Instead of trying to educate students on the difficult reality ahead, administration prefers to keep us sheltered, choosing to discuss more watered-down, “socially appropriate” topics.  Everyday we are confronted with news of controversial subjects such as teen pregnancy, rape, drug abuse, religion, and terrorism, but rarely are we allowed to discuss these topics openly at school. Students aren’t as ignorant and naïve as society makes them out to be. We see what goes on around us and we are confronted with these issues on a daily basis. All students ask for is to have a voice at school, and discuss what is really going on in our lives besides reading, writing, and arithmetic. Censoring school newspapers, prohibiting books, and avoiding discussions of hard-hitting topics, are all examples of how students are constantly being restricted from being educated on life, and how it really is in the “real world”. Allowing controversial subjects to be discussed in school would benefit students in life both now and later on down the road.

Difficult topics will always surround students because being a teenager during this day in time is difficult in it’s self. Discussing these topics would be constructive to our awareness, however there are many people that think it would be more harmful to have fewer restrictions over what is aprpropriate for students to discuss in school. Some parents would rather their children be sheltered from certain subjects, usually due to personal beliefs or religious ideals, and in order to reduce complications with parents, administration censors many aspect of our true daily life.  School newspapers are forced to write about watered down subjects instead of what truly interests students, and class discussions get shut down when they reach a certain level. Although I do agree that there are some subjects that just are not appropriate for school, there are still many topics that we should be able to discuss which are currently restricted. Censoring isn’t always a bad thing, but it does have a time and place. Adults need to take a step back and realize that they are sheltering us from things that we are going to experience, whether they like it or not.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
 Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
 Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
for the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
here is a strange and bitter crop.
 By: Billie Holliday

The scent of corpses and rotten flesh still linger in our history as well as the broken tree limbs still on the ground. The pain of losing a loved one still paints the picture of our beautiful America, know as the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”. I mention brave because from 1607 to 1865, many African Americans were lynched, tortured, and starved. Many of the men and women’s bodies were left to shrivel up and rot. They swayed and swayed in the wind until their very last possible moment of life remained. From 1882-1968, 4,743 lynchings had occurred in the United States. 3,446 of those people lynched were all black.  The blacks lynched accounted for 72.7% of the people lynched. However, blacks were not the only ones to be lynched. Whites accounted for 27.3 percent of lynchings, most of the time they were lynched for helping or aiding blacks. Willie Lynch was the author and creator of the word lynch, and he said, “Gentlemen, you know what your problems are: I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I have a fool proof method for controlling your Black slaves. I guarantee everyone of you that if installed correctly it will control the slaves for at least 300 hundred years . My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it.” His method was lynching. Lynching in his mind brought fear into the eyes of children and parents. By lynching parents in front of their children, this assured himself that slave masters wouldn’t have any problems for years to come. However, its 2010 and we’ve taken a half step up and gotten a black president. From lynching’s, to now having a black president.

Know your history…Black history

Roe v. Wade in 1973 was the case that led to the ruling which made abortion legal in the United States, and it is one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases in U.S. history.  Jane Roe, a Texas resident, sought to terminate her pregnancy by abortion. Texas law prohibited abortions except to save the pregnant woman’s life. After granting certiorari, a writ issuing from a superior court calling up the record of a proceeding in an inferior court for review, the court heard arguments twice. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman total autonomy over her pregnancy during the first trimester, and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters. As a result, the laws of 46 states were affected by the court’s ruling.

I myself am pro choice. Although I am against abortion, I feel every woman should have the right to do with their bodies what they please.  Abortions are considerable under certain circumstances, like rape or failed birth control.  Even though rape pregnancies are not that common, a woman should have the right to make the choice of terminating the pregnancy because 9 times out of 10 that baby isn’t going to have a good life because it is unwanted, and some women may feel as if it is a mistake from their past.  I also feel that a young teenage girl should be able to make the choice to terminate her pregnancy without parental consent. It’s her body, her responsibility, and it should be her decision do with it what she wants.  A lot of teenage girls are unaware of the consequences of sex and have little information about birth control which results in these mishaps.  Save yourself from going through this pain and a rollercoaster of emotion, and get educated on how to prevent pregnancy.

