“I am not an angel,’ I asserted; ‘and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself… you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me – for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.” [JANE EYRE]

I’ve lost all innocence.  Entering highschool is like leaving Eden.  You see the world and all it’s flaws and when you go home with five hours of homework, if you have enough time to fancy a look in the mirror, you’ll see the short-comings of the world engrained on your face.  I’m grateful, though.  I’m grateful for all the hurt I’ve been in.  I’m grateful for those years of depression, for they were introspective, and when someone cared enough to pull me out of that well of despair I was wallowing in, I always saw the world in a brighter light.  It’s all part of the human experience.

I fall in love atleast 100 times a day.  I love a celebrity I read about in the Rolling Stone as they pour their soul out to the masses, crying out, hoping there’s a simular soul out there.  I fall in love with the authors I read whose minds are printed in black and white on these pages I read.  I love the woman at the movie theatre with the long, dirty blonde hair and the faux leather jacket what wears no makeup, but is so pretty it kills you.  I fall in love with the old man in the greasy spoon sipping his coffee, black with sugar, and breathing deeply his Paul Malls, reminising on better times.  I fall in love with the couple in the red corvette that fish in the Jesus pond on Sunday afternoons.  I fall in love with Britney Spears as she sings “Lucky,” and I want to cry… she’s such a lost soul.  I fall in love with my teachers and my peers.  I fall in love with convicts and divas.  Humanity has such a hold on my heart, and it breaks so easily.  I’m fragile.  On my hands, (OH HANDS SO WEARY OF OUR TOILS AND TRYS!) like shackles of my broken heart are mementos of those I’ve loved and lost, and though they forget me, I love for forever.

See how the Potter still molds me?  Each of us is a beautiful mosaic of the people we’ve met.  Bits and pieces of them colour my black and white body.  I thank God, (not everyday, cause in my petty ignorance, I’m often put off or mad at God) for all these so HUMAN experiences I’ve had.

I’ve found myself.  I’m finding myself.  The journey won’t stop till I die.  And I’m so in love with being alive.  So in these four years of Cinderella story, so like Jane Eyre, I’ve aquired a prince charming, been discoloured by soot and embers, been given life by so many fairy godmothers, and am leaving in a few days in a pumpkin carriage to start my happily everafter.  Amen.

TRADITION is very important to this culture as stability.

Jewish TRADITION dictates every aspect of his life.

Everyone is as they have always been.  Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons.  Match-makers, beggars and rabbis.

Marriages were arranged.  Supersition was prevalent. 

Women had absolutely no say in their lives.

Matches were made based on social status.

Celebrations were also sexually segregated.  Men danced with men and women with women.

Ulysses was written on Joyce’s love of the Grecian ballad “The Odyssey” (though he uses the Roman translation of the name Odysseus, Ulysses). Joyce calls Ulysses his favourite hero and the only all-rounded character in literature. Expanding on this thought, I would go as far to say that the Greeks as a people were as whole, perhaps the most wholly human of all societies. From them, humanity has gained invaluable knowledge medically, politically, and artistically. These categories are all descendants of Grecian thought, but for all the knowledge we have retained, we have salvaged very little wisdom. “The Odyssey” describes the long dangerous journey home of an all-rounded Greek hero after the fall of Troy. In fact, the title of this ballad as become synonymous with the description of any journey in literature, so famed is Homer’s work. One of the most notable elements of Homer’s epic is the dependency of events not only on the actions of warrior men, but women and serfs as well. James Joyce in Ulysses parallel’s Homer’s epic novel in many instances, references other major works as well and yet is its own work, ground-breaking in the literary world. This daunting new-age-epic of 265, 000 words (from a vocabulary of 30, 030) is highly regarded as the forefather of the modernist period and the first to effectively apply the “stream of consciousness” technique. It was ranked #1 on the Modern Library’s list of 100 Best English Language Novels of the 20th Century. It describes a man’s day-to-day journey through life in Dublin, Ireland with all its commonplace trials, tribulations, and troubles.

