The James Logan Courier

By David Collins, Courier Opinion Editor

For the many years that Logan has housed students, there have been exhibitions of school spirit. Rallies, school colors, logos and spirit week. These articles of spirit have been a long held tradition of James Logan High, but the question is: Is it truly necessary for students to be forced into participating?

By Sue Hutchison
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)

At a recent gathering of the San Jose branch of the American Association of University Women, more than 100 people listened raptly to Lisa Maatz's tale of her great grammar-school-bathroom-door revolt in the 1970s. Maatz, AAUW's director of public policy, was 8 years old at the time, and she tells the story as an object lesson about the power of grass-roots activism.

It goes like this: In Maatz's school in her small Ohio town, there were no doors on the stalls in the girls' bathroom. This was quite distressing to her and all her third-grade friends. Maatz approached the school principal, Mr. Ginke, to implore that the girls' room get bathroom doors just as the boys' room had.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, Oct. 23:

Leonardo da Vinci's connections to the Guild of St. Luke the Painter allowed him to conduct autopsies on more than 30 cadavers between 1489 and 1513. He had a fascination with extracting parts of the body to draw them, often working by candlelight in a church.

His work was pioneering. He was credited with being the first to draw accurately the bones of the face and hands. He was also one of the first illustrators to draw a fetus in the intrauterine position. And his illustrations of the heart inspired a cardiothoracic surgeon named Francis Wells to create new methods for repairing poorly working hearts. Wells' methods, in turn, helped developed modern cardiac surgery.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, Oct. 11:

It's not often that the Supreme Court inadvertently promotes a Hollywood movie with one of its rulings. But the soon-to-open Jake Gyllenhaal thriller "Rendition" just got a big boost from the nation's highest court.

Too bad the unintended promo comes at the expense of America's standing as a voice for justice in the world community.

By Sarena Bains, Courier Staff Writer

It is no surprise that underage drinking is becoming a bigger issue everyday. Parents and guardians are important role models for their children—even children who are fast becoming teenagers. Parents need to be more aware of what is happening in their child's life. Even if parents want to deny the fact, there is a major increase in the chance that their children is at least part of the quarter of underage consumption of beer and alcohol.

By David Collins, Opinion Editor

The major purpose of our educational facilities is to teach students different bits of information that will accumulate to a level of understanding that will allow those students to live successfully in society. This, being the basis of education at James Logan High School, and in most schools, is flawed.

For those of us that have experienced a larger portion of life than others, understand one key factor in personal gain: experience. To truly understand something, one understands it through logic, then through the experience of it or sometimes vice versa. When one learns to walk, they have examples from those around one, but they do not have the feeling of doing so. This is the same with most topics in school, excluding some forms of math and science.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Friday, Oct. 5:

When it comes to assembling a circular firing squad, you've got to hand it to the Democratic Party. Nobody does it better. The fiasco over the party's presidential primary has reached such farcical proportions that — get this — two of the state's most prominent Democrats are suing the national party so that party members in Florida can have a say in choosing the party's next candidate for the White House.

This is Florida ...

Think about that for a second. This is Florida, the most hotly contested battleground in national elections. Florida, where Democrats still believe they were robbed in the 2000 election. Florida, where they're still wrangling over 18,000 "undervotes" in a Gulf Coast congressional race in 2006. Instead of wooing Florida's pivotal voters, the Democratic National Committee decided to punish them by refusing to seat delegates selected in the Jan. 29 primary. Ever wonder why the party's symbol is a donkey?

By Carmen Shiu, Courier Special Correspondent

The world is not ending in the music industry; it is just becoming digitalized.

Earlier this year, there were reports that album record sales have gone down by 20 percent and the Recording Industry Association of America, known as the RIAA, is complaining.

That is because a whopping 90 percent of music sold in the U.S. is generated and distributed by the RIAA. Unsurprisingly, the RIAA blames piracy, which is illegally downloading and sharing songs online.

But is piracy to blame? Maybe a little, but not entirely.

By Krystal Henderson, Courier Staff Writer

High school students seem to take hygiene extremely seriously. So seriously, in fact, some girls can spend an hour beautifying themselves before school—and then spend half of second period retouching their hair and makeup. Throw out the makeup, and the guys aren’t different; notice them brushing their hair in class and grooming their goatees?

Yet, you’d think that people so concerned with appearances would care a bit more about what should be the most hygienic room on campus. Yes, I mean the bathroom.