An astonishing 1.3 million abortions occur annually in the United States. More than half of abortions yearly are by women under the age of twenty-five with the ages of eighteen and nineteen making up the highest number. Today, abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy and in all 50 states of the US. There are also eighteen states that do not require parent’s permission for this procedure.

Science has proven that human life does in fact begin in the moment of conception. To say that the size of an embryo determines its humanity is denying its personhood. On the first day of conception, already a one-of-a-kind individual is formed. All of its inherited features: its gender, eye color, hair color, the shape of its eyebrows and the size of its nose are all instilled in its DNA.

On Saturday, January 23, 2010, I with an estimated 30,000 other participants walked for the lives of these innocent little souls. The “Walk for Life” in San Francisco was an immense success. The crowd, young and old alike, gathered at Justin Herman Plaza to listen to the Walk for Life speakers. A mother told the amazing story of how she almost aborted her daughter, something she would have regretted all her life. Two women talked about their experience of working in an abortion clinic. They now believe in the Pro-Life movement and lead the cause to respect and protect the lives of the unborn. Through rain and shine, throngs of pro-life activists marched from Embarcadero to Marina Greens. We stood for the rights of the voiceless, for the born and the unborn alike. We walked to finally put an end to this calamity, and with the hope that 2010 will finally mark an end to this inhumane crime.

Every single living, breathing individual on this planet is a survivor of abortion. Do not allow yourself to suffer by submitting to this unfathomable injustice. No one wants to live with the guilt of terminating another human being’s life. As the great Mother Teresa said, “There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.” It is not for us to judge whether one should live or die. It is in the hands of fate. So your mother chose life. Will you?

Earth is already showing many signs of worldwide climate change.  Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit around the world since 1880, and much of this occurred in recent decades, according to NASA’s Gaddard Institute for Space Studies.  The arctic is feeling the effects the most.  Average temperatures in Alaska, Western Canada, and Eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the Multinational Artic Climate Impact Assessment report.  Another problem is, arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier.  Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting.  For example, Montana’s Glaciers National Park now has only 27 Glaciers, versus 150 in 1910.

Many people think that global warming is naturally caused.  This is because many people think that the world is just warming up after the last big ice age.  Another reason why people think it’s naturally caused is because of the burning of fossil fuels.  They also think that the recent increase in the earth’s temperature is no cause for alarm.  Temperature increases occurred before the widespread emission of carbon dioxide in the middle of the 20^th century.  They believe that earth’s coastlines and polar ice caps are not in danger of disappearing.  However, I must tell you that they’re wrong, because one of the main causes of global warming is our atmosphere being too thick to create a lot of carbon dioxide, which is caused by humans.

Therefore, because I think global warming is caused by humans, and we should stop our destructive behavior before we destroy our environment. We should start helping by recycling our organic waste.  Around 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions through methane is released by decomposing biodegradable waste.  By recycling organic waste or composting it if you have a garden, you can help eliminate this problem.  Just make sure that you compost it properly, so it decomposes with sufficient oxygen, otherwise your compost will cause methane emissions and smell foul.

The suspects had met Mercado while looking for women on Thursday night in an area that was well known for prostitution.  The suspects confessed to stabbing Mercado because he was gay and dressed as a woman.  If the suspects are convicted of the hate crime they could face life in prison.  In the year 2002, Puerto Rico made a hate crime law that has not yet been applied to cases that involve sexual orientation or gender.  A spokesman for the national gay and lesbian task force claimed that they want Puerto Rico to use this law more aggressively.  The spokesman also claimed that at least 10 other murders in Puerto Rico should have been investigated as hate crimes because some of the victims were prostitutes that were gay or lesbian transgender prostitutes.

This article is about a 19-year-old man being brutally murdered.  What police first thought was just a murder is now being called a hate crime because the victim was dressed like a woman in an area known for prostitution, so now the suspects could face life in prison.  What I learned from this story is that even today people have beliefs that are wrong, and as a result they will even kill for the wrong reason.  A call to action to help stop this is that we shouldn’t kill or judge people because of what kind of person they like, and that we should just treat them equal like one of us.

