High Life Friday, February 28, 2003 Opinion
Football frenzy leaves
other school activities
searching for spectators
Where does all of the “Whirlie Pride” go
after the end of football season? Drama
productions and other activities also need
student support.
By Sara Nelson
Staff Writer
Football game draws hundreds of students eager
to spend a crisp, clear fall night cheering the Whirlies
to victory. During the winter, students attend
basketball games in droves, especially if the contest
is between Grimsiey and Page.
A typical theatre production draws 20 students,
maybe.
Popular sports such as football and basketball
never have a problem drawing a crowd, even if the
team has a losing record. Our football team won
It was discouraging to walk out on
the lacrosse field, play my hardest,
and turn around to see five students
in the stands.
two games this season, yet the stadium was packed
every Friday night.
Other sports do not enjoy this luxury. Grimsley’s
women’s lacrosse team finished last season ranked
second in the state, but the games never drew more
than a handful of students. Students rarely attend
swim meets, despite the fact that the meets are free
and the swim team is a perennial conference victor.
The entire wrestling team qualified for regionals this
year, but somehow students never manage to find
their way to competitions.
However, it is the cultural arts that suffer the most
from student apathy. The drama department, which
receives little school funding, must rely on the
donations of parents and the funds generated by the
sale of season tickets in order to produce its plays.
Band and orchestra concerts, while well attended
because the groups are so large, often find members
playing to an audience of enthusiastic parents and
their fellow musicians. Few students, if any, not
directly involved in music or drama attend these
events on a regular basis.
I never noticed this lack of student involvement
until I was an athlete myself. It was discouraging to
walk out on the lacrosse field, play my hardest, and
turn around to see five students in the stands. I
wanted to make the entire school aware of how good
the lacrosse team was and how worthwhile attending
games could be, but most people were too apathetic
or busy to care.
As a result, I told myself that I would attend as
many Grimsiey events as possible this year, in order
to support my classmates. I have not done so well in
attending sporting events, but I have been to
numerous plays and concerts, and I have not been
disappointed.
The amount of talented students in Grimsley’s
student body never ceases to amaze me, and I only
wish I had begun attending events earlier than my
senior year. Though the football and basketball
teams are worthy of student support, there are dozens
of other activities that require j ust as much hard work,
talent, and dedication and deserve just as much peer
recognition.
Speak Out: What is the
value of Black history
within the larger context
of American history?
“Each has value on its own as a
focus of study, but I think it’s im
portant to look at them together
in a US history curriculm. You
can learn a lot by examining how
each has influenced the social,
economic, and political growth of
society.”
Mr. Kashubara,
teacher
“It is good to recognize Blacks
for what they did. Black people
did a lot and they should be
given credit for it.”
Shannon Sanders,
freshman
“I think that Black history is an
integral part of history as a whole,
and therefore should not be seg
regated from the rest of history.”
Jacob Spangler,
senior
“I feel that we are not taught
enough in history about Black
history. Black history is very im
portant because it reminds us of
the accomplishments made by
African Americans.”
Jessica Jones,
sophomore
Tastes like chicken: Recipe for the perfect chicken
biz calls for greed, cheap labor, dash of immorality
^ Lm. .m. I' ' »■ i-l II II I I..I I ,
Think chicken is cheap?
The real price of the labor
exploitation behind the
original v\/hite meat is more
than dollars and cents.
By Molly Chadbourne
St off Writer
I’m no chicken when it comes
to chicken.
In the Chadbourne domicile,
my parents often complain that
they too frequently have to prepare
America’s favorite white meat on
a nightly, if not bi-daily basis.
But now, an issue has fully
crossed the road of my life that
makes me want to check out of the
chicken-consuming coop. Lend
an ear to the tale of the Tyson
indictment, and fear not the boxer
who likes to nibble on them. This
time, it is the Tyson chicken
company that is in trouble.
Tyson Foods, one of the
nation’s companies with the most
meat, is now in the roaster. The
guys at Tyson are a bunch of big
chickens when it comes to their
poultry profit policies.
Why did the migrant worker
cross the border? To get to the
chicken waiting on the other side,
of course. Chickens, rather,
bucketfuls of them.
With the exploitation of
migrant workers, Tyson is able to
make an extra 100 million dollars
Bon Appetit graphic
a year in profit. Whatever amoimt
of money the company would
make simply hiring American
workers or legal immigrants must
not be enough for these greedy
chickens; I mean pigs.
Tyson is currently on trial for
conspiracy to smuggle illegal
immigrants from Mexico,
Guatemala, and Honduras to work
in 15 heinous henhouses, spread
throughout the South and
Midwest. These charges hatched
in a December, 2001 indictment.
The states of Tennessee, Alabama,
Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri,
Texas, Virginia, and even the great
Tar-Heel state all have egg on their
face.
Colonel Sanders’ artery-
clogged corpse would roll over in
his grave if he heard what was
cooking in his own state of
Kentucky. Would you like a side
of coleslaw with your extra-crispy
indictment?
Tyson’s exploitation raises an
age-old question: which came first,
greedy corporations or immigrants
so eager for a better way of life that
they are willing to risk
exploitation? The indictment has
also raised some eyebrows because
disgusting labor conditions of
immigrants in the United States are
just as common as eating chicken
is for dinner. Why is the US
government playing chicken with
one company when there are
plenty of others to peck? On the
other hand, how can corporations
be blamed when many Mexicans
come here as most immigrants do,
in search of a better life? Hard
labor and bad factory conditions
are like chicken Cordon Bleu to
the chicken bones of many of these
people’s lives.
Corporations like Tyson have
an excess of money, therefore have
no need to take advantage of
immigrants who are willing to
work in poor conditions. If Tyson
is so cocky about claiming to “feed
America,” then perhaps this
corporation should demonstrate
some more American values, such
as the importance of an honest
living or the right to be able to
choose one’s own way of life.
“The chicken in every pot” that is
part of the American dream turns
out to be rotten scraps of the real
“breast-bone” of America. Greedy
corporations have a hunger for
money and do not seem to know
the difference between fowl and
foul.
And although the subject is
egging me on to make a dozen
more cracks, it is really nothing to
yolk about.