high school, all of which have been at Rocklin, and this is our third year in a row claiming this title.
My freshman year I didn't really understand the significance of the API score. Actually i didn't really even understand what an API score was. All I knew is that there was going to be a free "API" dance and food at lunch, and I had nothing to do with it.
My sophomore year we did it again and there was another dance, barbeque, and motivational ralley. Now that it is my junior year and we have done it again it is almost becoming routine, but a good one of course.
I am extremely proud of our school, especially all of the students. They buckled down and did what they had to do when the time came for it. Hopefully we can do it again next year, setting a four year wining strike, all four years of which I have been here.
This has become another reason I am proud to say that I am a student at Rocklin High School.

New School Year

Every time the new school year begins, it is difficult to get back into the normal RHS routine. But the 2008-2009 year is starting off very different than usual. All of the teachers are very frustrated and angered by the district because they are not paying them their raise that they should be paying every year. Therefore, the teachers are cracking down on the rules and the administration is creating school rules that did not even exist in previous school years. I think that the freshmen should be the most annoyed by all of these changes because it just makes their first year of high school that much harder to deal with. The upperclassmen should be annoyed because their last years of high school won’t be what they expected and the postponement of clubs has never happened before while they attended RHS. Shortly, all of the changes this year are incredibly frustrating, because what is affecting the teachers right now is affecting the students’ high school careers even more.

A Stricter School Year

Once again the school year has started and Rocklin seems to have the same traditions. However, this year there are a lot more rules being strictly enforced. Not only is the administration cracking down on the dress code harder then ever, but now there are even rules on where we are allowed to sit at lunch. These rules have never been there before, but the administration swears they were always there just not followed or enforced. As a student, I don't know what to believe. I mean are these brand new rules or were they always there? Like the tank top rule that supposedly has been there for many years was never cracked down on until lately. My freshman year everyone wore tank tops and no one was ever asked to change. Even the beginning of my sophomore year we wore tank tops. I don't understand how the rules can change in the middle of the school year. I think they need to enforce them from the start. Even a rule as stupid as no shoulders showing should be properly stated to the whole school so we know what is appropriate and what isn't. I also think we should be given an explanation to why these items of clothing are inappropriate. I can see something that is too revealing, but I didn't realize some one's shoulders were so inappropriate for others to see. I hate how Rocklin is the only school in our county that has such a strict dress code policy even after we have the highest test scores, most awards, and we are the school that everyone else wants to be, but not when it comes to dress code. Its impossible to find enough clothes that are acceptable and that also keep you cool in this blazing heat. This school expects you to be in turtle necks and jeans while its 105 degrees outside. I think the dress code should be modified. They want us to be comfortable, so they should let us wear what we want.

Blue Silver Scrimmage

This Saturday, I had my first "game" as an RHS cheerleader. I used to be a competitive cheeleader for POWER so I had no experiance of what it was like to cheer on the sidelines. All we used to do was learn routines and then go to competitions. I loved compeating but it was a huge time commitment. So this year decided that I should try out for the school team. Because I'm one of the only new additions to the team, we barely went over the sidelilne cheer's because everyone already knows them. I was really nervous to cheer at the scrimmage because I didn't know all of the cheer's completly and I didn't want to mess up infront of the crowd. As the scrimmage was going on, I kept asking the captian, Kelsey, what the next cheer she was going to call next so that I could go over it in my head. I messed up a few times but I eventually caught on. Finally it was halftime and we performed our camp routiene which went great. I was relieved that it was a routiene that I actually knew. Then it was back to the sidelines to cheer on the crowd more. Overall, I made a few errors on the cheers, but I was happy that it was only a scrimmage and not an acutal game.

Did Harry Potter’s privates push “half blood prince”?

This story immediately caught my attention simply because of the popularity of the Harry Potter movies to the general public. The idea of moving the Harry Potter movies even a day back would upset more people than even imaginable, so when the writer spoke of moving it back into another year I couldn’t imagine the panic! And upset of all of those fans toward Daniel Radcliffe for showing those racy photos in an issue of Vogue. The popularity surrounding him and his cast members alone is remarkable, and to think he would do something in the new movie that would, let’s say, leave nothing to the imagination, seems extremely risky. I’m excited to see how the postponing of the movie will affect his Harry Potter fans.