Category: Opinion

  • Ain’t Nothing Wrong With Community College

    A concerning, disgustingly large amount of high schoolers scoff at the idea of community college. A few weeks ago, this one ignorant, ugly 12th grade boy named Peter (I can name him. He doesn’t go to this school, it’s fine) asked me what colleges I applied to. I told him I only applied to LBCC, and this absolute cretin responded, “Ugh. That’s so basic.” Another said, “Ew. Can’t imagine.”

    Four year universities are great for a number of reasons. It’s understandable why a lot of people want to go straight to a university. That’s cool; there’s nothing wrong with that. However, there’s also a myriad of benefits to attending a community college for two years then transferring, or just staying there the whole four years. It’s not as financially burdensome than most universities, and most employers don’t often weigh into account where you get your major, only what you major in and what experience you have.

    Some people might think the education is just inherently better at universities, but professors at community college can often be more focused on their teaching because the ones teaching at universities have all their obligations to the university, all the studies and research they have to conduct. Professors at community college can focus on their class more.

    There’s this stigma around community college, this idea that it’s just inferior to any four year university and a waste of time. A lot of it might have to do with pride. Some people might want to go try and attend a university just because it’s more difficult; they want to go to a college they had to work hard to get into, because that automatically makes it better. I’m positive not everybody thinks like this, but I’m sure there’s a good handful that do, which is unfortunate.

    Some people want to live the college life, get away from home and reside in a dorm for four years. That sounds fun, and I’m glad some people will get to enjoy all that, but is it really worth the extra thousands of dollars? People need to take these things into consideration and stop so easily dismissing community college, especially since LBCC will have free tuition for two years starting this fall 2019 semester.

  • The Importance of Black History

    It’s the month of February! What do you think of when you think of February? Valentine’s Day? President’s Day? Or do you think about the appreciation of the black culture?
    Yesterday, I was having a conversation with my sister. I asked her if she knew who Malcolm X was. She said no. I asked if her if she knew the history of where her ancestors came from and if she knew the obstacles they had to overcome for us to be treated the way a human being should be treated? Of course, she gave me a confused look and responded that she didn’t.
    Black History Month doesn’t get the same recognition for younger students as much as it did when I was in elementary school. Many students entering middle school still don’t even know who Malcolm X is. To this day, people still say “MLK died for our rights.” MLK did not die for our rights. He was assassinated. Many of our people were killed just for us to receive the same rights as everybody else. Younger students should know that by now!
    Even though, our culture should be celebrated all year long, it should at least be recognized more during the month that was dedicated to the culture. Can we please acknowledge the greatness of black culture?

  • Sir Savage The 21st

    Recently 21 Savage has been issued to be deported from the United States for being  here illegally, since he immigrated here from the UK and the age of 7. Ever since the incident, 21 Savage and his team have been working through the process to keep 21 living in the U.S. His visa expired 13 years ago. Soon after, memes has continued to rise up from people all over twitter and even celebrities such Demi Lovato. She got major backlash for doing the same thing that numerous people have done which was making fun of 21’s situation. The rapper is still being held by immigration services for questioning. His career is at stake, since a majority of his fans and cash flow are in the United States. I believe he should be allowed citizenship in the United States since he has been living here for such a long time and he has already established a career and contributed society. Also his visa expired when he was young so there was nothing he could do about it. 21 Savage should be made an exception to these harsh immigration laws. #free21savage.

  • Wrap It Up!

    I remember the last time I took sex education, it was in my seventh grade health class. I was surprised to find out in highschool that sex ed was not a required class. Sure, health is taught but not necessarily enforced. I was supposed to take a semester of health in biology freshman year, but it seems like my class barely skimmed over it.

