LAST BLOG EVER!

With the controversies and current issues surrounding our environment, it is honestly shocking to me that people continue to live their daily lives without changing anything. This is why I chose to focus on the environmental policy keying in on global warming. With gas being the price it is, a current national average of about $4.00, it is time we started finding alternate forms of energy. The technology and capability is already out there to make electric cars, however most of us, me included, still currently pay the prices at the gas station. We passively sit back and watch as the price rises daily, and the amounts of people actually standing up to make a change is so limited that the gas companies continue to win. Due to the price of gas being so high, a lot of lower class drivers can no longer afford to pay the amount at the pump, and instead have to resort to public transportation or other forms of transportation. If everything continues the way it has been, driving will soon become a luxury offered only to the upper class.
Also, the issue of conserving water and power is beginning to really deplete our resources. This issue really seems to me to be one of people getting lazy and forgetful. I can admit not always do I walk out of the room and remember to turn the lights off or the fact that sometimes I do take long showers, but I do try to be resourceful and use less energy during the day. The issue is everyone just seems to be really selfish and has a lack of care and concern to do the right thing. If everyone worked together to slowly use less power and energy during the day than the issues we are currently facing would slowly alter for the better. The heat and current weather we are dealing with may feel nice to go to the beach in, but this weather is because our ozone layer is slowly starting to deplete and will continue unless we make a change in our lives. As we speak ice caps are melting and every day things get a little worse and worse, and although the problem can’t be fixed immediately it can change if we begin to think long term.
I am now done with high school and can’t believe how fast the year flew by. Tomorrows graduation and then off to college and the real world to try and make a difference. It’s been a great year and I can definitely thank you for becoming so political and involved in the election this year! Good luck next year as you go off to Marlborough and teach something that you will really enjoy doing. Thank you Gwaltney for everything!
K-STOVE

New Hampshire Primary

On Tuesday January 8th the New Hampshire primary took place. Another big surprise occurred here. Somehow Clinton was able to pull it off and take over Obama. The crazy thing is the polls had him leading from 8% to 17%. So how were they so off? Is it because people do not want to seem prejudice so when polled they said they were willing to vote for a black man, but when they get to the booth voted otherwise? Or the fact that Hillary somehow was able to control the women vote again. Or maybe it was the swing from all the Independents and those who went in unregistered to vote. Either way Hillary Clinton was able to pull off a win in New Hampshire and boy is she happy. Obama only trailing by 2% admits he was surprised, but he will not let this bring his spirits down as he travels to Nevada and then South Carolina.
Mc.Cain took the win for the Republicans. This now puts Romney in second for both Iowa and New Hampshire, having expected a win by now besides little Wyoming, Romney is now getting a little freaked out by the results. The people of New Hampshire spoke in 2000 and have spoke again supporting the old Mc.Cain. He has been rejoicing and showing them just how much that win means to him. The competition is fierce and the candidates are all doing whatever they can to remain in this race.

Iowa Caucus

It is January 4Th 2008 and the results for the Iowa Caucus are in! A surprising win for Barack Obama with 37.6% of the vote. All of the polls from days earlier had Hillary leading, but somehow she fell to third. Maybe it was a swing vote from the Independents or maybe the ladies weren't as faithful to Clinton as expected. However, the Obama campaign sure is ecstatic and hoping to continue to win when they move on to New Hampshire. On the Republican side of the spectrum: Mike Huckabee ruled out Romney and the other candidates with 34.4% of the vote. The fact that he announced himself as an Evangelical Christian might have had a lot to do with that or maybe the white potato people in Iowa really just like him. He is not expected to take another big win in New Hampshire or any other state that is not predominantly white religious conservative people.
However, back to Obama...I find it truly amazing that he was able to pull this off. First of all there are no blacks in Iowa, so does this mean the American public is really ready to elect a black man into office? I think this shows how far we have come and are willing to go in order to see a drastic change in the White House. Sorry Clinton, but so far Obama takes the lead!