At this point, any sane person would ask, “Why is such a valuable piece of literature being banned?” To you, my sweet peers, I reply, HUMAN HONESTY. Joyce took Homer’s ballad and married it with honest, human stream-of-consciousness, which any HONEST human will recognize involves sexual innuendo, masturbation, and various other references to physical and sensual pleasures. However, the narrow-minded of our country would call these ideas “obscene” and suppress these very human characteristics in the masses. In America, we are granted in the bill of rights that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” which means that though Christianity is prevalent in our country, it is not recognized as a NATIONAL religion meaning just because Christians may suppress their humanity, they have no right to suppress it in others, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Constitutionally then, book-banning is illegal. However, there is an obscure law in Title 19 of the U.S. Code that has NOT been repealed, stating “any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing, or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper of other material, or any cast, instrument, or other article which is obscene or immoral… shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture.” Under this “jurisdiction”, if it may be called such as unconstitutional as it is, between 1918 and 1930, Ulysses was banned by the United States and the Postal Service actually seized a significant number of copies. The legal definition of “obscene” is “indecency calculated to promote the violation of the law and the general corruption of morals.” Furthermore, “for something to be ‘obscene’ it must be shown that the average person, applying contemporary community standards and viewing the material as a whole would find 1) that the work appeals predominantly to a ‘prurient’ interest,” prurient meaning “an appeal to a morbid, degrading, and unhealthy interest in sex, as distinguished from a mere candid interest in sex.” I would like to pause on this and think on the vague contingencies of these definitions. Firstly, what defines an average person? What distinguishes “contemporary community standards”, and once defined what if these contemporary community standards are wrong? Furthermore, what is “wrong”? It is IMPOSSIBLE for a human to define right and wrong for another human being, and we push our authority to declare what is “right” and “wrong” for ourselves. Secondly, who and what define a DEGRADING and UNHEALTHY interest in sex? What is a “candid” interest in sex? For instance, some people consider the act of oral sex degrading and others embrace it as sensual. Technically, homosexuality is unhealthy due to the vast number of venereal diseases contracted by the homosexual population, but it is politically incorrect to shun homosexuals in today’s society, despite Christian attempts to smother the embers of the gay-pride fire.

In further expansion of my fervent belief in the wholeness of ancient Grecian society, they were open and embracing of all forms of sexuality, recognizing this as a natural human expression. Most Greeks were “bisexual”, but that term was for the most part irrelevant. Greeks viewed sexuality and sensuality not in male and female terms, but in dominant and submissive, active and passive. These were distinguished by the active role being associated with masculinity, higher social status, and adulthood while the passive role was communicated with femininity, lower social status, and youth. Homosexual love in men (and in a few cases women) was acceptable in the institution of pederasty. An older male, often married but always secure in his trade or occupation would take in a young boy as apprentice and lover. This was not viewed as pedophilia in Grecian society (and I am in no was advocating pedophilia in any form), but as a rite of passage. The older man was a teacher and this youth his student, master and apprentice, fulfilling the consecutive roles of active and passive. It was a deeply spiritual bond that helped the boy become a man. When he came of age, he took a wife and with that, the mantle of the dominant role over his submissive wife and eventually was expected to nurture a youth in the institution of pederasty. Adult homosexuality however was frowned upon as it upheaved the balance of passive and active and served no practicality as no children could be borne from homosexual relations, though there were a few documented relationships such as Alexander the Great and his childhood friend who grew into his lover.

Now that I have sufficiently gone off on a tangent, I beg your attention back to the definition of “obscene.” The next qualification that the “average person” must distinguish is that the work “2) depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.” This BEGS the question what does the “average person” find offensive? Obviously, any small mention of sex could offend a fragile, feeble temperament, but it seems to me that the average American is no stranger to the easily accessible plethora of pornography on the internet. Finally, “3) that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Now we are in a pickle my friends, for when the average person dictates what is art, the world is in collapse. I hope you, my readers realize that which is classified as “classical art” was all created by men (and women) who were by no means “average” (many of which had “unhealthy” interests in EVERYTHING, i.e. daVinci’s illegal exhumation of numerous corpses in the name of art and science).

In any case, in this instance, the rights being infringed upon are likely those of a minor. The constitution “applies to everyone”, regardless of age, colour, race, religion, or any other factor. However, public schools are granted the rights of in loco parentis which means that while a student is in school custody, the school can and “often should” act as a parent. According to law, minors are an exception to all rights, reasoning that until a child transcends into adulthood, that person cannot be responsible for their actions and thusly does not have rights or valid opinions. After many court cases however, the Supreme Court recognized the importance of the FREE FLOW OF IDEAS IN SCHOOLS, calling the classroom a ‘marketplace of ideas.’ I see no room for book-banning or violation of self-expressive freedoms.

In the instance at hand, a PUBLIC library is in question, NOT a public school library, so there is absolutely NO reason to remove/ban ANY books from the library, let alone a valuable literary work such as Ulysses. Furthermore, America should rethink their hypocrisy in preaching freedom of speech while suffocating TRULY free-thinkers under their “socially acceptable” pulpit.

In one scene, Mr. Bean has a silent competition of male dominance at an exam.  The man with which he shares a table draws out a pen and sets is above his paper.  Rowan’s character does the same.  The other man draws out another writing utensil and Mr. Bean proceeds to reveal oodles and OODLES of pens, pencils and markers from his jacket, pocket, and briefcase as well as a miniature lorry, an alarm clock, and a toy pink panther, thusly showing his male superiority.

