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-The entire student body at Miami Northwestern High School in Liberty City walked out of class Tuesday morning to protest gun violence in their community.
-Students said that they walked out in order to bring the world’s attention to the deaths of young people in Miami’s inner city.
-Kimson Green, a student at the school, was shot dead over the weekend during an outbreak of violence.
-The students say that they want the world to give as much attention to violence in inner cities as it has to what happened in Parkland.
-The walkout was spontaneous, and occurred after the school organized a ceremony to honor Green.
-Student leaders say that they plan on walking out again tomorrow.
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Watch Another Story: Meet Miami’s Queen Bee And Her Backyard Insect Revolution
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Looking Back At All Those “First Days Of School” And The Anxiety That Came With Them
Everyone has had some sort of “First Day of School” experience in their lifetime.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle school, high school, or college years; some form of anxiety kicked in when it was the final hours of the night before and you climb into bed thinking about new beginnings.
For high school kids, that anxiety isn’t focused too much on the amount of effort that you will need to front to get through a new year of school; but instead, energy is channeled into setting up that fresh outfit and brand new pair of sneakers you will rock on the first day.
I can still hear my teenage self, “I’m going to kill ‘em tomorrow with these Jay’s!”
Growing up in Baltimore, high school was a fashion and popularity contest.
Who could pimp out their school uniform the best with the hottest accessories or freshest pair of sneakers.
Who could get all the girls to wave and give hugs when you walked down the hall.
First days are all the same man. Photo Credit: tiffany terry/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Having clout in high school was just as important as it was to get good grades and graduate.
Well, maybe not that serious; but close.
Who am I kidding? For some, the school work didn’t matter at all!
I was one of those cool nerds who could balance a 3.5 GPA as well as a couple of honeys under my arms. If you read that and judged me just now, don’t hate the player, hate the game!
College is…well, college.
It’s high school but a grown-up spinoff of your favorite high school reality show.
Fashion and popularity contests still exist but aren’t the main focuses.
Graduating in a timely fashion and getting a J-O-B is what’s important.
In college, first day jitters are centered around the anxiety of getting a new chance to be a better you.
A better scholar, athlete, test taker, note taker, homework doer, studier or what have you.
A clean slate.
Frankly, it’s an opportunity to look at past mistakes, evaluate, and evolve.
After all, when you’re paying thousands of dollars to get a higher education you tend to take your studies a little bit more seriously.
For me, I am going into the second to last semester of my undergraduate career at The University of Baltimore and I am excited to get back and strive for a better GPA than the previous semester.
Of course, I’m ready to get back to campus and see friends and socialize but above all, I am anxious to get back to lectures, learn something new, and prove to myself that I can achieve the highest.
I am definitely ready to graduate and see where this road called “life” is going to take me.
From today until graduation in December, first days are no longer hurdles.
It’s all about last days.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Andrew Subiela/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Bernie Sanders Needs To Drop Out Now
Bernie Sanders said in his victory speech in California after winning the Oregon primary that he could still win the Democratic nomination for President.
It will be a steep climb, but we have the possibility of going to Philadelphia with a majority of pledged delegates pic.twitter.com/dY6zZd4dQu
— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) May 18, 2016
He’s pedaling a fantasy.
While Sanders could *technically* still beat Hillary Clinton (and I could *technically* still make the NBA), he has close to no room for error. Neither does the country.
While Sanders is waging an ideological fight to further he and his enthusiastic supporters’ agenda, the United States is starting down the horrifying possibility of a Donald Trump presidency.
The time for high school civics games is over with. Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race and immediately endorse Clinton so that she can have more time to unite the Democratic Party and prepare for the long election fight to come.
Sanders has repeatedly said that the number one priority should be to stop Trump from being President. This is the correct priority. After all, Trump is a barbarian who is willing to do just about anything to get elected.
Clinton has been careful in recent weeks (after it became clear that Sanders didn’t really have a winning path) not to anger Sanders supporters by calling for him to drop out. She also stayed in until all the votes were cast in the 2008 primary when she lost to then Sen. Barack Obama.
