HOWL HERITAGE

Ashley Davis
Opinion Editor

Many of us at Heritage are eighteen or about to turn eighteen. Conveniently for these people, the elections are coming up. Any U.S. citizen eighteen years or older can vote for local representatives and the president of the United States. For standard registration deadlines, applications or updates must be postmarked or submitted no later than the Monday four weeks before Election Day. Election Day is on November 6, 2012.

Though we are given the opportunity to choose who we want to see in office, many of our youth choose not to vote. The importance of voting, however, is tremendous. Every person eighteen years or older should register to vote and let their voice be heard.

It is up to the people of our generation to make decisions that will better the future of all citizens. By choosing to disregard our opportunities to vote, we are essentially disregarding our freedom. Exercising our rights is what allows us to keep our rights. Voting is one of the most important and direct ways we can affect the government, and express our opinions. It’s an extension of our beloved Freedom of speech.

Ms. Haberl, the CWI and AP Government teacher says, “It’s important for everyone to be civically engaged. Voting forces us to look at what’s happening and what’s going on in the world. You need to learn about the government if you’re going to be in it and take some control; if you don’t vote you have no right to complain. We need to be educated in order to have a better government and move towards a more perfect union.”

If you want to continue to live in a world full of opportunities and freedoms, it is important to actively participate and educate yourself in what is going on in the government offices. Exercise your right to vote, and make the change you wish to see happen in our government.

To register to vote in Washington, or to learn more about it, visit:
wei.secstate.wa.gov/olvrsite

For more information on registration and voting deadlines visit:
http://www.sos.ga.gov/elections/election_dates.htm

Marisa Love
Online Editor

Our school has become a prison, like we are all criminals with nowhere to go, like we are hopelessly trapped with no escape. It seems as if students’ opinions don’t matter to the staff; they teach us democracy but they don’t abide by it. Well whether my opinion matters to them or not, I am giving it.

School is supposed to be a place to receive an education, but there should be an element of fun while we’re here. “Tutorial was better when it was with lunch, now it feels like we can’t go anywhere,” says Sophomore Haley Williams. We shouldn’t feel imprisoned like many Heritage students admit to feeling. The new tutorial schedule is a prime example. Now, with two separate lunches there is also a separate tutorial time. Students who already had tutorial are indifferent, but to the other 900 students, this time is tedious. Students are confined to the Den, with the option of escaping to the computer lab or the library. Wandering the hallways is strictly off limits, which is understandable, except how are we supposed to travel from one area to the other? Were we supposed to receive magical powers and I just never got the memo?

More than a few students have had the complaint that while trying to set out to the library, security has stopped them and instructed them to go back to the Den. In the security guards’ defense, how dare these students try to walk from the Den to the library? This is preposterous; students must be trying to start a revolution.

Security says we only have the first couple minutes of tutorial to get where we want to go and we must remain there the rest of the time. A majority of students going to the library just want to check out a book, usually taking 10 or 15 minutes. They don’t want to be stuck there the whole thirty minutes; Students who aren’t officially in tutorial have earned the time to spend with their friends, so why should they be forced to stay in one place? Apparently it’s unreasonable to desire time to check out a book and hang out with friends (even though the free time is well-deserved).

The students trying to go to the computer lab are also in a similar situation. Their only opportunity to use the computer lab is at the beginning of tutorial. Staff claims the St. Helens labs are opened for business, but many students who go there during tutorial without a tutorial pass are being turned away. So students who get grades can’t study too? This leaves an overcrowded den, an overcrowded library, and unhappy students.
The school got rid of one lunch because of overcrowding, but have now recreated the problem by limiting the places we can go. Tutorial isn’t supposed to seem like a punishment, but the way the new schedule is, those of us who don’t have mandatory tutorial are punished. They have made our school like a prison. It doesn’t appear that many issues are being solved with our new schedule. In fact, it has seemed to create more problems and unhappiness among many students.

Tyler Holbert
WebMaster

Occupy Wall Street protestors are now being listed as Domestic Terrorists as of December 5, 2011. The groups that are also placed on this list include Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Well we all know that Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization but now protesters are being considered Terrorist? It’s
true that protesters can get rowdy, but being considered terrorist it is just pointless.

There’s a difference between the protesters and the terrorist. Al-Qaeda is a terrorist group that causes violence and kills innocent people. The protesters are holding signs, camping out and doing what they can to prove a point and show the society what they stand for, without really using violence. I question why they are now on a list with terrorist organizations. I think this is crazy, and a little extreme.

When you are placed on the list for terrorism and known as terrorist it mean you have caused trouble and made violence and have hurt/injured innocent people. It’s true that the protesters have caused trouble by blocking off ports, but how can the government call that terrorism? I do agree why the government is taking action but to list a group of civilians as terrorist is outrageous.

The United States has begun a deployment of 20,000 troops in the United States to deal with the civil unrest terror attacks and economic collapse. That has been occurring over the past month such as the terminals being blacked in Portland causing $400-10,000$ dollars in losses to companies such as Nike and Columbia Sportswear because of their shipments not coming in. Steps should be taken to prevent the protesters from causing trouble, but they are far from terrorist, and it is unfair to call them such.