Track and Field

Track and field season is in full swing at this time of year and that means that there are a lot of meets happening every week. This is both the season of the men's track and field team and the women's track and field team. Thus, there are some coed meets but there are mainly unisex meets, such as men or women only. For men's track and field meets, the order is always the same. The only exception is with coed meets, in which the order gets all crazy and weird. However, for men's track and field meets field events start the meet. Throwing events, such as the discus and shot put, as well as the long jump and high jump all begin before the running events. The running events start later, usually about thirty to forty five to sometimes even one whole hour after the field events begin, all depending on the meets, who is running it and how many teams are present. The track events will always follow the same order, however, for men's track and field meets. It starts with the 3200 meter race, the longest individual race and it is just under two miles long. Then right after that is the four by eight hundred relay race. After that is the shuttle hurdle relay, then the one hundred meter dash. Following that is the four hundred meter dash and after that is the four by two hundred meter relay. Next is the one hundred and ten meter high hurdles and following that is the sixteen hundred meter run or the one mile race. Following that is the two hundred meter open and then the four hundred meter low hurdles race. After that is the sixteen hundred meter medley, with the order of a two hundred then another two hundred then a four hundred then an eight hundred. After that is the eight hundred meter open run and then it is the four by one hundred meter relay. The meet is then going to finish with the four by four hundred meter relay. The events will usually separate junior varsity and varsity and exhibition runners to try and keep the races fair and competitive. The meets can sometimes last for hours as well. All in all track and field meets are very fun and very enjoyable and it is a great thing to be a part of!
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Show Choir Auditions

Show choir auditions are taking place coming up. If you are unfamiliar with what show choir is and stuff like that then I suggest that you read my blog from before this blog that is entitled “Show Choir”. If you are familiar and/or you have read that blog, then continue as you are probably going to understand this content a lot better this way.

Show choir auditions happen once every year with one exception. They occur right about now, in the spring, to decide the various groups for the upcoming year. There are many choirs that take place in Kennedy, and to be in a show choir one must also be in a choir. Thus, the auditions are partly the same. The signing auditions for show choir are the same as the auditions for a choir. However, there is also a dancing audition for show choir because that is another very important component of show choir. There are three different show choirs in Kennedy High School. The show choirs are the freshman show choir that is called Chauneteurs, the junior varsity show choir that is called Protégé, and the varsity show choir that is called Happiness Inc. They all use the same audition process to make it easier to separate who belongs with which group. The process includes singing and dancing, as stated earlier. One day after school for the dancing portion of the audition the students who are auditioning go to the choir room and learn a dance. The dance is very short and simple, although it is something new that they will have to learn. They then practice that dance and perform it for the directors who critique them. This whole process takes a few hours right after school. That, however, is only part of the audition. As stated earlier the students who are applying also have to sing. The singing auditions are that you sign up for a time and go to the choir room and do a bling audition. That means that all the directors are behind something that obstructs their view of you so that they do not know who you are, which is an attempt to eliminate bias in the auditions. The students who are auditioning sing a song of their choice that they have prepared along with the song “My Country Tis of Thee”. This gives a baseline to be able to compare everyone together as well as giving the students a chance to show off their singing skills and abilities.

However, Chaunteurs has an additional audition. Because it is the freshman show choir, they have an additional audition in the fall for the new freshman that might’ve wanted to do show choir but didn’t realize it until then or for anyone else who missed the spring auditions. Thus, the freshman get a second chance at auditioning if they so choose to accept it and if they want to audition and missed the auditioning date in the spring.

Anyway, the auditions for show choir for the 2016-2017 school year is coming up at Kennedy High School so if you want to be in a show choir don’t miss out!

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Show Choir

Every year show choir auditions are a thing that happens. There are many different parts that go into a show choir. There are the singers and the dancers. They are the main component of the group as they are what the audience will see and they are what the audience watches and listens to mainly and mainly hears. It is the main focus of show choir so they are arguably one of the most important pieces, but however every component is very important. There is also the tech crew. The tech crew does the behind the scenes work with bringing the microphones backstage and to the soloists, as well as getting the costume change ready and the various props that are used and making sure that those props are ready. The tech dads also help with this, along with creating the props and set that are needed for the show and performance. The director is present as the director instructs the singers on their singing and dancing, leading practices and basically being their coach. There are also choreographers, sometimes one and sometimes multiple. They come up with the dance moves for each song and they teach the dances to the singers and dancers. Then there is also the combo. The combo is the band of the show choir. They perform behind stage and they provide all the music except for what you hear that comes from the singers. They provide the beat and do all of that stuff.

A lot of people greatly enjoy show choir as it is something that is both physical and mental and it combines with music and singing and dancing and all of that jazz. It is kind of a combination of the south and north ends of Kennedy High School. I say that because of the split of the ends of the school. The south end of Kennedy High School is mainly sports as that is where the two gyms are located as well as both locker rooms and the pool and the sports equipment is stored there and the weight room and wrestling rooms are also there. The track is near there, as well as the varsity fields that are located on campus and other fields to practice on and the tennis courts. Thus, the south end of Kennedy High School is predominantly sports oriented. The north end of Kennedy High School is mainly drama and music oriented. At the north end of the school are where the orchestra department, band department, and choir departments are all located. There is also the two auditoriums in the north end of the building, the bigger and regular auditorium and the smaller room called the black box which is just as it sounds-it is a black box. Those are where activities such as musicals, plays, speech, theatre, show choir and other stuff happens. Thus show choir is popular because it sort of combines both ends of the school together in the physical dancing and the theatre and drama and music related singing.