    Recently, I was curious about the STD rates in America and I was shocked to find out how high the numbers were. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are more than 110 million STIs and various STDs among men and women in the US. Alaska, Mississippi, and Louisiana are the top three states in the nation harboring STD ridden fools. Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and HIV are some of the most prominent sexually transmitted diseases in America. In California specifically, the STD rates have increased 7% from 2017 to 2018. A staggering 218,728 cases of chlamydia alone, has been reported in California in the year of 2018. Not surprising, high schools are diseased cesspools of horny teenagers! 46% of American high school students have had sexual intercourse and potentially are at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and other STDs. Leading to,  1 in 4 teens contract a sexually transmitted disease every year.

    Back to sex education classes, I’m not quite sure why they aren’t a requirement. I feel like it is a necessity for teenagers to be educated about safe sex and the consequences that may come with it, due to the high rates. Surely STDs won’t go away, but it can be highly diminished amongst high schoolers if they knew more about the risks of unprotected and unsafe practices of sex.

  • Hello Valentines Day!

    Valentine’s day. February 14th. Day of love? Wrong. More like the day of reminding people that they’re not loved. Who decided that this will be the day where people will remember to love their significant other’s? Or maybe I’m just not loved. Either way, Valentine’s Day is trash.

    Why do I feel this way? Well, for the last couple of years, I’ve spent this holiday crying, being neglected, and envying those who had boyfriends and girlfriends to bring them nice gifts. I especially hate the boys who would flood the hallways with the PINK bags in hand and red chocolate heart boxes. Talk about disgusting! These kids should be buying books to read, not underwear for their girlfriends!

    Even when I am in a relationship, Valentine’s Day is still a horrid day for me. I find it quite hilarious when people in relationships purposely start conflicts with their significant other’s as an excuse not to treat them out for Valentine’s Day (If you’re someone who doubts that this actually happens, I can assure you it is not a myth. It’s happened to me.)

    Anyway, couples should not wait until one out of the year to love each other. Surprise your boo every single day! Buy the love of your life flowers every once in a while! Show them you love them everyday! Not just Valentine’s Day, hat’s mad corny! Valentine’s Day is just a regular day. The whole concept is super cringey. Maybe I am just a loser who no one loves but at the end of the day, I said what I said.

  • #Surviving R.Kelly

    American Singer/Songwriter Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known as R. Kelly, has had a three-part documentary series created about him and his allegations regarding pedophilia and rape. It has been revealed that R. Kelly has committed multiple repulsive acts on teenage women.

    Kelly is a goddamn rapist. For some reason, after this bald man has been exposed for his nefarious and abhorrent acts, he is still trending and making millions of dollars for his music when his old a** should be in jail with the rest of the pedophiles and rapists. He is a manipulative waste of skin. Lock that bald man up!

    His nasty, pedophile, peeing on little girls supporting fans should be thrown into jail with him. There is absolutely no excuse for people to support his actions. Imagine if that was your daughter? People do not care about things until it happens to them.

    I’m sure everybody remember the episode of the Boondocks where they showed a fictional representation of R. Kelly’s trial. That episode is coming to reality this very day. Cancel that bald pedophile!

    Along with R. Kelly’s allegations and secrets surfacing, other artists secrets have come to light. Such as P. Diddy, Jay-Z, and other well known artists. It is time that these people are held accountable for the nasty things that they do.

  • Crash Dat Soulja Boy

    Flash floods throughout California have resulted in a series of mudslides, leaving people stranded in their cars. Among those involved in such incidents is Soulja Boy, who posted on his twitter to confirm that he was in a car crash during the floods.

    “My car got stuck too almost went into the ocean,” he tweeted alongside a clip of mudslides. He later clarified the situation with his with his fans, adding that he was “involved in a very bad car accident ”.  He explained that he still hasn’t got his car back and that its still stuck “in the water in the middle of the mudslide/flood.” He doesn’t seem to bothered by the loss of his car, however.

    “I’m just thankful to be alive I don’t care about the car its materialistic, you can’t take it with you when you’re gone,” he added on his Instagram. Recently, Soulja Boy removed his two video game consoles from sale after shrugging off a potential Nintendo lawsuit. Before he stopped selling the consoles, he made a number of since deleted tweets laughing off the idea of such a lawsuit.

