Trash Talk Banned at NJ Schools

This is a fantastic idea and I agree that it should have been in effect for a long time. The fact that the state of New Jersey is taking a stand against athletes being subject to racial, religious, ethnic and sexual slurs is a great thing and will hopefully prevent any future incidents. The only thing that bothers me about the new rules is the bias towards football players. It clearly states in the article that the new rules were put in place after an incident at a football game yet, if a football player is caught violating any rules, he is only suspended from one game yet in every other sport, the athlete is banned from two events. I think this is bias and unfair and needs to be looked at and re evaluated.

Is Facebook a Hotbed of Narcissism?

I don't think that social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has made people narcissistic, it has just encouraged it a bit, but then again it depends on the person. As a teenager, I have to admit that when I put up a picture of something on Instagram and receive 100 likes, I am a happy teenager but not a narcissistic one. I find it a little sad how our culture has been consumed by narcissistic actions like reality shows but I think that it is the younger generation that has the problem. As Keith Hampton stated in his article, "Most evidence of narcissistic tendencies among today’s youth fails to recognize that narcissism declines with age. Generational differences in narcissism are small when compared to change due to experience. As Brent Roberts, Grant Edmonds and Emily Grijalva argued in their 2010 analysis of generational differences in narcissism, “every generation is Generation Me, as every generation of younger people are more narcissistic than their elders.”.   

College Essay

I awaited anxiously as the votes were tallied. When my name was called for the National Honor Society Executive Board I was filled with pride knowing my years of hard work had paid off. The society had always appealed to me due to the respect associated with it. I learned everything to become inducted and completed the community service before junior year while maintaining my GPA. As soon as I was able to, I applied and became a member of the society. The experience has been rewarding through collection of food for local families in need and Jeopardy fundraisers for autistic children, and I knew that I didn’t only want to be among leaders, I wanted to lead them. At the end of senior year I will graduate with the NHS chapter of Cherokee High School, knowing I left my mark within the society.  

There They Tweet, un-Americans

Oh America. When will we ever break this color barrier? We take a step forward just to take a couple back. I will never understand why and how people are so hateful and ignorant to be frank. The fact that people actually went online to tweet about how "un-American" Nina Davuluri is is just so sad.  She is as American as they come. But then again, what does it even mean to be "American"? Doesn't it mean to be an American citizen? Ms. Davuluri was born and raised in Syracuse, New York which means that she is in fact American. People just want their voices to be heard when they don't even hear themselves. My favorite tweet out of them all was:
"You have got to be kidding me... We have a black president, now Miss America is an ARAB. Maybe this world is really coming to an end." Oh you poor ignorant person. You can't even differentiate between two completely different ethnic groups. All I have to say is do your thing Nina a.k.a Miss America 2014 because you won it fair and square as an American.

The Banality of Systematic Evil

Prior to reading this article I thought that Snowden was just a traitor to his country. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just a traitor. But I have to admit that after reading this article, my opinion on the whole situation and other ones like his, has changed a bit. I can't say that I completely agree with the fact that Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Aaron Swartz, Chelsea Manning leaked highly confidential information but I understand that they were doing it because they felt like they would be doing something wrong if they didn't share the information but it was still wrong due to the fact they were going against their jobs ethic codes.

The Kite Runner

I am loving this book! Khaled Hosseini is a very talented writer who is able to put you into the story as though you are right there experiencing everything with the characters. To be completely honest, the main character Amir seems to be a terrible person. He is selfish and mean to his only friend, Hassan. He only looks out for himself which is so sad considering all that Hassan does for him. The fact that Amir witnessed the rape of his only friend and did not say anything or save him goes to show how weak he is and also how selfish he is. He was only concerned about how his father would be proud of him for winning the kite competition. I hope he grows as a character and rights his wrongs throughout the novel because he will have a guilty conscience forever.

Colleges Move to Curb Student Drinking

Go Colleges! I think that it is a brilliant idea to cancel events that seem to be encouraging students to drink even more. Obviously these college officials are aware of the fact that underage drinking is still going to be happening but at least they are making some type of effort to reduce it. While it may seem unfair to the students that these major events are getting canceled, in the long run it will help them and prevent anything too bad from happening. I support these school's decisions all the way and think they are taking a positive step in the right direction.

"Think again, and again, about sending that text"

Texting and driving is definitely a problem in this country, especially among the youth. We know that we shouldn't do it yet sometimes the urge is there to just peek at that cellphone while driving. If that person texting and driving gets into an accident then yes, it is their fault and they should take full responsibility for their reckless driving and endangerment but the person who sent the text should not be held liable. How do they know that the person they just sent a message to is operating a vehicle? They don't unless the driver directly tells them, "HEY I AM DRIVING RIGHT NOW SO I'LL TEXT YOU LATER" which of course is the right thing to do as the driver but doesn't always happen. An individual should not be held accountable for sending a text message to another individual while they are driving. And that is the final ruling.