School’s out, but Mack students still angry over Trayvon Martin

McClymonds students (left to right Jacob Miles, Lee Benson and Anthony Beron) take part in National Hoodie Day in support of Trayvon Martin.

by Anthony Beron

School’s out, but McClymonds students are closely following the Trayvon Martin trial, now in jury selection.

Several students, including juniors Jacob Miles and Lee Benson, took part in a National Hoodie Day, in support of the 17-year-old Florida high school who was murdered after buying Skittles and Arizona iced tea inside a gated complex in Sanford, Florida.

“I feel that what the man (George Zimmerman) did was out of pocket and the court should give him (Trayvon Martin) justice at least,” says Jacob Miles, a junior.

Zimmerman argued that he was in imminent danger of being attacked by Martin, who was at the time unarmed and pleading for his life, according to CNN.

“I’m angry.  After all, this is just another example of how Black and Latino youth are targeted because of their skin color,” said Rafael (who would not give his last name), a Hispanic male in his 20’s from East Oakland, who was the apparent organizer of the rally.  Rafael added, “We need a revolution!”

“I think George Zimmerman should serve a long sentence in jail, because he killed an innocent person.  It was racial profiling: he just killed Trayvon since he was an African-American male, wearing a hoodie, just walking around,” argued Kardel Howard, a sophomore.

Zimmerman claimed to have been attacked by Martin before shooting him, and later took photos of himself with a broken nose and several cuts and bruises.  The slug of the fatal round Zimmerman fired at Martin was lodged in the teen’s left chest before  paramedics arrived and attempted CPR on him.  Martin was later pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting.

Zimmerman’s defense team allegedly tried to form a jury with the least number of minorities as possible.  They denied the allegating: “Absolutely not, but if there isn’t a black juror, that doesn’t mean anything either. It just means that we chose the best people based on their answers to their questions,” according to the New York Daily News.

“I feel like it’s not fair to choose people that are not minorities who can’t relate as much to Martin,”  said Howard. “With more minority jurors, they can relate to racism and oppression better; it should be more balanced.”

From Stewie to Springer: Curse Words Pollute

by Sana Saeed

Little kids imitate. That’s just what they do, all day long. So when they hear curse words at an especially early age,  they repeat those words, to anyone, everywhere, all day long, ad nauseum.  Ask any parent. It’s embarrassing.

So why print curse words in our student blog macksmack, even if uttered by an outstanding athlete after a heated game? Why air them on network comedies (even out of the mouth of Stewie from Family Guy) ? Why stultify a nation?

Curse words represent the lowest level of intellect and the most limited vocabulary. Easy to use, shocking and emotional, they discourage children from developing a more extensive vocabulary with which they could communicate eloquently with other members of society.  Curse words make us all lazy.

Should we condone the use of curse words because we want to be progressive or liberal (and feel sorry for those who don’t use a thesaurus). I say NO.

Should we allow the use of curse words because we can only use 140 characters on Twitter and want to make a BOLD statement. I say USE CAPS INSTEAD.

The use of curse words is destroying our culture, limiting our horizons, reducing our grey matter. And I find it sad that the last protectors  happen to be government agencies like the Federal Communications Commission.

Television shows have been using the beep sound to block the cuss word out and block inappropriate images with a black line or by making them blurry.

Watch any episode of  Family Guy: as it comes on, the FCC makes it mandatory to place a message that says ” viewers’ discretion is advised.”

This allows mothers to scoop up their children before they end up learning curse words like “female of some carnivorous mammal” or “a lewd and immoral woman” (you know the word) and blurt them out to grandma on weekends.  That’s why we need media censors.

Without the FCC, programs like the “Jerry Springer”, which should be completely removed from public broadcasting, would give kids an early human anatomy lesson.

Even on the radio, many stations have to bleep lyrics to explicit songs.

It is completely inappropriate for us to be exposed to the foul language that seems to be taking over our lives — on the screen and airwaves, in our schools and gyms.

The use of curse words is the first sign of a drop in morals and ethics. If you can disrespect someone with words, you dehumanize that person.  So what stops you from shoving that person, robbing that person,  or shooting that person?

Why Censorship is F****ng Stupid

by Khristan Antoine

Like any other art work, journalism has its own beauty and language.  But what happens when that language is simply not enough?  As student journalists, we are handcuffed by rules that say we can’t use certain words like sh*t, p*ss, f*ck, c*nt, c*cks*cker, motherf*cker, and t*ts.

We resort  to using words  that tame the real, strong emotion behind a significant quote even if it was uttered in the heat of the moment: just last week, an ecstatic Lady Warrior, who recently won the OAL championship after 37 years of deadends, said “We f***ing go.” And we had to use asterisks. In some school newspapers, we couldn’t even use the asterisks or the word.

For f*ck’s sake, we can’t even write a review of a rap album because we won’t be able to quote verbatim a decent lyric that portrays the meaning of the song entirely or precisely.

And there are myriad other examples. In an interview with a student for another story, the student talked about how her parents told her to wash the dishes and she sat on her butt and continued watching TV.  After a while, they began to lose their patience and resorted to the language we all know as authoritative.  She heard a loud bang and a scream that pierced the atmosphere.  “Get your fu***ng a$$ up and do the God da*n dishes!”  As she told us, “sh*t just got serious. ”

Cuss words carry the emotion of the person speaking them. They don’t necessarily harm or insult anybody but they make a strong impression. They change the tone of the conversation.

Words were never meant to be “bad.”  Who gets to decide what is acceptable or not? I fuc**ng think words, all kinds of words, are just that:  words. They were designed to fulfill their purpose to communicate  and express emotion.  If a word achieves its purpose, does it cease to be a good word?  What a silly thing to suppose that words are bad or good.

A word is only as good or as useful as its context.  As some may argue, cuss words  detract from the eloquent nature of language, allowing for a lazier approach to social intercourse (you can SAY intercourse, but not the F word).

What censorship fails to address is inequality:  not everyone has access to an education that provides the tools necessary to develop a more extensive vocabulary fit for use in society or even fit for a high school journalism blog.

I  s**t  you not, sometimes words unify and make it easier to have significant conversations — break ups, family showdowns, disciplinary lectures, just plain hurt feelings.

I do not believe “cuss words” should be the only words used in a daily interaction.  There should be a professional level to everything and anything discussed or shared but cuss words unite us all. They’re so basic that there’s no possible miscommunication.

Notebook

Sitting on the window sill,

as I scribble in my notebook –

life makes me want to run away;

but, in my head,

there are dreams to be read.

Souls to be set free,

to that place called…..eternity.

I close my eyes,

rest my head in my hand,

and I can see it.

The cacophonous sounds are different.

And the world?

I resist it.

But when I open my eyes,

the voices, the danger, the lies…..

rush in at me.

A wave; and,

once again, I am the world’s slave.

I am back in the status quo;

and my heart, well it beats slow.

With notebook in my hand,

I walk away;

because that is all I can withstand.