Year of the Youth Vote? (February 15th Vocabulary Test)

Is this the year of the youth vote? Running President Barack Obama seems to be causing it to be. There has been, in this election process, a progressive turnout of 18-25 year old citizens in the voting booths with sufferage. Why? Barack Obama has been taking an approach that not many other President runners have done. He is targeting toward the youth that America will someday rely on, so different from the evangelical and conservative ways of some of his opponents. Youth voters are voting for more liberal runners like Obama who are targeting their interests.
A coalition seems to be gathering in the hypothetical sense, as far as voting goes, with young voters. The reason for this is the fact that Obama is targeting issues that are most important to young voters such as the war in Iraq, affordable health care, jobs, and colleges. The youth of 2008 has never taken the responsibility to elect the next President, one who can change the country with the ability to veto bills, govern referendums and has the ability to make coalitions with our fellow countries, keeping our country safe. The youth of 2008 is finally realizing, through Barack Obama's campaign that the President cares about what we think. Hopefully, with this tactic keeping up, Barack Obama will become the next incumbent President of the United States.

-Shellby Hefner

Lower the Voting Age? Socratic Seminar

On Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Cortney Golub's class had a Socratic Seminar on the New York Times Article: You're 16, You're Beautiful, You're a Voter (click the link to see the article). Overall, I think that it was not one of my best seminars, but I feel that I did make some strong points. One part of my performance that I was particularly proud of was when I pointed out and quoted that "An irresponsible driver is more dangerous than an irresponsible voter" from an earlier article. Not many of the people at my table agreed with my opinion to lower the voting age. I think that the strength of other's arguments against mine was a bit intimidating, therefore keeping me from talking some of the time. I definitely feel that I should speak up more and not just stick near my friends due to shyness issues (*laughs*).
In the article I thought that the author made a few very good points. At the age of 16, most teenagers are already having sexual relationships and drinking, even though they're not allowed to. Letting 16 year olds vote prepares them partially for the real world and the politics in it. It will help give 16 year olds the reins because, in reality, we are the future of the world. I don't, however, agree with the author's views on letting 16 year olds drink legally. It's like handing a 6 year old a bomb and letting him go free with it, if what I am saying is to be understood. By lowering the drinking age you are allowing 16 year olds, who are inexperienced with driving as it is, to drink and drive.
Overall, I thought that I did a good job in seminar, even though my opinion differed from most of the other's in my table. I do look forward to more conversations about this as it has gathered my interest.

Democratic Debate

On Monday, February, 11, my HUMANitites class held a mock debate. Each candidate for the Democratic side had a team and each person in the said team had an issue. For instance, I was on the Hillary Clinton team and represented Hillary's view on health care. We needed to research our topic and our candidate's view on the specific topic.
Finding information on Hillary's view on health care was fairly easy, considering she has an entire website detailing her campaign and her issues that she is targeting, but finding them in an in depth description was harder. There were many blogs and such that told me nothing about what I needed so, other than her website I was weeding through a lot of useless information most of the time.
When it came to the actual debate, I was very nervous about getting up in front of fifty people and representing somebody that I didn't know. When I actually got up there, a lot of information was wiped from my mind and I was left having nearly no idea what I was talking about. But, in the end, the debate went well, and I composed myself nicely most of the time, in my opinion.
Overall, this debate was a wonderful experience for me and I hope to do another one. YAY DEMOCRATS!!!!
-Shellby

Dear Mr. President

Hello world! From January 22nd to February 1st High Tech High does a thing called intersession. For two weeks we do something totally out of the curriculum whether it be go on a trip or attend a class in art or otherwise. I was in the intersession called "The Art of Social Protest". In these two weeks we learned about all forms of social protest from writing to art to graphic design to music! I chose, for my project, to mix music and graphic design and make a video to the song "Dear Mr. President" by P!nk. This video is expressing the questions and opinions that I share with artist P!nk! Hope you like it! Leave comments!




Dear Mr. President Lyrics:

Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?

Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
Oh

How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?


Would he take a walk with you? Think about it!

Meleth,

Shellby