the stentorian I ncssm
OD-ed
august 2004 3
“Confessions” continued
from page 1
years from now, the things
you remember will not be the
little letters on your report
cards or the number of times
you held the highest grade in a
class. It’ll be the names and
the special moments that hold
the most solid place in your
memory - the long talks, the
laughs, and the tears.
Success at Science
and Math is a collective effort.
You can pick up more from
your interactions with your
peers than you ever can from a
textbook. The cliche is true:
people are what make
NCSSM special. Don’t be too
hasty in your judgments; there
is a reason that each person is
qualified for this school.
Everyone carries a deeper
story. And don’t be intimidat
ed if there always seem to be
smarter people to challenge
you; this is how we learn from
each other.
Never be too proud
to ask for help, and never be
too arrogant to give it.
Remember to be considerate
of your roommate(s) and hall-
mates; you may see their
worst days, but remember that
they will see yours as well.
With every year that
passes, we learn more about
ourselves. Your passions
speak volumes about who you
are as a person. Academically,
the most valuable achieve
ment lies not in making
straight A’s - instead, it’s to
explore all disciplines, to
unravel and chase these pas
sions, and get closer to finding
an avenue to follow for a life
time.
Also, consider put
ting .time into some solid
extracurricular activities. Get
involved in things you are sin
cerely interested in, not just
things that look good for col
lege applications. Be careful
not to spread yourself too thin.
Remember that everyone can
join a club, but it takes special
devotion and hard work to be
a leader.
Because of the myri
ad of opportunities offered
here at NCSSM, doing well in
all that you do requires skills
in time management. Be pru
dent in choosing your activi
ties when time is limited,
whether it be homework,
AIM, sleep, athletics, or late-
night talks. However, priori
tizing the things in your life is
not about cutting things out.
It’s about realizing what is
most important to you. It’s
about identifying and
indulging in the things that
provide you with the greatest
sense of fulfillment.
And be careful what
you do with your freedom.
Some of you may find less
freedom here than you did at
home; others may suddenly
find yourselves with more
freedom than before. But one
thing stays the same for all of
us: we’re on our own now,
and we’re making our own
decisions. Think about the
consequences before you act,
not just how it affects your
self, but how it affects those
^ who care about you.
We are lifelong
learners but great friendships
only come when the right peo
ple meet at the right time. You
are going to meet people here
that you’ll want in your life
thirty years from now. You
would hate to say that you left
S&M without having appreci
ated some of the best people
you will ever meet because
you were too busy trying to
gain all the wisdom of
mankind from books while
forgetting that mankind is
great because we get there on
the shoulders of other great
giants.
Take what you wish
from what we have written.
What we can offer you are
merely insights from our per
spective. Your Science and
Math experience will be
shaped by your own choices
and attitudes toward life.
Do we wish that we
can do junior year all over
again? You bet. Not to do
anything differently but just to
re-experience some of the best
moments of our lives.
But just like any
other place on earth. Science
and Math is not perfect.
However if you are willing,
you can make it into one of the
best experiences of your life
time.
Election of 2004
Jonathan Smith
W ith the Democratic
National
Convention over,
and the Republican National
Convention nearing, the
newly nominated John Kerry
is in a dead heat with George
Bush in the popular vote. But
as the election of 2000
showed, it is not the popular
vote that matters.
The Electoral
College, an antiquated system
originally imposed to limit the
common man's powers in gov
ernment, is what ultimately
decides the election. Electors
are chosen to decide the
President. Each Elector is
given one vote, and each state
is given the same number of
electors as it has
Congressional representa
tives, with a minimum of
three. But even these Electors
are not bound
to vote as
their state's
people say
they should.
This
Elec t o r a 1
College is
what the can
didates fight
for. The nom
ination o
John
Edwards as
Kerry's run
ning mate
has made
North
Carolina a
battleground.