Harvard for the Middle Class

Harvard has announced that for the next year a financial aid program will be installed, cutting tuition from 1/3 to 1/2 of the usual cost. They are looking to help the middle class and even the upper middle class families send their children to ivy league schools without going bankrupt. The program will make families only have to pay 10% of their annual income for tuition each year. The drop will be as much as 50,000 dollars for some families. Harvard has witnessed the dramatic increase within the last few years in university's tuition and have decided they are going to take the initiative to fix the problem. Their financial aid program offers more help than any other private university in the country. Attending Harvard is now comparable to the price, but certainly not the status, as attending a state university. They now will be giving out over $120 million dollars a year just in financial aid. Other schools are following Harvard's lead, mainly on the East Coast, to increase financial aid and therefore making attending college ultimately easier. Over the years they have been debating whether or not a drastic change in tuition was needed, but up until now they had been creating only differences for very poor families. But now everyone is included and Harvard is excited, as well as everyone else, to satisfy the nation by providing more financial aid and proving they really do care about education even if our current government does not.

The Internet's a Scary Place...

Myspace, facebook, livejournal. For the most part we all have/had one. However, the dangers which come from these sites is more than just someone being able to look at your pictures. For the most part, it is young girls who are the victims of these sexual predators. Girls like to look "sexy" in order to seem older, but what about that 30 year old man who is able to sit at his computer and interrogate...As a teenage girl with one of these sites I have found that it is certainly not uncommon for someone you have never seen before to try and strike up a conversation. Girls must be aware of the dangers and communicate with their parents or friends if they are receiving creepy comments from a person they have never met before. In Kansas City, a 13 year old girl, Megan Meier, was found hanging in her closet after receiving hateful comments from a made up person over myspace. Her mother told a source that she went into her room crying and within 20 minutes was found hung in her closet. She had felt like an outcast and thought the easiest way out was by committing suicide. What she didn't know was the person on the other end was a fictional character, Josh Evans, played by another girl named Ashley. The neighbors have now shunned her family and constantly berate them by performing acts on their house or making crude comments about their daughter. It is horrible to think a girl would go through with something like this after a conversation over the Internet. It is one thing to be the outcast at school, but this could have been easily solved by telling her mother and not communicating with "him" anymore. The Internet is a dangerous place because you can't see who the person is on the other end and a lot of times they are someone you would never expect.

Lives Cost

Who would have ever thought people living longer could be something bad? Well Medicare is losing more and more money for every person who lives longer than expected. Hospitals and science itself have improved facilities and medical practices Now,patients with cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's are passing their life expectancy. The federal government is requiring hospices to repay all their debt to Medicare, adding up millions of dollars. The big issue here is soon Medicare and other health care services will go bankrupt and people will no longer have any type of insurance. This affects us greatly because when the boomers start to get older and need more medical services the well will completely dry up. We need to find an alternative so this doesn't need to happen and when we get older there will be some type of medical services available for us. As of now, as long as people continue living passed their expected longevity, hospices and Medicare will continue losing millions of dollars and the government will eventually shut these programs down.

Democratic Debate

On November 15th The Democratic candidates met in Nevada to persuade the public about their policies and ideals they have for presidency. Hillary Clinton is leading the election with 46% and Obama falls to second with 17%. The candidates felt the need to form an alliance against Hillary instead of the Republican party. They tried to make her look like the fool and fall behind in the polls. Obama and Clinton had a heated argument about universal health care. All the candidates support leaving Iraq, but their policies for doing so are different. Education is a major concern for all the candidates, especially Bill Richardson the Hispanic candidate. They believe in setting a minimum wage for teachers at 40,000 a year. Clinton felt the need to justify and fight back creating an intense argument among all the candidates. Clinton, Obama, and Edwards remained the key players in this debate whereas Kucinich, Biden, Dodd, and Richardson were called on much less. All in all it seems the candidates are more about fighting with each other than grouping up against the Republicans and unifying on certain issues.