International Justice Mission

"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence."

-Henry David Thoreau

As I was sitting in class on Thursday, I could see the passion that our guest speaker had for her mission. She has devoted her whole life to promote peace by doing acts of civil disobedience. She does not only claim that war is wrong, but spends her whole life trying to stop the violence. She is using her "whole influence" to try to stop the ongoing wars. There are many people who are using their "whole influence" to not only end wars, but injustice.

In church today, a speaker named Gary Haugen talked about how he has devoted his whole life to fighting injustice. In 1997, Haugen chose to start a "human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression" called International Justice Mission. This agency is made up of lawyers who "work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems." When he was talking about the injustice in the world, I could see the passion he had for rescuing the abused just like our guest speaker in class had passion for peace. These two people have devoted their whole lives to their cause and take action in trying to solve the problems they see in our world. I believe that Thoreau would have commended both of these people because they have used their "whole influence" to solve the issues they are passionate about. Haugen is making a large impact in the world because he is trying to establish justice in our world and free abused men and women. The question I ask myself is: What am I doing to use my "whole influence?" And now I ask you: What are you doing to use your "Whole influence?"

Wyoming Land Rush

While gazing over the new York Times website, I was intrigued by the article "A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power." The previous day we had watched an epic film of Tom Cruise racing to snatch his piece of land in the Oklahoma land rush. I visualized a whole swarm of cars racing out to Wyoming to stake out their piece of land and set up wind turbines that would produce electricity for their home and town. In actuality, the Wyoming land rush was a little more subtle than that. There are companies searching for "wind-rich land" who spotted a few counties in Wyoming where the land could be made into "wind farms." Since there are people who own these windy lands, the wind companies are not going to snatch there piece of land for free like those in the 1889 land rush. But, hold on. I thought in the 1889 land rush the Indians owned that land. That was until the federal government said it was open to the public. Why is it that the Indians are always being pushed out of where they have settled from?

I was so upset to hear the tragedies the Indians went through during the Westward Expansion, the mass killings, and the treaties that were broken. Even though I am only one-sixteenth Creek Indian, I felt the pain that some of my ancestors went through. I had an opportunity while reading Zinn to see the asterisk of the Indians. I got a glimpse of how the Indians felt when they were being betrayed by the "white society." While watching the epic land rush of 1889, I noticed the Indians on the side, watching their land being taken from them, only to be moved into an unknown new land.

The Klan is back?

"Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we watch the Bush administration come to an end, we are excited to see what Barack Obama will do to improve and advance our country. Americans are very optimistic and see Obama making change to move our country forward. If our society is advancing, wouldn't Emerson argue that our society is receding as well? He was right. I opened the Chicago Tribune and saw the headline "Hate Incidents in U.S. Surge." This article explains that a surge in white supremacist groups have been noticed because of President-elect Obama. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, has hung "effigies of President-elect Barack Obama." Emerson's idea that "society never advances" rings true. Our nation should be in a time of change and advancement, but that has been halted by the rise in hate crimes. A lady from Angie, La., Judy Robinson, "decided to place an Obama campaign sign outside her home a few weeks before the election. On the morning after Halloween, she awoke to find 'KKK' and 'White Power' spray-painted around her yard." It is frightening to hear that the KKK is reviving and terrorising people for supporting our new President. Emerson's beliefs are clearly shown through the surge of hate crimes.

Rugby Linked to Progress??

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a teammate about how to play rugby. The game seemed very interesting and I think I would enjoy playing it. Coincidentally, I looked online and saw an article from the New York Times named "The Unlikely Scrum." After just hearing the positions and how the game of rugby is played, I knew that article dealt with rugby. This sport has become more and more popular around New Trier, but in this article, I was shocked to hear that Hyde Leadership Public Charter School has the "nation's first all African-American high school rugby team." When I think of Rugby, I think of large English brutes hitting each other as hard as they possibly can. I never knew that African-Americans played the sport of rugby.

When the first students from Hyde asked their friends and family about playing the sport, a common response was, "You're crazy, that's a white person's sport." Regardless of what they said, the students began to pursue the sport of Rugby. Tal Bayer, the rugby coach at Hyde, encouraged the students to play "a pick-up game after school." These pick-up games led "to the birth of a team in 2000." The sport has become very popular at Hyde school and "now, 45 of the high school's 110 boys play." It is amazing to see how a game that was own known to these students is now something they all look forward to after school. Not only has Hyde created a school full of Rugby players but, "Hyde has become one of the city's top programs, finishing second out of seven teams in the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference."

