BHS SADD

     Recently at Batesville High School our sutdent body has started a SADD Chapter. "Founded as Students Against Driving Drunk in 1981 in Wayland, Massachusetts, SADD has grown to become the nation's leading peer-to-peer youth education and prevention organization with thousands of chapters in middle schools, high schools, and colleges." Students Against Destructive Decisions or SADD is an organization that help people our age make better decisions in our high school years that will help us in our future rather than affect us. Like the website stated, it has grown to be the "nation's leading peer-to-peer youth education and prevention organization.."Some of those decisions could be drinking, drugs, drunk driving and such. SADD has realized that it's not just alcohol that's available to students, but also drugs and other destructive decisions that could really hurt them. "SADD's unique approach involves young people delivering education and prevention messages to their peers through school- and community wide activities and campaigns responsive to the needs of their particular locations." Summer is almost here and for some of us, that means going down to the sandbar and hanging out all day with chances to drink and even smoke.
     "Membership into SADD is a commitment and a voluntary process. Members set the environment for other students to follow here on campus." Most of the members of SADD volunteer in their communities to make it a much safer environment for everyone around this town. Most of the work done is by the students but in order for it to take action, the adviser must agree. In order to get more people into the SADD Club, one most show and be a good influence and must show others all the good things about being part of the club. "Service projects are one of the best ways to constructively engage youth; in fact, the rewards and experiences gained during a service project have the potential to leave a huge impact on not only those in need, but also those serving." Having hands on activities is fun and can attract many people to join and help. The point of the activities is not to be rewarded or recognized but its to show others that you care about the environment and your peers that you will do anything to keep them safe.

http://www.sadd.org/mission.htm

Woman Abuse Is Bad

Abuse comes in all kinds of forms. It is not only physical, such as hitting or beating, but it is emotional and verbal, as well. Words hurt and manipulation can also tear someone down, slowly but surely. Usually, emotional abuse takes place in relationships. Though it is definitely not always men abusing the women, it is more common for the women to be the victim. Women are weaker, physically, giving men more power over them, and some men seem to enjoy taking control of that vulnerability.

 In many countries, especially third world countries, women abuse is not considered normal. It is a regular thing that people learn to accept, which means men repeat the same abuse to their future wives or daughters, creating a cycle that never ends. In the Middle East, there is a practice that has gone on for many years. It is frowned upon, but the abusers do not always get the consequence they most definitely deserve. It involves throwing acid onto the face of a woman, either to get revenge or for some other personal reason. The acid, a harmful chemical, burns the face of the woman, literally melting off their skin and leaving behind a gruesome look. Although the advanced technology we have allows surgeons to reconstruct those victimized by the heartless attackers, the women abused will never have the face they once had.

In a small tribe in an African country, there is a tradition that has been passed on through generations of women. The difference between the acid attacks that takes place in the Middle East is that while the attackers in the Middle East are male, the practice in Africa is performed by the women. The practice in itself has a meaning behind it, it is to try to prevent young girls from being sexually assaulted by the men in the tribe. It involves beating a young girl's breasts with hot rocks, in order to prevent the breasts from growing in, ultimately making them seem far too young to have sexual relations with. The practice is painful and does not always prevent the breasts from coming in, but rather only leaves burnt skin and scarring, physically and emotionally.

Women abuse is everywhere. Not only in third world countries, but in our own towns. Although it may be impossible to stop abuse from happening altogether, there is always hope to try to minimize it as best as possible. Anyone can help, by teaching children from an early age that abusing someone is wrong, or by helping end somebody's pain who is going through it already. There is no limit to how the world can help those abused and make women feel at peace and safe in their lives.

http://womenshealth.gov/violence-against-women/

Good vs Evil

Our country has been attacked in many ways, most of them are thru violence. Now here is a new threat that has even more potential than any other method used to attack another country. This method is referred as "hacking." It may not appear to be a huge threat but it could severely hurt our country. Yahoo News has stated that "the growth in the number of hackers, the software tools available to them, and the thriving economic underground serving them have made any computer network connected to the Internet impossible to defend flawlessly." The internet is not a place that you can hide something and someone never finding out about it. Nowadays everything can be hacked and with the increasing number of knowledgeable hackers, it will only become harder and harder to protect private information from them. Dell Inc's chief security officer, John McClurg stated that "They outspend us and they out man us in almost every way," The leaders in the technological world are being hit and targeted by hackers from all directions, the work load is increasing and the number of hackers is only rising. We may indeed already be in a war with hackers across the earth. "The attacks are not only from China, which Washington has long accused of spying on U.S. companies, many emanate from Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Western countries." Hackers have only one goal, that goal is to mess with people just because of differences. I don't think it's right that we can't even trust the internet without the risk of being hacked and them stealing important information such as credit card numbers or Social Security Numbers. http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-near-impossible-battle-against-hackers-everywhere-080356080.htm 

Bravery Around The World

     In an article by Dylan Stableford from Yahoo! News called, Malala Yousafzai Speaks Publicly, the world is informed of a brave, young girl from Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban and survived.
 
