“I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make decisions [about abortion]. They don’t make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions, in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy, and I think that’s where most Americans are.”

“I agree with most Americans, with Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Cheney, with over 2,000 religious leaders of all different beliefs, that decisions about marriage, as they always have, should be left to the states.”

“I know that invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East and encourage the worst rather than best impulses in the Arab world and strengthen the recruitment arm of al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars, I am opposed to dumb wars.”

 

“Critics contend that action will be too costly, but I believe that action is both an environmental necessity and an economic opportunity. By putting the right incentives in place, we will drive American businesses to innovate, creating new products and new jobs. Failing to act is the riskier course to both our environment and our economy.”

“I am absolutely in favor of civil unions with full equality of benefits, rights, and privileges. I want to proceed with equalizing federal benefits.”

“It is unconscionable to think that in a post-9/11 world we do not know precisely who is entering and exiting our country. Our homeland security requires that we know the identities of all people who cross our borders. In reforming our broken system, our efforts must be multifaceted and comprehensive.”

This year’s Jr. Olympics was a big controversy, as everybody knows. Underclassmen bought senior shirts, which bothered seniors. But the real problem occurred when it seemed like a large number of freshmen were buying shirts, causing some seniors not to get one. Many saw the purchases as too organized to be a coincidence. Many wondered, “Was this planned?”
Before, during, and after Jr. Olympics, rumors began to fly about the senior shirts. Some said that it was an organized attack on the seniors. A few people said that the freshmen had bought the shirts and were planning to tear them up during Jr. Olympics. It was also said that in response to “Go home freshmen,” they started chanting, “We have your t-shirts.”

 

These rumors all seem silly now though. No one has proof that the freshmen organized and bought up all the senior shirts. Everyone who went to the assembly knows that they definitely didn’t tear up the shirts, even though it may have earned them a little respect for being so brave and possibly a few detentions. As for the chanting, no one is sure; it may be why there was a little extra security near the freshmen section.

Any senior who didn’t get a shirt or had to pay more for one is upset with the supposed freshmen who bought shirts and those who were selling them, but that isn’t really fair according to senior class advisor and Special Education teacher Ms. Majchrowicz. She said, “The seniors don’t have a right to complain because it was first come, first serve, and if they procrastinated, then lesson learned.” She continued, “Who ever wants to pay for a shirt can have one, so if you think about it the freshmen helped to pay for prom and the senior gift.” As for blaming the class officers that’s just not right. Ms. Majchrowicz stated, “The class officers do a lot for the class, and it is not fair to blame them.”

 

I was always amusing watching a teachers lesson plan tank because the Youtube video wouldn’t stream fast enough. And I was always frustrated when the research article I wanted took minutes to finally appear on screen. For quite some time our school was, literally, lagging behind.
People were calling the Director of Technology, Mr. Bryan Weinert, complaining about the speed of the district’s Internet connection. Productivity was suffering. “It was a huge red flag. Something had to be done.”
Leyden recently upgraded to a new high tech fiber-optic internet line that offers a huge speed gain. Weinert works behind the scenes on “everything and anything related to technology.”

He explained the process and benefits behind the change. Leyden now utilizes a new fiber-optic line that replaced the outdated 1.5 Megabits per second (Mbps) copper line that was put in place in 1996 – 97. The new, more robust cable provides speeds of up to 10Mbps, a figure unheard of in the late 90s. The 1.5Mbps connection was more than enough back when Leyden only had about a hundred computers on the network, but today, with over seven hundred units, the “pipe” was not cutting it. The computers have to share a single line, so the more computers, the more data has to pass through the cable simultaneously.

Sadly, the demand for data had exceeded the previous line’s capacity. The system was backed up and computers were fighting for bandwidth. This caused huge delays. Weinert said that between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. the bandwidth was a hundred percent occupied. Now, with the new line installed, the average usage is usually around fifty percent full.