But that was a very different situation (high levels of excitement in the Democratic primary) and the stakes didn’t feel quite as high as they do now, with the specter of Trump on the horizon.
While Clinton has rightfully not called for Sanders to drop out, he should still do it on his own. I’m sure he won’t and a strong case can be made for his staying in the race until he is mathematically eliminated. But what good would that really do for the party and for the Sanders movement?
Bernie has made his point. And the party will never be the same because of his hugely successful and revolutionary campaign. It would be a real shame if his actions over the course of the next few weeks gave Trump the cover needed to score important victories on Clinton.
And just for the sake of argument, Sanders doesn’t really have one anymore. He is running as a figurehead of a movement and not as a legitimate candidate for the Democratic nomination.
That’s great, but he can do it from another platform and not as a candidate that is causing resources to be devoted from Clinton that should be used on Trump.
Before any Sanders supporters say something nasty in the comments, lets just get all the facts out there.
Sanders is behind Clinton by more than three million raw votes.
Sanders is behind Clinton by nearly 300 pledged delegates.
Sanders is behind Clinton by nearly 500 super delegates.
Before entering Tuesday night (where Sanders narrowly won Oregon and narrowly lost Kentucky), he would have had to win 90% of the remaining delegates to win.
Clinton would basically have to have her name taken off the ballot in the remaining states for Sanders to win, and even then he still might lose it.
Bernie has lost his argument for staying in the race and its time for the real fight to begin.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Phil Roeder/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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A Petition Campaign To Name A Building After Harper Lee On The University Of Alabama Campus Is Picking Up Steam
An online petition campaign geared towards pressuring the University of Alabama to rename a well-known campus building after Harper Lee is gaining traction.
The campaign, which was launched just hours after Lee’s death wants the flagship university of the state to rename Morgan Hall to Lee Hall and has already picked up over a few hundred signatures.
Morgan Hall was named after John Tyler Morgan, a Confederate general and statesman who had ties to the KKK after the Civil War.
Alabama student Jessica Hauger launched the petition on Change.org.
She thinks that the name change would be a huge sign of progress at Alabama.
“Upon the death of Harper Lee, who attended the University of Alabama from 1945-1949, the University has an amazing chance to show our support for racial equality, as well as to honor the legacy generally of a woman who promoted kindness and empathy for all,” Hauger wrote on the website. “Lee was doubtless the University’s greatest contribution to literature, and it would be more than fitting for our English building to bear her name, which reflects so much more accurately the values of the University of Alabama, than that of white supremacist John Tyler Morgan.”
A portrait of Morgan was already removed from Morgan Hall last December after a campus group called We Are Done organized for the action.
Lee is best known as the author of “To Kill A Mockingbird”, a 1960 fictional work that inspired generations of children and anti-racism activists. She was born and raised in Alabama and attended UA.
“I decided to post something today because it was always kind of a no-brainer to me that Morgan Hall, the English building, should be named after Harper Lee, one of the most famous people to attend UA and easily the greatest writer to do so,” Hauger said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
Hauger said that she believed that “To Kill A Mockingbird” is easily one of the most beautiful books she’s ever read, and that it’s “holistically honest” about people and race.
“It makes clear the ambiguity of people, that no one is all bad or all good,” Hauger said. “I think her tone is perfect for what the University should be doing right now – accepting our history of discrimination and recognizing that acceptance as an important step to improving upon our community and campus.”
The idea of changing the name of a campus building long associated with a racist and which also houses the English department could be especially poignant considering Lee’s position as a voice for reform in the New South.
“Harper Lee is an almost universally loved figure, and her name next to that of John Tyler Morgan makes the right answer seem so clear,” Hauger said. “She is a unifying figure, and one that the south, Alabama, and the University can be proud of. I think placing her name on Morgan Hall would make a statement that we are moving toward the values and goals that Lee expressed in her work and life.”
You can sign the petition here.
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