Surrounding the issue of global warming is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect plays an important role in the issue of global warming, but it is not the reason why global warming is occurring. The earth produces greenhouse gasses naturally, and without this gas, humans along with many other forms of life would not be able to survive. The reason for this is that earth would be much too cold for many life forms to exist if it did not have some form of gas to heat up the environment. Without the greenhouse effect the earth would be 40-60 degrees cooler than its current temperature. The problem though, is that the earth is producing an abundance of this gas, and we are going to become much too warm. Life cannot survive in a certain amount of warmth as well, so a middle ground must be sustained. Along with the variety of causes for global warming, there are also many results from global warming. Several of these results are negative. One of the major negative effects of global warming would be an increase in diseases. Diseases such as Malaria, Hantavirus, and many others would be much more common because they would survive better in a warmer climate. Another negative effect of our planet growing warmer would be an increase in the number of natural disasters. There are a number of natural disasters that would occur more frequently in a warmer environment.

The skeptics of global warming believe that the ice caps and coast-lines are by no means in danger of melting away or disappearing. They feel that the earth’s warming is nothing to fear. Climate models of global warming are believed to be misused by the skeptical point of view. The skeptics also have knowledge of the temperature fluctuating throughout time. Another thing that maybe contributing to the global warming scare is that the temperatures are read mostly in cities, or airports. In both places, temperatures have potential to be much higher. However, one can not ignore the evidence. The temperature has definitely increased in the places that it has been measured from, and the sea level has raised.

As COHS students, there are some ways that we could help stop global warming. For example, replace 3 normal light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs to save 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $60 per year. Keep the tires on your car adequately inflated and check them monthly to save 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $840 per year. Check your car’s air filter monthly to save 800 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $130 per year. Move your heater thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in the summer to save 2000 lbs of carbon dioxide and $98 per year. Keep your water heater thermostat no higher than 120°F to save 550 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $30 per year. Clean or replace dirty air conditioner filters as recommended to save 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $150 per year. In these ways, we could keep the environment remain safe for our generation and for all the future generations, but will we do all we can?

Education is one of the most important factors in order for Americans to create a good future for our society. With our California budget already doing so poorly, it should not be our top priority to be improving prisons. Due to the debt, public education is being decimated. According to a recent report in the LA Times, “In late May, Governor Schwarzenegger announced revisions to his May budget proposal that include $1.6 billion in cuts to the state’s education system for the 2008-2009 school year and $4.2 billion in cuts for 2009-2010. These reductions in spending, coming on top of $11.6 billion in cuts already passed by the state government this year, will make California the last state in the US in terms of funding-per-pupil. They translate to roughly $3,000 in less money for every student in the state.” School districts across the state will be forced to delay funds for textbooks, increase class sizes, and cut seven days off the school year. Many districts are on the brink of insolvency. Arts and music programs, physical education courses, summer school, advanced placement, special education, and other vital courses will be eliminated as a result of the new round of cuts. Since 1984, California has built nearly 30 new prisons. In that time we have only opened FOUR new 4-year colleges: UC Merced, CSU San Marcos, CSU Monterey Bay, and CSU Channel Islands. In the case of the latter two institutions, those were reconverted from other government facilities.

This is significant because the costs of starting a new prison and starting a new college campus are roughly equivalent. Similar facilities costs. Similar labor costs. No, scratch that – the average starting salary of a full-time CSU professor is LESS than the average starting salary of a full-time prison guard. The reason prisons cost so much is simply because prisoners are housed 24 hrs/day. Also, schools are not required to pay every single medical bill for their students. As the costs for fixing the state’s troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone — for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities. Based on current spending trends, California’s prison budget will overtake spending on the state’s universities in five years. No other big state in the country spends close to as much on its prisons compared with universities. It doesn’t matter the size of our state. What matters is how much debt we are in. If we take away money from prisons and not schools then society would see the positive results of our increased spending on education. A  way to lessen the burden taxpayers carry for supporting prisons is the expansion of Community Corrections, or probation. This way, low-security inmates can be electronically monitored and have restrictions, while still being able to be a taxpayer and member of a working society and still pay their own bills. Some community corrections programs cost under $10 a day per inmate to support. A lot less money should be spent on prisons! Using money to comfort prisoners instead of support students is showing how important American people, who have the power to decide where our money goes, are not really thinking about the future of America.