Malala Yousafzai is a fifteen year old Pakistani girl who advocated girl's education rights. In the fall of 2012, while Malala was walking home from school, the Taliban issued a shooting and attacked the young girl, shooting her in the face. According to Associated Press, "the Taliban... targeted her because she promoted 'Western thinking.'" The Taliban, an extremist Islamic political group responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, do not believe in "Western thinking," nor giving women much rights at all. The attack on Malala Yousafzai sparked controversy around the world.

On Saturday, February 2, 2012, Yousafzai successfully underwent surgery in order to reconstruct her skull. Only a couple of days afterwards, she released a video speaking to the public and stated, "I want every girl, every child, to be educated." Malala also announced her success with the surgery and her determination to continue to advocate girls' education rights. In order to achieve her goals, she has launched the Malala Fund, an organization that will support education for young girls.

This article grabbed my attention immediately, not only was an innocent human being shot by vicious men, but it was a fifteen year old girl. I cannot in any way relate to her situation, considering we live in two completely different countries with completely different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, but I feel strong sympathy towards her, due to our similar ages. It makes me realize that no matter how old you are, you can make a difference in the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/malala-yousafzai-speaks-video-143346420.html

Animal Cruelty

     Humans and animals may not be the same, but they are still something we should love and take care of. Animal cruelty is something I strongly stand against. Most cases are the same and we have all known or met someone who has abused an animal or has seen someone do such act. There can be situations where the animal was not feed properly, was not taken care of properly, and was beaten out of anger or for "disciplinary methods."
    I happened to own a dog and I love him. My neighbor doesn't take good care of his dogs so I help them. That day I came across this article, reported by CNN, I read about how 20 year old Kevin Dean Parrish "put his grandmother's dog into a heated oven after it nipped at him." He told the police that he had a past of having "anger issues" and he was actually planning on leaving the 9 pound Chihuahua-Pincher in the oven, until his brother walked into the room. The dog is recovering fine from the burns it got from the oven, this is still a very cruel thing to do to an animal and I also find it very strange as well. I find all of this so similar to an experience I had we I was younger.
    When I was about 10 I had a friend who had a Labrador breed dog. I loved that dog, and it surprised us all with little puppies. I asked him if I could have one and he said yes. Our family took in the dog and we named it Max. I played with this dog all the time, he was like my best friend and I took care of my little buddy as if he was my little brother. which at the time, I was a single child. Time went by and we moved, Max stayed with us and everything was fine. I went back to visit my friend and noticed that his dog had burns on its legs. At first I really didn't think much of it. I later realized this dog has been thru so much. I asked my friend what happened to it and he said the dog ran away and some random family took him in, when the dog came back, those burns were on it. After this experience, animal cruelty just bothers me. I just think it's odd that both of these situations are alike and I happened to come across this report. Animal cruelty should not me something to be looked upon, not one bit. We all need to love everything and everyone no matter what.


Couldn't find original article but here is the same one but reported by Opposing Views:
 http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/oregon-man-kevin-dean-parrish-tries-bake-chihuahua-oven-dog-survives

Hurricane Sandy allows looters to party

After a tragic hurricane, people were looting but honestly, that's just a stupid thing to do. New York Daily News says that "people were running in and out Rent-A-Center carrying big flat screen tv's." When you're in the middle of a hurricane, you don't NEED a T.V, what you need is things that can help you survive. Not only did people steal TV's but they also took liquor! What was going through their minds? "Hey let's have a party and watch TV while Hurricane Sandy is killing our city!". No, I understand if you steal things that you need like food or clothes, but a TV and alcohol is not necessary. I think it was wrong from their part to do that but I guess I can't change that now.

Drink drink drink

Hey guys! Lets drink liquid nitrogen! No. Don’t do that. Unless you’re an 18 year old woman from England. But serioulsy, this woman was having a night out drinking and partying like she was party of Jersey Shore on her 18^th birthday and decideds to drink LIQUID NITROGEN. Just in case some of you don’t know, liquid nitrogen is mostly use as a coolant. So pretty much, she froze her stomach. She said she started "becoming breathless and developing severe stomach pain." She was then rushed to a hospital where they did some tests on her and found out her stomach was perforated.

I don’t see why anyone would even think of drinking liquid nitrogen, I know it was her birthday and she was having fun drinking and all but you have to know what you’re taking in before you drink it. I had a cousin who went to England last summer for his birthday and he drank a lot. This reminded me of him becauase later that night he got taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. I still don’t see the point or the intention this girl had on drinking liquid nitrogen. I guess you’ll be “cool” if you drink liquid nitrogen. No pun intended. If you’re going to drink, at least drink something that won’t almost kill you. What she did was really stupid and she deserves it because if she knew what it did and still did it, you must be an idiot. No offence. I guess my point is that if you’re going to drink, don’t drink subsrttances that can harm your body to the point where they remove one of the most important organs in your body, your stomach. You’re stomach is so important to your body and you’re just pretty much asking for death if you drink what this girl did. There is nothing good about drinking it. The name even sounds sketchy.

I feel sorry for this girl but also I feel kind of glad she got what she deserved. So one thing I would like to tell her is, next time you drink, drink something that you get from a bar not a science lab.