The Proclamation Wilbur Cross High School Issue #3 -- March 2011 “It is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”-- E.K. Hornbeck, Inherit the Wind In This Issue: To Be Young And Free BY David Elkin-Ginnetti Opinion: Revolution has been spreading -Thea’s Thoughts through the Middle East like ru- -Pen To Paper: Procrastination mours. Egypt and Tunisia have -Not So Sweet on Sweethearts overthrown their oppressive -Chaos in Egypt leaders, Hosni Mubarak and Zine -A Look Back at Revolutions El Abidine Ben Ali. Yemen, Jor- -A Response to “The Israeli-Palestine dan and Iran have been protest- conflict” ing, to not much avail. The most -Neda, the Martyr countries most slated for revolu- tion right now are Bahrain and News: Libya. They both have dictatorial -Zodiac Changes regimes that have held power for -The Story Behind the 2012 Apocalypse years. People there need help. -Egypt’s Revolution, Day by Day The Bahraini government has -Israeli Opinions on the Political Cli- massacred its people. Libyan mate of the Middle East leader Muammar el-Qaddafi has -World Report sent army troops to kill their fellow Libyan citizens. In fact, the Libyan army has become so enraged that many soldiers have defected. A Libyan pilot flew to Malta and pleaded political asylum, because Features: he didn’t want to kill his countrypeople. It’s perfectly reasonable for the inhabitants of these countries -POD Saturday Sessions to be angered at their governments, which have denied people their rights, ran oppressive regimes, -The Year in Review and assassinated their citizens. With all these crimes, it is a surprise that the people did not revolt -So Many Snow Days, So LittleTime! sooner. -Mr. Brochin: Behind the Vest Yet the United States is not an innocent bystander in these problems. Ever since the 1950’s, -Love is in the Air things have been spiraling downhill in the Mideast. It was during this period that the United States -Stephanie Arroyo overthrew the governments of Egypt and Iran, two of the Mideast’s most powerful countries. Moham- mad Mossadegh was the last democratically elected leader of Iran, and the US overthrew him, with -El Origen de San Valentin the help of Britain. When we complain today about the rise of Mideast dictators such as Mahmoud Arts: Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, we should keep in mind that our government was not just the -Black Swan Takes Flight horrified onlooker; it was a willing participant in rampant imperialism. -Proclamation’s Favorite Love Movies America has been a world conqueror for decades. We have destroyed democratic govern- -Raising Victor Vargas Review ments in the name of “justice.” Even if the US is not directly tied to all the tyrannical governments in -The King’s Speech: a Crowd Pleaser for power today, we must take more action in helping the people gain freedom. The US has not, unfor- the Commoners tunately, gone much farther than verbally reprimanding men such as Hosni Mubarak and Muammar al-Qaddafi. There are many easy ways to discipline these leaders, such as United Nation sanctions -Analyzing Our Favorite Love Songs or enforcing a no fly zone over their Advice Etc.: countries. Sadly, neither the US nor the -Truth Lies Under the Trends UN has taken these steps. The Mideast -Ms. Understanding need freedom, and they haven’t had it in years. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, Sports: “Freedom is never voluntarily given by -Super Bowl the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Other countries can help too, of course. Our government cannot assume the role it once had a mindless empire. We must work for freedom and democracy in the whole world, and the Mideast is no exception. The Proclamation 2 March 2011 Opinion Thea’s Thoughts Egypt: Youth in Revolt We sit at home reading Twitter posts from young Egyptians about the protests in Cairo re- garding their country’s current status. Reading these so-called “Twitter revolts” brings me to Cairo. We are blinded by tear gas. We are standing next to young men and women who are hurling stones and exchanging bullets with corrupt policemen across Tahrir Square. The Proclamation believes that the young Egyptians who protested in the demon- stration at Tahrir Square in Cairo were the ones to change Egypt’s future by forcing Mubarak to step down. We are also are glad to know that everyone can now exercise their rights with- out the government stopping them. Mubarak attempted to shut down the Internet, but Egypt prevailed and was not discouraged, finding ways to communicate with the rest of the world via Twitter and Facebook. The Proclamation is an example of how young people can practice their freedom of Last issue, our goal was to spread understand- speech and press: Egypt did the same but on a