    “For anyone that thinks Nintendo is going to sue me you’re retarded,” he said. “Nothing going to happen everything is legit. My console isn’t going anywhere trust me,” as stated by Complex Magazine.

  • Just Becuase It’s Called High School, Doesn’t Mean You Can Get High!

    You do three things in the restroom: you take care of your bodily business, wash your hands, and get out. Occasionally, maybe you check yourself out in the mirror and fix your hair, but that is about it. These are basic, common needs that everyone has to take care of regularly, and thankfully, we have restrooms on campus to give people a place to fulfill those needs.

    But when certain people use the restrooms as a little hideout to get high, staff has to come close them down.  Suddenly, I’m wandering around campus like a chicken with its head chopped off, looking for an open restroom, praying to God that he’ll let me find one before my bladder decides it wants to turn my boxer briefs into Soak City. And God forbid that I ever have to take a dump here on campus, because there’s always the chance I’ll land myself in a restroom that hasn’t been closed down, but that people have smoked in. So, I gotta sit there on the toilet and just breathe in all that stank and let it marinate into my clothes, and then when I get home, my mom starts asking me, ¨John, why do you smell like weed?¨ and I gotta explain to her that it wasn´t me; it was someone else.  But of course, she hates me and does not trust a word I say, so she is trying to punish me when my only crime was having to take a dump at school. And it takes like 45 minutes for me to finally convince her I was not doing anything sketchy. And since I spend so much time trying to absolve myself of some sin that I did not commit, I have less time to get all my homework done, and I end up getting even less sleep than normal that night. So when you decide you wanna go get high in the school restrooms, the rest of us suffer.

    Don’t just take my word for it. The other day, my friend was on her period and had to put a new tampon in, she said she went to three different restrooms during lunch, which were all closed. By the time she got to the fourth one, her period juice had already oozed through her underwear and into her jeans. Nasty business.

    We all know weed isn’t as harmful as cigarettes and actually has a bunch of health benefits, unless you count all the cancer-causing carcinogens and particulate matter. Some people care about not getting cancer, so for this reason and all the others listed above, please just go smoke somewhere else.

  • Copyrighted Europe

    The European Parliament voted in favor of starting a new law to stop the spread of copyrighted material over the internet. These new laws are known as Articles 11 and 13. Article 13 is what will take away all copyrighted materials from social media platforms. Article 11, known as the “link tax” law, is where Google companies will now have to start paying publishers for including links in their articles. Together, these articles will tear apart the online network.

    This law has always existed, but things are becoming more drastic as it is now taking place among bigger platforms such as: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. What this means is that there will no longer be any “repost” of things on said platforms.

    This new law will leave a large amount of people in huge devastation. Have you ever seen a show or person you really admire and come across a fanmade video of them or it? That’s gone now. Because of this new law, the person who put their heart and creativity is now banned from making the things they love. YouTubers will also be hugely impacted by this. Many will most likely end up losing their jobs and as a result, there will no longer be any interacting with idols. Ever heard of the conventions, VidCon, PAX East, and West? Those will be put at risk and might end up having little to no people attend. Last but not least, online comedy; also gone. All you meme lovers will no longer be able to spread some laughter worldwide.

    Thus, the internet will no longer be the same if these articles get passed. Why are there not more people who know about this? There should really be more people who show an interest or care on the topic. Even if this doesn’t affect you, just imagine what it would feel like if it did.

  • Is Poly Woke Enough?

    Poly is known as one of the most diverse schools in Long Beach, but are we really living up to that reputation? Diversity is what makes this school one of a kind the main reason why I am proud to be a jackrabbit. Throughout my experience at Poly one thing I have noticed is the decrease in participation of clubs based on culture. After speaking with Poly alumni, many have also seen the drastic decline in cultural representation from when they were once high schoolers. As I freshman, I remember the beautiful dances put on by the Polynesian club and rallies for Latino heritage month.

