Jacket News Episode 19-1September 25, 2019
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Jacket News Episode 24May 14, 2019
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Jacket News Episode 23May 7, 2019
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Jacket News Episode 22April 29, 2019
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JACKET
NEWS
I Can't Vote, But I Still CareBy Annabelle Langford
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Our Opinion
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Throughout the past week, our nation’s political climate has been full of thunderstorms and hurricanes. Since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president our country has been split between the Democrats and the Republicans. His reign as president has been controversial to say the very least. The Mueller Report, possible Russian collusion, and a wall on our southern border have been a few of the topics taking over conversations, and headlines on papers all across the country in the past four years. With the 2020 reelections coming up in just over a year, much of what was said behind closed doors has been coming to the surface. A formal impeachment inquiry was just announced by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, on Tuesday, September 24. Our generation is quickly becoming able to vote, and it’s extremely important that we know what is happening in Washington, so that we can form our opinions and vote appropriately. Here’s everything you need to know about what led up to the impeachment and what an impeachment inquiry means.
The ultimate turning point that seemed to have initiate the impeachment inquiry was the release of the phone calls between President Trump, and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. A whistle-blower released a complaint against the president, and afterward, the President released the transcript of the call from July 25. The actual phone call was not released, but the transcript (the notes on the call) was released. The basics of the phone call were: In the beginning, pleasantries were exchanged between the two presidents and Trump congratulated Zelensky for his tight win against his opponent. Zelensky said he might not have won, had it not been for the opportunity to learn from Trump. The section of the call that has caused so much turmoil though, is when Trump asks President Volodymyr if he will start an investigation into Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, one of Trump’s top Democratic opponents. I asked Alana Lilly what her opinion on the possible impeachment of Trump was and she answered by saying, “I think that whatever happens will happen for a reason. They don’t just impeach a president without good reason.” People are hopeful that whatever happens will be for the betterment of our country. The process of impeachment is a long and strenuous one. At the moment we only have an impeachment inquiry, what this means is that law enforcement is gathering evidence and inspecting the evidence they already have. If they find him guilty they will then draw up articles of impeachment for the House of Representatives to vote on. Once the vote goes to the House, they will then vote on whether or not they think he is guilty. Here is where it can get complicated: The House can vote to impeach the president, but the only Senate has the power to remove him from office. If the House votes to impeach Trump, then the vote will go to the Senate to remove the president from office. These next few months will be full of headlines about our current president, especially with the primary elections happening, and the Democratic party finding a new opponent to try and take the Oval Office from Trump. We, as the next generation, are obligated to keep in touch with the news media, and the happenings in DC. We will soon be old enough to get involved in politics, whether it be through voting, or even eventually running for a position in the government too. Turn on your news notifications and keep up to date with the impeachment trials, because even though you might not be able to vote yet, you still have a voice and you should still care. |
It can be said that your online presence is more important than your physical presence. It’s considered odd if you don’t have a Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat account. People rarely meet for the first time in person, and your social status is determined by how many followers you have or how many streaks you can hold. What happens on social media now leaks into the halls of our school, and it creates a tense atmosphere for anyone who knows about what went down over the weekend.
Unlike most of my peers, I’ve never had a Snapchat. Not necessarily because I wasn’t allowed to have one, but because I never wanted one. Whenever people ask me for my snap and I tell them I don’t have one I normally get questions like “Why?” and “How”. The answer to ‘why?’ is: I saw what it did to my peers, how all they did was send pictures of themselves back and forth to someone. I saw how friendships were broken because of one text. I saw all of the drama created. I never want to rely on social media platforms to feel good about myself. When it comes to ‘How?’ the answer is a little different. Of course, there were times where I contemplated getting an account, but for me personally, the negatives outweigh the positives. I always settled on no, because there was always a part of me that wondered if I could do it. If I could continue to have a social life without giving in to this norm of highschool society. Twitter is another social media platform that has made it onto the phones of my generation. From what I’ve observed It took a bit longer for this one to gain popularity. I still think that most don’t have Twitter, or at least don’t post on Twitter, but it’s still there and people still use it. It seems that one of the rights of passage on this site is getting into a ‘twitter war’. One student from Lee County High School even got into one with our opposing high school’s student section account. In this instance, things were taken too far, direct insults were made to certain students, and by the next day at school, everyone was talking about what was said on Twitter. When the events of a twitter war seep into your school day it can make school life unbearable. The platform that seems to determine your social status is Instagram. How many followers you have, or how many likes you get on each post seem to be extremely important to anyone who has an account. Whenever we post a picture we seem to be glued to our phones so that we can constantly check our likes and comments. We even feel the need to post an ‘LMR’ on our story. We all do it because we want to prove we can get the likes to validate that it’s a cute picture. Most of this seems harmless until you realize that it doesn’t just affect how much you’re on your phone, it affects your school life. The animosity that can be created between people over a picture online is ridiculous. The pressure we feel to present ourselves a certain way online can affect our mental health and in turn, cause our grades to drop or affect our face to face social life. We should all try to make social media platforms a more welcoming and positive place so that we can be the same person on and offline. |
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