The amplifier., February 01, 2011, Page 5, Image 5

2011
Forum
5
Couples display inordinate amount of affection
P atrick D ouglas
With Valentine's Day
just around the corner,
some couples are really
feeling the love. Even in
high school, relationships
are fairly common. While
this can be an awful lot of
fun for those lucky enough
to have a girlfriend or
boyfriend, relationships
sometimes are not pleasant
for those around them.
Somehow, the cliche
phrase "get a room, you
two" just doesn't cut it.
When I come to school,
the last thing I want to see
is two teenagers sucking
on each other's faces.
I'm not the only one that
thinks Public Displays of
Affection are gross. The
vast majority of people
do not want to see others
exhibiting this rude and
distasteful behavior. I
personally find it sick and
vile to kiss in the hallway.
Holding hands is okay
and may even be "cute"
at times, but I don't want
to see two people groping
each other inappropriately
or biting each other's necks
or licking each other’s lips.
You just have to walk
down the hallway at school
to know what I'm talking
about. Before too long,
you'll spot a tall teenage
boy who probably has
saggy pants, a beanie, and
long hair inappropriately
caressing some girl. All
that mushy gushy affection
runs pretty rampant at
school.
Love affairs are perfectly
alright as long as they
aren't sharing it with the
entire world, especially at
school. If people kept it
someone thinks they are in •
love doesn't mean anyone
else is going to have the
same hormonal rush that
they do. These people have
a feted sense of dignity,
and need to be taught a
lesson.
Valentine's Day is
good in theory, but can
be awful in practice. One
solution could be to shun
and disgrace anyone
that participates in this
kind of activity. Losing
your friends would be
a high price to pay for
inappropriate PDA. I'm not
one to promote violence,
but there is another option
that requires a harsher
punishment. We could tar
and feather any person
that infringes upon our
right to not observe what
essentially feels like public
pornography.
V-
Photo by Emily McNabb
Two anonym ous lovers m eet secretly b y the w indow overlooking the
parking lot. Public Display of Affection has becom e a m enace to society.
to themselves, everything
could be fine and dandy.
But people don't keep it to
themselves. Just because
WikiLeaks leaks the truth; government covers lies
M ichele B ondy
Hundreds of thousands
of articles leaked private
affairs of the United
States government, many
of which would never
have been released to the
p u b lic . I f o ffic ia ls fro m th e
g o v e r n m e n t w e re o u tra g e d
by the leak of documents
that was published by the
non-profit organization
Wikileaks, claiming that
the release of classified
documents endangers
soldiers and American
society.
Wikileaks is a non­
profit media organization
whose goal is to bring
important news and
information to the public
that would otherwise be
kept confidential. The
organization has grown
quickly with volunteers
joining from around
the world. In 2007, the
organization was officially
launched and since then
has revealed the most top
secret stories in the world.
W ith m a jo r sto rie s
breaking, publishing the
truth doesn't come without
criticism and lawsuits.
Since being launched,
Wikileaks has been sued
and verbally attacked by
the Pentagon, Russian
companies, the former
president of Kenya
and the Catholic
Church. Since its
launch, WikiLeaks
has broken stories of
war, killings, torture,
diplomacy, spying, cults,
abuse, violence, corruption,
climate, suppression of
free speech and internet
filtering.
The main director of the
site, Julian Assange, has
been deemed as a threat
to society and a terrorist.
cover ups. Is he really a
criminal for letting the
public know of all the
schemes America has
covered up?
Let's go back 40 years
ago to 1971 when the
Pentagon Papers were
released and the person
S o m e g o v e r n m e n t o fficia ls
re sp o n sib le , D a n ie l
believe he should be
arrested or put to death
for exposing classified
information and harming
national security as the rest
of the world now knows
America's war plans and
Ellsberg, was deemed a
terrorist and arrested.
How do you feel about freshmen being
allowed to go to Winter Ball this year?
"I don’t think many
freshmen will go
since they don’t know
they can go, so I’m
indifferent about it."
—Emily Steele,
freshman
"I didn’t know they
could, but I think
it would be enter­
taining to see them
there."
—Alec Gans,
sophomore
continued on page 15
SJlttPi ©lit
"I think it’s bother­
some that they can
go this year because
it was nice when we
went without them.”
"Freshman are in
high school too, so
I think it’s fair to let
them go. Plus it’s fun
to dress up!”
—Braden Krellwitz,
junior
—Sooah Jung,
senior