TCID:BW

5opinion 5.14.10katie gaughan

washingtonian

La Policía de Inmigración, Calmarse Rachel CarnesReporter

On April 23, 2010, Jan Brewer, the gover-nor of Arizona signed SB1070. It will then be illegal to live or travel through Arizona state lines if you are an undocumented alien. Both sides of the story have very good points. The immigrants have a right to the “American Dream”, the right to a better life style. The Arizona legislation want to decrease the amount of illegal aliens cross-ing the boarder. They want to be able to at least maintain the amount coming in. The immigrants who are crossing the boarder illegal and get caught could be ar-rested, locked up for at least six months and fined $2,500. That’s a little crazy. If the person who got arrested was the

primary caretaker for their family, that could put the rest of their family in a fi-nance crunch. The fine of $2,500, wouldn’t help them out much either. They came here to make the mon-ey, not have us take it. They do the jobs that no one else is willing to do. And yes, Americas unemployment rate is in the double digits, but it’s not because of the immigrants. They work long hours and hard labor for lower wages then what most people would. If Arizona was to get rid of the estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants, then Arizo-na’s economic activity would lose a huge amount of money; an estimated amount of more than $26 million.

Each school gets a certain federal amount of money for each student that attends that school. If the illegal immigrants that at-tend a school in Arizona, would be depart-

ed then the schools would also lose a great amount of money. However, the Constitution states that if you were born

in America, then you are an America citi-zen. Both the government and the immi-grants need to come to an agreement and not be biased about issues like this.

When a thank-you means more than a paycheckRebecca DunbarReporter

This year on Veteran’s Day I texted a close friend in the military to thank him for serving our country. The text I got back from him has stuck with me since than. “Thanks for thanking me, a thank-you means more than a paycheck could ever mean.” That is the text I received and it blew me away. Since I was little I knew about people serv-ing in the Army and throughout my whole life I have been surrounded by soldiers. In the past couple years I have learned to ap-preciate their service and everything they do for us back home so much more than I ever have. It amazes me that a solider I have never met will go over to a foreign country and put their own life on the line

every single day for another person. They will never meet more than three fourths of the people they are saving in their life, but yet they put on all their gear everyday and go out on the front lines. The one rea-son they do this is for our free-dom. I believe that the soldiers are not getting enough support and deserve a lot more support. There are so many ways to support sol-diers. A person can write a solider a letter telling them thank you for their service and saying you support them. I also be-lieve that if a person is not overseas serv-ing our country or is in the military than they should be supporting those who are. I know I would never be able to be in the

Army, but I am not just sitting here taking everything for granted either. I constantly tell my friends thank you for serving us. I also just recently donate $1 which is not

much at all and helped a solider get a new com-puter because someone in the U.S. had the nerve to steal his at the airport. If you are a person just

sitting there I encourage you to watch the movie Hurt Locker and than think about supporting the troops. All they need to know is we are support-ing them all the way and we will be there for them when they return home. Thank a solider today.

The one reason they do this is for our freedom.

There are better things in lifeMiguel MarcelinoReporter

Most people don’t take life seriously. They put what is most important like school, work and family be-hind. For some reason people think they can put drugs and alcohol ahead. I know for sure there are better things in life. I think people who decide to put insignificant things be-fore what is most important are throwing their lives away. If someone is using drugs and alcohol then they are putting their educa-tion behind. If you want to succeed in life, education should be top priority. Educa-tion is vital. Someone having bad grades in school is just setting themselves up to go

nowhere. Once someone starts, they are most likely to keep on going - meaning an addic-tion starts. At this point, I feel, people stop thinking about their futures.

This happens a lot throughout the high school years for teenagers. Peer pres-sure is the sole cause of why most students start. Because it is the norm around school, other students feel - “since everyone is do-

ing it, I should too” - yeah right. Because everyone is doing it means you should be better than them and not do it. Make the smart decision and don’t start. When that addiction starts, the student

is pretty much putting their education be-hind. With the addiction involved, it will make life harder. Taking drugs and alco-hol isn’t helping anyone yet, it is hurting everyone and the person’s ownself. Using drugs and alcohol makes a person’s school and home life harder. Making it harder to concentrate and be alert. I have never used drugs or alcohol. I plan to keep it that way. I won’t let peer pressure get to me, I am better than that. I want to make a difference in the world. Turning to drugs and alcohol will only keep me away from that. For me education will be first until I am done with my college years. Then, when I am sitting in my office, I will know that I chose the better things in life. I’ll know then, that I made the right decision, the decision to stay alcohol and drug free. And it will stay that way, forever.

Because it is the norm around school, other students feel - “since everyone is doing it, I should too” - yeah right.

It is my opinion, not yoursTaylor RichardsonReporter

Opinions, everyone has them. A few issues ago I wrote an opinion column about fashion and first im- press ions and most of you probably remember it didn’t go over to well. Many people thought it wasn’t right and thought all I was, was stuck up, judgemental, shallow, and thought less of all the students who wore sweats at the WHS. Well they are all wrong. Some of my best friends wear sweats everyday, and I don’t judge them for what they wear. The main point of the column was first impressions. Such as job interviews, meeting new people, and other events like that.

To me some people overreacted about the column. Statuses on facebook changed and rude comments were made, there were even blogs written about the article. I was more shocked than any-thing that people were wasting their pre-cious time writing and talking about my article. I would say some people were taking it a little too far. So much drama was started for a little 200 word story. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, my opinion was simply that sweatpants do not make a great first impression. People can agree or disagree all they want, they have all their rights to an opin-ion also. But posting all their opinions all over the internet was a little more then I expected. I knew some people were go-ing to disagree with me, it was a given.

But all the talk about it for months was totally uncalled for. Still to this day I do not regret writing that column. I think it is the truth that sweatpants do not make a good first im-pression. Clothes are the first thing you see when meeting a new person, not your personality. Has anyone heard the say-ing dress for success? I know when this issue comes out, many people will have plenty to say about this column, people should not take this personally it is just my opin-ion, take it for what it is worth. To some people it may be nothing but the “stupid-est article ever”, but for others it might mean something different. Either way it is my opinion, not yours.

They do jobs that no on else is willing to do.