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opinions05
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Feb. 14, 2014
Blood drive brings out giving side of students As I was sitting in my 1st Hour class, Once that needle was out of my something suddenly dawned on me. Toarm, everything was downhill. Things day was the blood drive. became blurry; everything sounded The problem with forgetting that muffed. I was passing out. you are supposed to donate blood is that As soon as I opened my eyes it took you do not have the ability to properly me a second to remember where I was prepare your body for what lies ahead. and what had just happened. I hadn’t eaten breakfast nor packed I had a cold towel on my forehead a proper lunch for after I donated. and my neck and my leg was throbgabbymcdaris bing. I was a hot mess, both literally All throughout 1st Hour and 2nd –editor in chief– Hour, I kept on debating on whether or and figuratively. not I should go through with donating. After gingerly walking over to sit I was in no way physically prepared on the mats laid out for recent donafor what I was about to do, but I didn’t want tors, I sat down and inhaled a can of apple that to stop me from possibly saving a life. juice, a bag of cookies and two bags of Cheez-Its. I eventually came to the decision that I would go through As I was sitting in the gym, a sense of pride came over me. with the donation process. It’s no secret that a number of students donated as a way getWhen it came to the possibility of passing out, the odds ting out of class. were not in my favor. But there is also the possibility some were donating for The lack of food in my system combined with my own his- the simple act of giving. tory of fainting, there was about a 95 percent chance that I A decent number of the students there were donating would take an involuntary minute-long nap. blood for the sheer act of giving back to others. The first thing I was asked when I arrived at the back gym As the iron levels in my blood were being tested, the nurse was whether I had eaten anything that day and I shamefully made a comment that she was impressed by the amount of replied with a simple yes. students who were donating blood that day. I was now on a mission to donate and nothing was going I made the decision that the possibility of passing out to stop me. would not stop me from attempting to donate. After successfully answering all of the questions I was If my blood was good enough, I was going to do what I asked and getting the iron amount in my blood tested, I was could to contribute. cleared to donate. There was a dead giveaway to who had not taken too well While they were taking blood I was fine, I felt calm and to the blood loss. not at all nauseous, I was shocked. If you were to simply look around the gym, and see someWas I Superman? I had literally eaten nothing the entire one with their arm raised, their feet elevated and a towel on day and here I was, getting a pint of myself voluntarily re- their face and neck, you knew what had happened. moved from my body and I felt completely fine. They had given up their ability to comprehend anything As the nurse came over to remove the needle from my arm, for a couple of minutes in order to possibly change someone’s I was astonished. How in the world did I not feel terrible? life. I had my answer. The physical act of the blood being reAfter leaving the gym I wore my red bandage with pride. moved was not what I needed to worry about, but what came Although I did feel like I could fall over any second, it was after. well worth it.
Let Me Tell You
Around the country, across the web and all over the school we find things that intrigue us. Here are a few things that are on our radar this month:
1
- In a world void of modern Romeos, we’re quite certain a few guys out there completely forgot to get anything for that special someone for today. Never fear. Here’s a list
of easily accessible, last minute Valentine’s Day gift ideas for those who need a cop-out by 3:05 p.m. • Paper origami • The gift of mutual respect • A handwritten haiku • A 2014-2015 subscription to the Image
2
- As of the time of writing, the running total of snow days this school year has reached nine. Everyone loves a snow day now and then, but this is insane. And by the way, the last day of school is now after Memorial Day!
3
- The “high five” could become Missouri’s official state greeting. This is surprising to us, considering state pride is a foreign concept to most Missourians.
4
- Amid recent issues with hotels for competitors and attendees at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, a new Twitter account called @ sochiproblems has gained popularity. It’s almost more interesting to watch than the actual Olympics.
Criticism is encouraged, as long as points have been researched I really should have seen this coming, but with all of the columns and staff editorials I have written this year containing controversial content related to the school district, I never thought the piece I would hear the most backlash from would be my column about marijuana. In the weeks since Issue 6 of the Image was distributed, I’ve heard a lot of criticism regarding my opinion piece, “Argument made for marijuana legalization is not strong enough.” A few people had so much to say about my column, they approached me in the halls or came to Room 137A to seek me out. I greatly appreciate it when people read the work I publish and I would like to thank anyone who approached me. That being said, a few people who had a problem with what I wrote did not offer
much helpful discussion when they came to me. At least a handful of people said the same thing: “You know you can’t overdose on weed, right?” Now, even though that statement is incorrect, I would have no problem with somebody arguing this to me, as long as that person had done ample background research to back up the point. Whenever somebody would tell me this, I would immediately ask them where they got that information from. Most people would simply respond by saying that it’s common knowledge or something. One person told me that “they” have done tests with overdoses on monkeys, even though he did not seem to know who “they” were. I’m not trying to get the last word or
publicly disprove the points people made to me and discourage future criticism; I’m just saying that I would have taken some people’s points a lot more seriously if they had done research to back them up. Gathering information for an argument through research is an important skill and I fear that more and more people have gotten in a bad habit of ignoring this. We all do it. Sometimes I will read something online or hear it on the news and simply accept it as fact before doing any follow-up research whatsoever. I feel like the internet has had a big hand in this deterioration of well-researched arguments. Yes, having immediate access to unlimited amounts of information is a good thing, but the amount of refutable or inaccurate information on the internet is astronomical.
Even professional news sites are not immune to misinformation. This is exactly why people should not allow themselves to become accustomed to seeing an article or quote from one source and believing it before consulting any other resources. Again, I don’t want readers to think I’m trying to call out the people who criticized my work. I appreciate it when people read and form opinions on what I have written. I would just prefer it if more of the people who sought me out would have known what they were going to say before they approached me and had done the necessary amount of research to argue against any counterpoints I would make. Having a strong opinion about something isn’t enough. It’s important to be absolutely certain about the points being
I’m Just Sayin’ alexlamar
–opinions editor– made by researching before the argument. Otherwise, both parties are just wasting their time. As to anyone who read my column in Issue 6 and would still like to have a discussion about it, I would be more than happy to hear what you want to say, as long as you’ve done your research.
Your Turn What is the worst thing that could happen to somebody on Valentine’s Day? lucasmeyrer –webmaster–
Megan Rueschhoff, 9
Trever Osborne, 10
Sam Walker, 11
Marisa Henderson, 12
Jeff Landow, Language Arts
“Someone breaking up with you publicly. That would definitely be the worst.”
“It would be pretty bad if someone rejects your marriage proposal.”
“The worst thing that could happen would be catching your significant other cheating on you with your best friend.”
“Taking someone on a date and then telling them it’s over.”
“You get a candy heart that reads ‘The answer is no.’”