I try to keep it moderate, but Bush is really laying it on thick with this whole Gonzalez thing, and firing federal prosecutors.

This whole idea of threatening the Democratic Party into trusting politicians at their word, not under oath, is pretty ludicrous. Politicians can see right through each other. They know that if they’re not under oath, they’ll lie. True, they’d lie under oath too, but the risk is at least much less.

I’m pretty proud of the Dems’ decision to issue subpoenas anyway, and not back down from the threat.

Seriously, this is the judiciary we’re talking about. You know, courts? They shouldn’t be filled without Senate confirmation via partisan appointments. Bush says that taking this court would “harm the institution of Presidency.” Well, apparently, separation of powers violates HIS idea of the institution.
–Victoria Conlu

I’m definitely not the type of person to go around saying that I ‘rep the Yoc.’

Antioch isn’t exactly one of the best places to be right now. I wrote a story in my school paper about rising crime rates early on in the year, and people laughed, as if they didn’t believe that their once-precious suburb is changing in a way that isn’t necessarily positive.

Violence is on the rise around here. You can’t go a night, even in the newer communities, without hearing sirens. Ever since last year, there’ve been shootings, riots at Gas City, truancy crackdowns — and probably even more things that I’m not even aware of right now.

It’s sometimes a disquieting place to be, considering that less than a decade ago, it was obscure, quiet, and of a very different racial demographic. Nowadays, the ‘Yoc’ is considered a hard neighborhood, and that’s somewhat disturbing. A suburb?

Living and going to school in the suburbs of San Francisco — 19th Avenue, Stonestown, borderline Daly City and the like — I rarely heard sirens. I didn’t hear PA announcements of my classmates getting shot. Even my friends in public schools didn’t mention it so much.

I’m perplexed in all frankness as to what’s brought about the sudden change. Rumors fly around, fingers are pointed, the race card gets pulled out — but no one knows for sure.

As for myself, I just want to go to school, go home, graduate, and get out. Sure, school’s great. Academically, I feel stable. But once I step out of the microcosm that is Deer Valley High School, it’s a whole different playing field. You walk across the street wondering if you’re going to get jumped for the outfit you’re wearing.

Life in the city was honestly nothing compared to this.

Are YOU smarter than a fifth grader?

This show is honestly sort of pointless, especially with what I’ve learned in psychology class about memory retention, storage, and retrieval.

Going off on my geeky rant, a Stanford graduate being less intelligent than a fifth grader seems somewhat absurd. Memories designed more for recognition than for recollection aren’t exactly easy to dredge up on the spot. More basic, rudimentary facts and theories become embedded as portions of more complex ideas, not individual ideas in themselves.

Has entertainment stooped so low that it is forced to appeal solely to an audience that has never even taken Psych 101?

Honestly, it all seems a bit ridiculous.

I was taking a peek at my transcript from sophomore year, then my transcript for this year, my senior year.

Our class has lost over 200 students.

The thought of that really scares me — I understand that dropouts are a large part of the people who enter highschool freshman year. My sophomore year World History teacher even warned us that it was going to start happening. I just never expected it to happen at so large a scale.

So many people are leaving to go to continuation schools, a surprising number are getting pregnant, and many just fail their way to the decision not to show up anymore.

I don’t know, maybe I’m being unfair, but what happened to values, and to the work ethic? What happened to priorities? If you think life is hard IN high school, think of how hard it’s going to be if you don’t even GRADUATE.

Some exceptions to the rule manage to make something out of themselves one way or another, but those are just strokes of luck — who would want to make that kind of gamble with something as big as their lives, their comfort, and their well-being?

Antioch is quite surely going downhill.

Months ago, I ran a story in my school newspaper about crime rates in the city, and no one took it particularly seriously. They didn’t even think that the words “crime” and “Antioch” went together in the same sentence.

Now, crime is the buzz of the city. Bulletins are going around MySpace about how the city’s basically going down the toilet — and not just because of the numerous people who go around shooting Airsoft guns at random people.

Less than a week ago, gunshots broke out at several locations close to the school, including the water park across the street, and a student from Live Oak, formerly from Deer Valley, was killed.

It seems to be a trend with expansion and urbanization — and yet some places manage to avoid it. A lot of people foresaw that change was coming around to Antioch, but nothing quite like this.

Truth be told, I just got here a couple of years ago, and now, I want out.

- Victoria Conlu

Well, Deer Valley has finally gotten into its second semester — one of the last schools in the area to do so, I’d wager. First semester grades went out yesterday, and I must say, I’m a little bit disappointed with myself.

A 4.0 is probably not a whole lot to be upset about, in most people’s views. For the average CP student, it’s as good as it gets. But when you have 2 AP classes, it’s hard to settle for less — I pushed myself all semester for the coveted A in Mr. Vanek’s AP English class, a feat which few aspire to, seeing as he’s an experienced AP essay grader and runs the class through so many writing drills, I doubt my right hand will EVER stop cramping. And still, a B.

Mr. Gorski’s AP government class goes further into detail than — admittedly — most of his students care to go. We spend less time on the who, what, when, and where — and more on the how and why. It’s no small wonder that he teaches psychology too.

But alas, I’m making excuses for myself.

I’ve been paying for my perfectionism with my friends for a LONG time now, to the point where it’s a better bet just not to mention that I’m disappointed with my grades. They try to be consoling and tell me I’m “doing great,” or that I’ll “do better next time.”

…but half the time, they’re thinking about how conceited I am, and how I’m fishing for compliments. Oddly enough, sometimes I find myself inwardly wincing at their celebratory whoops at just passing a class.

It’s finally gotten me thinking how big of a rift is forming between AP and CP students now. Sometimes, they just wonder what in the world the other half is thinking, as if they’re two different species of human beings of the teenage variety.

- Victoria Conlu

I’ve been going political this whole week — especially about Bush’s plan for a troop surge in Iraq.

In light of such events, I think it would be in the best interest of schools everywhere to have military recruiters removed from campuses. It’s been a movement in a handful of schools, even before now, but it’s just become more crucial than ever.

I’m a teenager, obviously. My friends are teenagers, obviously. Teenagers are in crucial stage of maturing, in which they just need to find some purpose for their lives, and that comes to its peak during senior year. So it just seems like the recruiters are there to prey on the fact that we desire some semblance of security and direction, and they are aware that students at the high school level, more than anyone else, have reason to listen to them.

Now, they have all the more reason to draw students in.

I’m not saying I don’t support the troops, and I’m not saying that the recruiters should just stop contacting people entirely. I do, however, think that they are, in essence, people who need to get a job done, and that it would be in the best interest of my classmates and myself to not necessarily have their business so deeply entrenched in our school lives, especially when, as much as we hate to admit it, we’re the most psychologically vulnerable.

I mean, sure they’re looking out for the entire country. But who’s looking out for me and my friends specifically? We’re not the most politically savvy, we don’t know what we’d be getting into — it hardly seems fair.

-Victoria Marie Conlu