High Five Choir

I am a part of the High Five Choir at New Trier, and the choir was recently featured in the Chicago Tribune. If you have time, check it out!

Click Here to watch a video of High Five

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Walking in an Airport Wonderland

The Holidays are here, and for many of us, that means travel! After recent talks about airport security in class over the past week, I began to think about how much airport security has evolved since 9/11, and whether some recent security measures are a violation of civil liberties. At the beginning of 2010, the TSA began adding full body scanners into airports as a means of security. Some say that these body scanners are a complete violation of people's right to privacy, but are they? Is the nation justified in doing this, as long as it is for the protection of the people?
This is a commonly brought up question, and I think it can be almost impossible to answer. I completely see both sides of the situation. The country wants to make our lives a little safer, but have they gone too far this time? It's interesting to think about. If you find yourself in an airport over vacation, try to answer the question. Has airport security gone too far?

Secrets secrets are no fun, unless they are for everyone.

After learning about the Vietnam War on Friday in class, I drew a couple of parallels between the Vietnam war and the Iraq war, most notably in what our government told us, or rather didn't tell us, about those wars. During the Vietnam war, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that reason he went to war with Vietnam was due to the Gulf of Tonkin, and the torpedo of an American ship. However, there is much speculation as to whether or not the torpedo of this ship actually happened.
 But one of the main reasons that we went to war with Vietnam was to stop the spread of communism. This somewhat resembles the current war in Iraq. The commonly known reason for going to war with Iraq was that the American government believed that Saddam Hussein was collecting materials to build weapons of mass destruction, however this too was never proved. Some are saying that the actual reason we went to war with Iraq was so we could gain access to their oil reserves, but once again this is merely speculation, and has not been proved. I thought it was interesting that in both cases our government did not tell us exactly what was happening with the war, or why we went to war in the first place, and it reminds me of what we have been discussing in class. When, if ever, should the government be allowed to hide important pieces of information from citizens of this country? In my opinion, never. Even during perilous times, American citizens have a right to know what is going on in their country, rather than being left in the dark.