I am commenting on a countrywide media problem that I believe exists and therefore must be addressed. There has been situations in which the media has portrayed the “it girl” as skinny or with the best tan. To young girls or teenagers, this girl is perfect. This then sparks up issues about dieting and eating disorders. Look at all the magazines. All you see is people’s assumption of what is beautiful. It’s not only magazines that are influencing people. Television and movies can also be a strongly negative influence. Not only like I said with the Twilight reference, but even more potentially harmful things. For example, the use of explicit language on television has got to be quite influential to many young people. I’ve taken notice of more and more kids cursing, which I think is unacceptable. Television used to be so censored, but now it seems like anything at all can be said. TV can also portray a very sexual or dangerous life being glamorous, and then kids try to emulate this behavior, without really thinking about the destructive consequences of their thoughtless actions.

Some may say that what I am saying is outrageous, but they don’t realize how huge a role the media can play in people’s lives. Others may say that only some media is bad, but they should realize that one small influence is all it takes. If all of a sudden Hannah Montana started drinking and partying, little girls would feel the need to do that too. They already dress similar to her, so they are aspiring to have a life like hers. My Twilight reference might seem a little off, but look at relationships now. A guy leaves a girl, and she’s heartbroken for the longest time.  I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be sad, because that’s only natural when deep feelings are involved, but they shouldn’t let it take over their lives. When the depression sets in, it gradually absorbs that girl’s energy and social life. Young girls need a good, strong role model who will get up and have control of her own life.

Lastly, the media needs to take more precautions, and be aware of the young demographic that takes things they see to heart. Put more kids that are from all backgrounds and shapes in these magazines, have stronger role models. It might be asking a lot, but I think if we have more people write to these TV stations and magazines voicing our opinions, they would probably take our thoughts into consideration.

So, it seems as if people go to Starbucks for coffee, espresso, and don’t forget those Frappuccinos that everyone seems to enjoy so much. But why go to Starbucks, when you can go to a better and cheaper local coffee house? They often have better drinks, faster and friendlier service, better food, and no stupid names for their drinks. A lot of the places I have been to or heard of offer different things too. Some of the places such as: Espresso Metro on Freeport, The Javalounge on X and 16th, and Capitol Garage on K and 15th offer live music, actual breakfast food, and even pizza if you’re hungry for it. Now these places are all in Sacramento and may be out of the way for most Cosumnes Oaks students, but there is a local coffee shop that is just on Whitelock and Atkins. It’s called Coffee Bridge, and this may be closer to your area. They’re cheaper than the Starbucks on Whitelock, and they offer good coffee too.

Now, I know most people think that Starbucks is a good place to go for coffee, and Starbucks says that they promote buying “Fair Trade” coffee, but the problem is that they don’t allow any human rights monitors to verify their claims. They lie about a lot of their claims of being an environmentally friendly company. Of the 100 million pounds of coffee beans that Starbucks buys annually, less than one percent of that is certified as “Fair Trade.” So, this is just one more reason why the people who think that Starbucks is a good company are wrong. They lie about their business practices to millions of gullible coffee addicts every day. They also don’t give a fair chance to the other small businesses, because they hold a monopoly on the coffeehouse business. These places don’t have a shot to show that they make better coffee than Starbucks does, because everyone automatically just wants to go to Starbucks.

I’m not asking everyone who goes to Cosumnes Oaks to give up going to Starbucks completely. I’m just asking that if you’re walking around one day, and you want a pick-me-up, you’ll decide to go local and instead of supporting the largest coffee company in the world, you’ll do what’s best for your town and buy a good, local cup of coffee.