    Now that I am a senior, I can see that there is a struggle to keep these clubs alive. Is it through the lack of publicity? Do students believe expressing their culture is no longer important? Is our workload too heavy to even consider extracurriculars that aren’t STEM related? Or are students in general no longer proud of their heritage? There are so many reasons as to why students shy away from expressing themselves on campus, but there needs to be a change.

    I believe that culture is essential to becoming more intune with who we are and is something that should be embraced because it is what makes us unique. Our upbringing has a huge impact on how we view the world around us and allows us to feel involved in a community. Without clubs like: Black Student Union, Lation Empowerment in Action, La Onda, Khmer Girls in Action, we would have limited outlets to express ourselves at school. These clubs allow people of all different ethnicities to come together and celebrate heritage. Together our voices can be heard and we can educate others in a way that feels interactive. It is a chance for us to look at history beyond a textbook and take a chance to make connections within our school community.

    Many students feel like they don’t have a community within their school, that school is simply just a place we are forced to go to every day. That doesn’t have to be the case, by joining clubs we can make friends and grow closer to people we see everyday. From personal experience, the more I surrounded myself with others I could relate to, the more driven I felt to do the things I am passionate about. Remember that it is never too late to join a club you are interested in.

  • Free 6ix9ine!

    Recently, rapper known as 6ix9ine,  has been arrested due to accusations of racketeering and possessions of firearms right before his release of his new album Dummy Boy. Right alongside him, 6ix9ine’s ex-manager and a few other associates has been arrested as well. Charges have not have been released yet. 6ix9ine soon after went on Instagram and recorded a video of himself saying that he fired his management so he can put himself farther away from the people he has gotten arrested with.

    This event has not made 6ix9ines situation any better because he has allegations of performing sexual acts on a underage girl. Even with all of this happening 6ix9ine has still released his album Dummy Boy, which has been doing well on it’s release day and after. It has been the number 1 album on Apple Music for a while only to be recently passed by Travis Scott’s  Astroworld. But to date Dummy Boy is still top 5 albums on Apple Music. He also has amazing features from great artists such as Kanye West, Bobby Shmurda, Anuel AA, Tory Lanez, and Gunna, just to name a few. Despite all this hate around 6ix9ines name, he receives a ton of support and is arguably the most popular rapper in the game,as of right now

     

  • ASB Voting

    Now, I know what you’re thinking, what did ASB do now? Stop your thinking and listen. I want to talk about the different voting suggestions for ASB. It’s not that we despise the way of voting, we just strongly believe that it does not give an equal opportunity for the candidate to receive their votes. One way to make the campaign have a better participation rate, is having voting ballots be distributed to every class. The current way of voting takes place during lunch, where majority of it is taken up by long lunch lines. Most students do not want to wait in another line just to vote, especially when most of the school’s population feels like they have no voice. If our solution is taken into consideration, the participation rates could rise, everyone can take time to think about their choices, and teenagers wouldn’t complain about waiting in line to vote. I understand the voting sessions mimic the same system that real-world adults take, but if you really want kids to vote, you’re going to have to make it more convenient for them. Think about this, the more participation, the more active teenagers are going to be in their schools. It only takes a little change to make a big difference.

    As stated in last month’s paper, a major issue as to why there is such a lack of diversity in ASB is because of the amount of uninformed students that attend our campus. A larger effort should be made to reach out to those students, outside of PACE and CIC, to place them on the same playing field as the more popular candidates. Many students who aren’t in PACE or CIC, feel like they have a limited voice on campus. Instead of taking offence to criticism, take this as an opportunity to broaden the horizons of ASB and make a change to the voting system. If ASB enforces a more inclusive, and less clique-oriented environment, then it will truly bring harmony across all pathways on campus.