Not to insult the janitorial staff (I don’t believe they’re the ones dirtying things up) but the Logan restrooms are on the verge of becoming entirely disgusting. Toilet paper wads littering the floors and clogging the sinks. Puddles of unidentified liquid at the base of the toilets. Similar, smaller puddles spotting the toilet seats. Graffiti and gang signs on the stalls. Ladies leaving sanitary products on the floor; gentlemen leaving sprinkles around the urinals. And, of course, the dreaded “treat” left behind in an un-flushed toilet.

By David A. Love
(MCT)

The Supreme Court should outlaw lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

This term, the nation's highest court has agreed to hear a case challenging lethal execution on the grounds that it violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Introduced in 1978, lethal injection was supposed to be a better alternative to hanging, the gas chamber, firing squad and electrocution _ a clean, clinical, painless, more humane and therefore more acceptable form of capital punishment. It is used in 37 of the 38 death penalty states. Only Nebraska still prefers the electric chair.

By Musa Biawogi, Courier Staff Writer

Now that situation involving the six African-American students from Jena, Louisiana, who were arrested and charged with attempted murder for a school fight with a white student a few months ago, seems to be nearing a peaceful resolution, echoes of the incident are showing up at Logan.

Last week, for example, a dispute over which race gets to sit where threatened to boil over into a more general clash between racial groups here at Logan.

By David Collins, Courier Opinion Editor

This year, the school has changed its form for entering freshman from its former style, to a new program called Freshman Families. This program is designed to group freshman in the same English, Science and Life Skills classes so that they may experience a greater comfort in their new environment, James Logan High School.

Also, the Freshman Families program was designed to help the freshman relax in an academic scene, allowing them to participate in a familiar atmosphere. Also, the Freshman Families program allows the school to apply for a $1.75 million grant to support and extend it.

By Ashley Carter, Courier Staff Writer

Have you ever thought about what teenage girls have accomplished lately? Well, here’s one accomplishment you want have to think twice about, losing their virginity. To some people that’s just a label you lose once you've had sex. To others that 9-letter word means so much more. That word alone should dwell in your spirit, soul, and body.

My father tells me “Your husband will respect you more if you keep yourself pure for him.” Hearing that now affects me more than it did in the past, because now it makes sense. Why would your husband want something that’s basically already used? I'm not saying marriage is only based on sex, but that’s one aspect where it should be shared between a husband and a wife.


source:cdc.gov

By Ed Morales
(MCT)

The United States must stop relying on mercenaries in Iraq.

The Sept. 16 incident in Baghdad, where Blackwater USA, a private security company, killed at least 11 Iraqi civilians, has created a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Iraqi governments.

Worse, it has made a mockery of U.S. efforts to establish democracy in the country it invaded more than five years ago. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has already called for Blackwater to cease operations, saying the mercenary army amounted to a challenge of his nation's sovereignty.

While initial accounts of the incident said Blackwater was responding to gunfire, subsequent Iraqi reports claimed that there was no attack. Instead, they said Blackwater security guards opened fire at a car that didn't stop when told to by a policeman, and its passengers — a couple and their infant — were killed.

Blackwater, which is the primary provider of security to senior U.S. officials, including Ambassador Ryan Crocker, operates outside the law and governmental supervision. Having received a no-bid contract and operating on billions of dollars in taxpayer funds, Blackwater plays the role of renegade cowboys, flying low in helicopters with guns drawn. It is despised by Iraqis, and even some U.S. military personnel.

By Bronwyn Lance Chester
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

Anyone looking for true bravery found it last week.

Not in the gasbag-athon between Columbia University's president and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not in presidential wannabe John Edwards announcing he'll accept public financing for his campaign. Hardly impressive when he could finance the whole shootin' match with the stroke of a pen.

No, courage showed itself in an unusual place — Myanmar — and wore robes the color of old blood, older bricks. Pluckiness sported a shaved head and bare feet. Defiance was armed only with holy words and photos of Buddha.

By David Collins, Courier Opinion Editor

During the summer before the 07-08 school year began, the school board ratified Logan’s decision to change the time frame in which school begins and ends. The time was changed from its former 8:00 a.m.-2:50 p.m. to its current 8:40am-3:30pm.

This decision was made in part because the administration said they believed that giving more students more time to rest in the morning would decrease tardies and hopefully give the students more time to wake up before coming to class. This has resulted in both negative and positive outcomes.