Since 1980
our state has
voted for the
Republican candidate for
president. However this might
change this year. Many local
pledged their support to
Kerry-Edwards. The speeches
I at the DNC
lhave further
Iconsolidated
[support.
[Edwards'
[plea of
“Hope is, on
[the way” has
,’i n s p i r e d
i; many in our
t'home state.
j|True, it will
[be a great
[uphill battle
[for the
[Democrats,
[but it might
|be won.
Florida, the
[center of a
[massive con-
The Holland Sentinel troversy in
2000, is also
individuals have already a key battleground. With Jeb
Bush as governor, the
Republicans are hoping that
the vote will swing their way.
But many of the Democrat's
traditional demographics felt
as if their votes did not count
last election, prompting a
much higher than expected
turnout among Florida's
women, blacks, and under
privileged.
While it is still far
too early to call a winner for
this election, it seems as if a
few key issues will rise to the
top. Security post 9/11 is sure
ly a key concern, as is the
future of Bush's “War on
Terror.” Key domestic con
cerns include civil rights vio
lations from the PATRIOT
Act, the ever present econom
ic issues, and social concerns
such as the fight for gay mar
riage.
Bearded, Turbaned, and Misunderstood
Aneesh Kulkarni
O n Saturday, September
15, 2001, Balbir
Singh Sodhi, a 52-
year-old father of three, was
doing landscaping work out
side his Chevron gas station in
Mesa, Arizona. At 2:45 pm,
two pickup trucks
approached, with four men
inside. Balbir Singh was shot
three times. He died on the
spot. In the wake of the
September 11th attacks,
attacks such as these were not
uncommon. Balbir Singh’s
assassins killed him in retalia
tion for the 9/11 attacks,
believing he was a Muslim
and associate of Osama bin
Laden. Balbir Singh was an
innocent Sikh and has nothing
in common with Al-Qaeda ter
rorists. To date, 366 such hate
crimes have been logged,
most in the week following
9/11.
Members of the
Indian Sikh community
say they are being target
ed because their men
wear turbans and long
beards as part of their
religious dress. Often
mistaken for Muslims,
hundreds of Sikh have
been denied service and
physically and verbally
assaulted. Six police cars
in Los Angeles recently
chased and pulled over
an innocent Sikh man, pointed
their guns at him, and hand
cuffed him. He was later
released and the police apolo
gized.
Radical citizens are
not the only offenders - gov
ernment agencies are guilty
too. In New Jersey, Amarveer
Singh was renewing his
license at a DMV. When he
Members of the Indian
Sikh community say they
are being targeted because
their men wear turbans and
long beards as part of their
religious dress.
J
went for his photo, he was
stopped and ordered to
remove his turban. When he
refused, the lady then asked
him what religion he was, to
which he promptly replied
“Sikh”. She said, mockingly,
“What kind of religion is
that?” And just before the
Democratic National
Convention in Boston, a
Boston College Sikh stu
dent was harassed by the
Secret Service. He was
simply walking on cam
pus with his friends,
when he was singled out
because he was Sikh and
detained by the Secret
Service for seven hours.
On April 27, 2004,
the reality hit home for
the NCSSM community.
On nearby Franklin St. in
Chapel Hill, Gagandeep
Bindra, a student at UNC and
a Sikh, was brutally beaten, as
was a friend who accompa
nied him. His attacker shout
ed at him and called him “bin
Laden” simply because he had
dark skin and a beard.
“They don't know
I'm from India and I'm a
Sikh,” he said. “They think
anybody brown is Middle
Eastern. Anybody brown is a
terrorist.”
Sikhs are not the
only victims. Simply out of
hate and misunderstanding,
Hindu temples have been
bombed and Hindu men have
been attacked. And countless
incidents of unprovoked vio
lence against Muslims have
also been recorded.
It is unfortunate that
these attacks happen, but even
more unfortunate that their
perpetrators are ignorant and
that the attacks are preventa
ble simply by increasing
awareness. These innocent
men should not be mistaken
for terrorists.