Who would have thought that a group of inner-city high school boys would be playing rugby? Since this team has been able to compete against white affluent schools, it is a "barrier that rugby has broken down." Seeing an African-American rugby team excel and play against teams who have only encountered white opponents is progress in braking down racial barriers. It is amazing to see how our Constitution has allowed for once slaves to now be accepted in our American society. I have always seen the videos of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the M.L.B., and how he broke down racial barriers by playing in a "white mans sport." America is making progress! This rugby team is one of the thousands of examples of how our country is progressing in the right direction.

The Reality of Moving into the White House

When I think of Barack Obama, I think of the word "Change." Everyone is anticipating when Obama gives his inaugural speech and becomes the President of the United Sates of America. The question I ask is, how much change will he bring once he faces the realities of our country?

I opened up the Sunday Chicago Tribune to a huge picture of Obama with the title, "Great Expectations: Harsh economic, political realities will test Obama's mettle and ideas." It is great to see so much optimism out of our President-elect, but what will be his first objective to accomplish? On the front page of the Tribune it said that Obama will begin by stimulating the economy with a "stimulus package around energy development" which will start "creating manufacturing jobs in the alternative energy sector." This approach is killing two birds with one stone. It will help stimulate the economy by providing jobs, and it will also help our country slowly move form dependency on foreign oil. This is a very realistic goal that he can pursue, because honestly, there is no way he can just solve all the problems quickly, he can only take it step by step. Even though his campaign was about "change," Obama will need to look at all the problems he is facing,"a plunging economy, ongoing wars and a massive federal deficit," and deal with them pragmatically. Our new president is a very intelligent man and will do everything in his power to help the American people. He may not heal all the wounds of our country right away, but give him time and he will be able to move our country in the right direction.

Space Sports?!

In 1969, people were amazed that two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. In the early 2oth century, idealists were dreaming about the day an American would walk on the moon, but pragmatists thought it would be an impossible task.
As I was surfing the web, I saw a headline that shocked me, "For Ex-N.F.L. Star, a Dream of Sports in Space." Ken Harvey, a retired Washington Redskin football player, has high hopes for "Float Ball." This would be a sport, a mixture of "basketball, football and the Lionel Richie video for 'Dancing on the Ceiling'", played in space. This "space sport" would be very expensive unless the rate for space travel decreased dramatically. One thing that caught my eye was when Ken Harvey said,"Sometimes it doesn't happen in your generation, but you plan to see it in the next generation." When I read that, I immediately thought of how the first Puritans were trying to set up a better place in America for their children. The Puritans had a dream to live life with religious freedom, and Ken Harvey has a dream of playing sports in space.
In my previous blog, I established how I am an idealist. If Ken Harvey has a passion for "Float Ball", I believe that he can make his dream a reality. A realist would say that playing sports in space is almost impossible, but I beg to differ. If one man can make a space traveling device that is cheap and affordable, sports in space might become a reality. I am positive that many people would be interested in playing if it was affordable. I hope that Ken Harvey stays optimistic and tries to find a way to make his dream into a reality.

State in '08!

After our football game vs. GBS, Coach Davies said to our team, "Even though we had a tough loss today, you have a clean slate in the playoffs. Lets go out there and win our next game!" Our teams record is 5-4, and we are matched up against Lane Tech, a city school power house, who has an 8-1 record. I always try to be optimistic, but to be honest with you, this game is going to be a battle. We are going to have to work for every yard and every tackle. It will be a great game to watch.

I opened up the Sunday news this morning and saw the bracket for the 8A playoffs. I quickly looked for my team and it said "#14 Winnetka (New Trier) (5-4) at #3 Chicago (Lane) (8-1)." Always being an optimist, I know that we can beat any team in the state even if they are the #3 seed and we are the #14 seed. More pragmatic people would say that Lane Tech is going to put a beating on the Trevians. With the odds against our team, we are going to prepare the most we ever have to be the Cinderella story in this years playoffs. If we beat Lane Tech, then we could run into our arch nemesis, #7 seeded Loyola. Pragmatists would say it would be unbelievable if we won two games in the playoffs, but I know we have the desire and ability to win it all. The Trevians will not go down without a battle!

It is always very important to stay optimistic when you are on a sports team. If you think you are going to loose, you most likely will. But, if you believe that your team will win, you push yourself to your limits to accomplish your goal. Being optimistic is not only important in sports, but important in life. If you have any dreams, you better be optimistic because if your not, you probably will not work your hardest to make your dreams a reality. This reminds me of how the "Americans" wanted freedom form Britain. They fought in one of the bloodiest wars ever so that they could make their dream of freedom and liberty a reality.