Once I finally spotted all six letters, I finished my search for the latest information on the deteriorating situation in Syria.  Atop the article I chose was none other than a picture of Queen Elizabeth II and Ambassador of Syria Sami Khiyami. 

     A coincidence, I thought.  The royal wedding could not have possibly consumed the world news, just cloaked it.  I was wrong.  As I read the caption, I realized the picture was there to comment upon the fact that the ambassador was invited to the royal wedding.

     Important, life-altering events go unnoticed every day.  Nearly 500 prisoners escaped from an Afghanistan jail on Monday through a tunnel dug by the Taliban.  Nobody noticed.  Instead, Meredith Vieira reported live from England on all things royal, but nobody was reporting live from Kabul on the escape of Taliban insurgents.

     Events that take and change lives are being pushed to the backburner to make way for the every moment leading up to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

     Mobs of “wedding crashers” set up camp outside of Westminster Abbey in hopes of catching a glimpse of the royals before the wedding.  Thousands of others across the world woke in the wee hours of the morning to watch the royal ceremony on the tele.

     Maybe the fact that Prince William is second in line for the throne has captivated the world.  A modern Cinderella story, perhaps, as an alluring Prince prepares to wed a commoner.

     “They’re royal, like they’re fancy and they have money and their British.  You just want to be like oooo look at them, I want to watch,” junior Nikki Scott said.

     No matter the reason behind the undying fascination with the wedding, the main focus of our media should be the events that actually influence our everyday lives.  If we lose sight of the real news that hits home, we will have become a country of mindless tabloids and Hollywood news.

By Jessica Deters

In high school, respect is especially desired and important.

Throughout a student’s four years in high school, he or she will inadvertently change and mature, grow and evolve.

The one constant is that respect will always be something they need.

Respect for elders is major cultural trait almost everywhere; again, high school is no exception.

Teachers, staff and administrators should certainly be respected.

And in the hierarchy of high school, so should everyone else in the grade above your own.

If one is using the “respect your elders” approach to conduct, then, logically, freshmen receive the smallest amount of respect, since they are the youngest.

It’s nothing personal.  It’s strictly a social norm.

In the not-so-distant past, the freshmen were the top of their middle school food chain.

Guaranteed, while they were the eldest around, they expected, and thrived off of, the respect of the classes below them.

The invigoration of being a person who knows all the tricks, shortcuts and general facts about a school only comes with years of being there.

That feeling is something that everyone experiences at some point.

That feeling shouldn’t be tainted by someone younger being disrespectful.

Although that feeling can generate a sense of superiority, it comes with the well-deserved wait to get there.

When this year’s freshmen become seniors, they won’t be worrying about how they were told to move back at a football game – they’ll be too happy to have the authority to tell someone else what to do and where to go.

Everyone has been in that position. 

Freshmen hate it now, but they’ll love it later.

True, freshman year is a big deal with changes and new people, but there is more than enough time to learn respect for their peers, upperclassmen and staff.

Everyone wants respect.

To make sure everyone gets the respect they want, they have to be sure to give some to others as well.

Five hundred million people have Facebook accounts.

That’s 500 million people who put their personal information on the web for all the world to see.

And 500 million people’s information is sold to advertisers by Facebook.

That’s right, every user’s information is being sold to companies they don’t know in order to make Facebook more money.

An evil corporation is making personal gains off the user’s personal data, exporting them to the highest bidder.

So the conspiracy says.

The end results of these transactions are the tiny pictures and captions on the right side of the Facebook page, encouraging the user to buy whatever they may be interested in.

The uproar surrounding these events could be compared to the outrage the Patriot Act, which enables the government to wire-tap and perform other privacy-invading actions, caused.

As the public reaction to the Patriot Act was one of immense general anger, the feeling has appeared again in regard to this Facebook “scandal.”

Should this policy of Facebook really be considered such an attack on privacy when the user freely put the information on the web?

To be fair, each Facebook customer consciously decides to put the information on the web, and is therefore giving that information up to whoever can view it.

But besides fair treatment, is it really a terrible invasion of privacy when the information being sold is the customer’s interests in volleyball, lacrosse or underwater basket weaving?

Facebook isn’t selling what the person did last summer to the press.

It isn’t bartering their address for money.

It isn’t vending their darkest secrets to the government.

It is telling a film advertiser that they enjoy action movies and therefore may like the new one he has to promote.  

Facebook has to make money somehow, and if they do it by harmlessly giving away a user’s pointless info that they willingly gave up, so be it.

Ultimately, Facebook provides the people a service.

Members are allowed to connect with friends, family and coworkers quickly and for free.

To criticize that which allows us this immense connectivity is selfish and rude, especially under the name of privacy.

This argument should not be taken as an attack on the everyday American’s steadfast belief in personal privacy.

It is understandable for people to want to keep some information personal, especially with the society that is active on the internet.

It is not understandable to put unimportant data on the internet, and then complain when that information is used to keep a beneficial site operational.

Emotions are running high. The new students are feeling nervous and excited to finally be in high school.

Most freshmen have the feeling they’ve entered a bigger, more complicated school, which they truly have.

They have to worry about the size of the campus, about the teachers and about how they have to live up to certain expectations.

Not to mention worrying about the upperclassmen who tend to enjoy harassing and ridiculing the freshman.

Is this the way new students should be introduced to our school?

Once a person has become a freshman, there is no need to treat them like a complete inferior.

Instead of abusing them, upperclassmen should be good influences to the younger class.

Many times treating the freshmen unkindly is a means of revenge, a continuation of the behavior that the upperclassmen recieved when they were freshmen.

Treating freshmen like this isn’t helping the situation. It creates a vengeful cycle, leaving the freshmen with a vendetta to the following classes.

If upperclassmen treated the freshmen fairly, then maybe once the freshmen hit the upperclassmen status, they will not pass on the cruelty to the newcomers.

However, freshmen simply need to be cautious with what they say and how they act, since they definitely don’t need to irritate or anger upperclassmen.

Sometimes their poor behavior catches attention that’s not wanted, which is why they are targets.

Instead of criticizing and mistreating them for their poor behavior, older and more experienced students should advise the freshmen.

Upperclassmen can simply explain what the freshman has done incorrectly and give an alternative.

Resorting to physicality should never be an option; sticks and stones may break bones, but punches can be just as damaging.

In the end, freshmen are just learning how to be official high school students.

As upperclassmen, we should be helping them remember the freshman experience as amazing, not distressing.