During the exam, he falsefies many gestures in attempts to disguise his attempts to cheat off of his neighbor’s paper.

In another sketch, Mr. Bean goes to the beach and after looking very,  excitedly around with his rather girly swim trunks, he notices a man lounging nearby.  He starts in suprise and to cover up his embarassment, mimes blowing his nose with his swim trunks, as if they were a handkerchief.  Meanwhile, the man stares  stoicly at the ocean, very obviously disgruntled by Atkinson’s presence and sits cross-armed with a slight frown on his face.  The irony of the skit is this man is blind. 

In a skit where Mr. Bean goes to church, he very obviously communicates boredom by staring slack-jawed and glazed eyed at the celing.  As Mr. Bean falls asleep, the man beside him leans away in discomfort and disgust as he leans on his shoulder and into his lap until falling awkwardly onto the floor.  In this position, the man is fasinated by his progression and is startled when Mr. Bean wakes suddenly with a cry and gallops awkwardly back to his seat.

Next in this skit, the man to is right refuses to share his hymnal.  Mr. Bean mumbles the bits of song he doesn’t know, but belts obnoxiously loud the Allelujiah’s at the top of his lungs.

In another scene, Mr. Bean walks by a street musician appreciatedly digs in his pocket to throw some change in his case but can only find pound notes.  Well, that seems a bit much to spend on a starving musician, at tries to make change in case but gives up, unhappily.  Finally, he lays down a handkerchief and a few pelvic thrusts later, an old lady throws a bit of change at him, which he deposits in the musician’s case and walks away. 

(NOTE:  Why is there a mirror in the towel department of this store?)

Mr. Bean is a lovely awkward character that carries potatoes in his pocket. 

…and a whole trout.

Disgruntly, Mr. Bean goes through the phone department, picking up the phones and throwing them back down when he hears no dial tone until he picks up the secretary’s phone and, satisfied, throws it in his shopping cart.

Brilliant.

Poor Mr. Bean, wrote himself a birthday card and opened it excitedly, geturing to the people around him how incredibly sweet the “sender” was to have thought of him.

An article on theglobeandmail.com by Rebecca Boone discusses how schools, both on the high school and college level are deciding to ban the use of iPods and MP3 players in the classroom because of their students undying efforts to cheat. 

In the article, she goes on to give examples of how baseball caps were used for answers and then banned.  Cell phones and text-messaging were a beautifully efficent tool for quick sharing of answers on tests.  Now, ingenious students are using recorded answers on iPod tracks and notes in the lyrics option and many schools are potentially banning these delightful devices. 

What our condesending society of educators fails to realize is that but removing these cheating devices, they are stimulating learning in their students, but it is not over the subject material.  Each time a cheating tool is removed, the dogmatic students adapt and produce a new idea. 

To remove the cheating aspect, teachers should be more vigilant in the observation of their tests and remove the “bad apples” from the bunch.  Most colleges have an expulsion policy for cheating and perhaps high schools should adapt harsher punishments for dishonesty on tests to combat these apathetic students.

Meanwhile, music is often benificial to learning.  In controlled, scientific studies, it has been proven that music helps students by focusing concentration, improving attention, increasing memory, facilitating a multisensory learning enviornment, and release tension.  I personally find my iPod a most valuable study tool and employ its use as often as I can during the day.  I have a 3.8 GPA.  Music helps.  I promise.

http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/brewer.htm

GLOBAL WARMING:  Global warming has been pushed to the back of people’s minds when troubles such as political displeasure and dissatisfactory unemployment numbers cry out loudly to the american people.  Climate change is put on the back burner.  People who don’t believe in global warming has doubled since 2008.  Congressional action on climate change is stalled.  “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”  The warmer it is, the more evaporation, thus greater moisture in the air and heavier snowfall.

EUROPEAN STORM:  Streets of France’s coastal cities flooded.  Hurricane-force winds flooded ports and destroyed homes.  Storm effected nearby countries as well, including Belgium, Portugul, Spain, and Germany.  French death toll of 51.  Sea walls dating from the reign of Napolean broke in storm, flooding towns. 

SIMULARITIES: 

1.  Stories of abnormal occurances in nature.

2.  From the same news provider:  news.yahoo.com.etc…

3.  In each instance, the people that are effected were unaware or unprepared for the wrath of mother nature’s fickle temper.

In a word?  AWARENESS.

One must be aware of one’s surroundings.  Of the consequences of one’s actions.  If the people in these disaters were aware of what was going to happen, they would have been more prepared.  The global warming article touches on how UNaware the American people are of the crisis of global warming and plead that they become aware and be prepared.