much larger scale now that their thirty-year- ing through articles about body image, homo- president has left the country. We believe that youth can make a change, overthrow a govern- sexuality, stereotypes, and bullying. Our lead ment, and indeed bring change to the world. President Obama and his team did not address editorial was titled, “Civility is the answer” for the issue seriously; they seemed ambivalent in their response until the whole thing was over. that reason. Now that statement is being debated This shows that we, the United States, are not the heroes of this narrative. The young people throughout the U.S. because of the tragic Tucson who fought for their freedom are the ones to bring change to their own country. And for this shootings a few weeks ago that may lead back to some hurtful comments from Sarah Palin. reason, we honor both those who died in the line of fire and the many people who lived to I was lucky enough to go to the “Rally see February 11, 2011, the day when Egypt changed forever. to Restore Sanity”, a gathering on the national mall hosted by John Stewart and Steven Colbert, The Proclamation that drew a crowd of over 200,000. While politi- The Proclamation is Wilbur Cross High School’s student newspaper. It is dedicated to bringing you cal pundits on both sides criticized the rally for news, features, arts, sports, editorials, and more. Opinions and viewpoints stated in The Proclama- not having a point, those like me who are not too tion are not necessarily the opinions or viewpoints of The Proclamation or its editors (except for entrenched in our parties beliefs to listen, under- unsigned lead editorials), the faculty advisor, Wilbur Cross High School, or the New Haven School stood perfectly. John Stewart argued that the District. The Proclamation is an open forum publication, and its mission and policy is to encourage media these days does not run on facts and evi- student expression. Viewpoints, including ones that oppose those appearing in The Proclamation, are dence, it runs on fear. A common cold becomes welcomed. Students may submit articles and letters to the editor, the publication of which is subject a deadly virus and health care reform becomes to approval by the faculty advisor and editors. All articles and le6tters selected for publication are a communist plot. Mountains are made out of subject to being edited for length, clarity, and appropriate language. mole hills. Gabriel Gifford’s doesn’t agree with BYSTANDER IN CHIEF EDITORS IN CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Palin politically and Palin puts a “bulls James P. Brochin John Branch and Thea Doyon Chante Lewis eye” around her district. I don’t care if Sarah Palin caused this OPINION EDITOR NEWS EDITOR ARTS EDITOR mentally insane college drop-out to gun down David Elkin-Ginnetti Max Martin Sarah Curtis his senator and others in front of a Safeway. She probably didn’t. He had his problems before SPORTS EDITOR FEATURES EDITOR PHOTO EDITORS Sarah Palin became the media hound that she is. Ciara Moran Allen Hossin Suge Zhang, Joohye Jung, Liz But the fact is; she uses gun lingo as metaphors Case for political situation, which is taken violently EDITORS AT LARGE for many unstable people. Then she uses anoth- Sophie Dillon and Shoshana er violent and anti-Semitic term “blood libel” Lovett-Graff to paint herself as the victim in all of this. She needs to learn about the word civility. Without CONTRIBUTORS: Sophie Dillon, Rachel Smith, Caleb Levy, Stephanie Arroyo, Stephen civility we would still be in caves bashing each Hannon, Lital Avni-Singer, Shoshana Lovett-Graff, Amanda Wheeler, Jian Gao, James other’s heads in. We need to respect the people Doss-Gollin, Natalie May, Romaine White, Justin Truong, Darnesha Austin-Taylor, Beatriz around us who don’t share our same beliefs. Molina, Whetnay Moore, Jesus Abraham Morales Sanchez, Matt Jackson They might have something to add to the discus- sion, and you might even find that despite your differences, you really like them. The Proclamation 3 March 2011 Israeli- Palestinian Debate Continues Putting the Pen to Dear Tomer, I appreciate your letter in response to my articles in the October issue of the Proclamation about the the Paper Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. I welcome your different opinions about the dispute and can understand BY Caleb Levy your concerns. I agree with you that the wall around the West Bank and random vehicle checks at the border are vital to Israeli citizens’ safety. I acknowledge that Israel has every legal right to build settle- ments in the West Bank and to surround it with a wall, but I feel this may not be one of the fairest ways Friends, texting, video games, television shows, to help resolve the conflict.