In October of 2008, The Heritage Foundation published an Article by Christine Kim called, “Teen Sex:  The Parent Factor.” In this article she discusses the statistics of communication between parents and teens on sexually issues.  I would like to share with you some of the data from the study she was reporting:

• Teens who reported greater satisfaction in their relationships with their mothers were less likely to have sex and become pregnant (and were also more likely to use birth control during their most recent sexual experience.)

• For teenage girls, but not for boys, higher quality father-daughter relationships, but not mother-daughter relationships, tended to postpone sex­ual activity.

• Younger teenage girls and boys as well as older teenage boys who felt more connected to their mothers tended to delay sexual activity com­pared to similar-age peers who felt less con­nected to their mothers.

Even among families with disapproving parents, many teenagers ignored this advice.  And many parents were completely clueless to the fact.  Many parents are also unaware of their teens’ actual behavior. “In a study of 700 teens in Phila­delphia, 58 percent of the teens reported being sexually active, while only one-third of their mothers believed they were.”

Teenagers are going to have sex.  Let us not try to shove that notion out of our brains.  And yes, there are a few strong willed, strong faithed students who will remain abstinent till they marry, but often that is the exception, not the rule.  Teenagers are going to have sex.  They always have.  They always will.  Society can try to coax them in one direction or another, but in the end, there will always be teen sex.  The best thing to do is to work with what we are given.  Teach those who will listen not to have sex, and implore those who will not to atleast be safe.  For their own sake, and the sake of others.

In March of 2004, Robert E. Rector wrote an article for The Heratige Foundation promoting the teaching of abstinence-only sex-education.  His article was written mostly from an emotional standpoint displaying the critical issues of pre-marital sex, such as increased depression and limited adult happiness.  He also commented on practical issues such as hightened rate of infections from sexually-transmitted diseases as well as decreased maternal stability and increases in abortions.

His argument states that nearly two thirds of teens who engaged in sexually activity reported to regret starting so young.  He declares it a FACT that sexually-active teens are more likely to be depressed and commit suicide.  He goes on to back this argument with the parental imput statistics including that parents would rather have their children taught abstinence education rather than a contraceptive or comprehensive course.  In fact, he goes on to attack comprehensive courses calling them, “safe sex programs wrapped in a deceptive label.”

I was unfortunate enough to be unable to find anymore data backing this claim from a credible source, so we will leave it at that.

CBS did a report on Abstinence-Only education in January of 2008. Under the Bush administration Congress pushed “abstinence-only” funding into schools.  There were many objections to this including the first rise in teen births in fifteen years.

At the time, a reported  fifteen states rejected the funding because as the governors are saying, ”Even if this administration is going to continue to push abstinence-only, we in the states are going to do the right thing by teens and actually give them the information they need to actually prevent an unintended pregnancy.’  But the states are split on what is required to be taught for sex-ed.  Fourteen require a comprehensive class, nineteen require only abstinence, but contraceptive is allowed to be taught, and seventeen don’t have guidelines for their school boards teaching.

Another site that I found in my recent research is an article from The Washington Post from April of 2007. It portrays a study authorized by Congress that followed two-thousand students from primary school into high school.  All these students received family life services in their community and more than half received abstinence-only education.  At seventeen, half of these students admitted to being sexually active.  Less than a quarter of these groups stated that they had used a condom or other form of contraceptive.  More than a third of them had two or more partners.

As you can see, some very reliable sources agree with me.  Abstinence-only education is an epic-fail.  The best method for protecting the adolescents of America is a comprehensive course.

Programs such as “True Love Waits,” in which teens pledge to be sexually abstinent till marriage, have good intentions, but 88% of teenagers who took such pledges admitted to having engaged in sexual intercourse before marriage.  These teens that have slipped from their pledges not only engaged in sexually intercourse, but many of them did so unsafely because they were never taught in their abstinence-only programs the safe way to do it.

On the Opposing Views Argument I have been following, the two main opponents in this discussion have been APHA and Life Way, a Christian organization.  While Christianity takes a whopping 76% of the country’s population, it is not the only religion in this great melting pot of ours.  Christians are not the only people that enroll in public schools.  While abstinence from sex is the most effective way to keep one’s self safe from the previously stated nasty, horrific diseases as well as unwanted pregnancies, who are we to force our beliefs on others?  What right do we have to tell others how to live their lives?  As Americans, we have “…certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and in those unalienable rights somewhere, you’ll find the liberty to choose for yourself what you think is right.

The best solution to this ethical dillema is a comprehensive sex-ed course.  Or atleast, offer both courses and allow the parents of the child to decide the best method for their children.  Comprehensive?  Sounds like a good compromise to me.