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Illegal Alien Change in Congress

On April 3^rd, 2016, the United States Congress passed a piece of legislation concerning the topic of illegal aliens. An illegal alien is an alien who has entered into America illegally and is therefore deportable. In the past, Congress has referred to them by means of calling them illegal aliens. However, after a group of illegal aliens fought Congress on the term, Congress voted to then no longer use said term; the term undocumented citizens is to be used instead. This has begged a question that has been argued all across America for the following week after the legislation was passed: with their absence of rights due to no citizenship, should illegal aliens be able to influence government policy in America?

                On April 3^rd, 2016, newspapers across America, such as the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Los Angeles Times, announced the passed legislation. While it has not been a front page headliner, it has caused a bit of a stir across the nation. With the change of wording from illegal aliens to undocumented citizens in Congress, American citizens have started to question how policy gets changed in their nation.

                As stated in the Los Angeles Times, the topic was brought up to Congress by a group of college students. The group is from Dartmouth College and are known as CoFIRED (Dartmouth Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and Dreamers), brought up to Congress how the term illegal alien was a derogatory and offensive term. This then got attention from others in America, who also stated that the term illegal aliens was offensive. They lobbied for Congress to change the policy, and ultimately won as Congress passed the legislation on April 3^rd.

                This, however, caused quite an outrage from American citizens. Various sources of news, such as newspapers, the internet, or news broadcasts, were depictions of citizens protesting the legislation around the nation. Protests out in the streets were common. Signs were used by many of the protestors. They all wanted to voice their opinion about how this legislation should not have been passed. They brought up much evidence to help their viewpoint.

                The Constitution is the law of the land in America, was written by the founding fathers, and it is what all the laws in America is based upon. Congress, when passing legislation, must make sure it is constitutional. The Supreme Court makes sure that laws are constitutional when they are disputed either in lawsuits or when someone broke the law.

                The Frist Amendment of the Constitution grants the Freedom of Speech to the citizens of the United States of America. Some citizens, such as college students, have stated that by banning terms from use such as “illegal alien” is going against the First Amendment of the Constitution by banning their Freedom of Speech (Sokol). At colleges it is important to keep a “safe and productive learning environment”, while still ensuring the “students’ right to freedom of expression”. While this example is from a college, it is still applicable to the legislation in Congress. While Congress needs to keep an environment that restrains from degrading and offending its citizens, such as the safe college environment, Congress still needs to protect the freedom of expression.

                Many people think that the term illegal aliens should not be used as it is offensive to those who are illegal aliens in America. As stated in the Constitution, one citizen cannot exercise his or her rights in order to take away the rights of another citizen. This leads those to believe that the term, illegal aliens, should not be put to use. However, if the Constitution were to be read carefully, then they would notice that the Constitution refers to citizens and the rights that the citizens of America have. If a person is illegally living in America, what gives them the right to be able to gain the rights of the currently legal citizens of America? By doing so shows that the Constitution has no power over the land with the current interpretation, with that interpretation being it belongs and maintains order for America and America alone. Via this interpretation, the Constitution should refer to all of the world; America, however, is not the world’s police. Therefore, even if the illegal aliens believe that the term illegal aliens takes away their rights by means of it being offensive, they have no right nor any power to be able to change American policy.

                However, that is not what happened. Congress interpreted the Constitution in applying to all people, not just citizens of America. While all people have their basic human rights, if they break the law, which they do if they are illegal aliens, then they should not be granted the same rights as others. Via this passing of legislation, Congress has declared that even if someone currently living in America is not an American citizen and is here illegally, therefore breaking the law, which is a crime, they still have just as many rights as those legal American citizens have. That interpretation from Congress has a multitude of flaws, as it could lead to worldly conflicts due to America attempting to be the world police. Therefore, as a person illegally occupying a territory within a nation they are not a citizen of, they should not be granted the same rights as legal citizens of that nation and therefore should not be granted the power to influence policy.

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Smartphones

One form of entertainment is by means of a cellular device. A very common form of a cellular device is a phone, and it is very common in school, such as in Kennedy High School. Many people have phones. A very popular type of phone is the smartphone. Smartphone brands are as follows: there is the IPhone by Apple, there are the Galaxy Phones by Samsung, and there are many more but those are the most popular two. There are smartphones made by Microsoft with windows and there are smartphones made by Googles as well. There are a lot of smartphones to choose from!

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"Black Mass" Historical Review

                The film Black Mass stars Johnny Depp and depicts James “Whitey” Bulger, from the time of his return from his nine year stretch at Alcatraz, up until he left Boston and eventually arrested.

                The plot of the film stuck pretty closely to its historical origins. Whitey came out of Alcatraz, and then went back out onto the street. He made an alliance with the FBI via John Connolly, a friend from his youth, in order to take out the Angiulo Brothers. By helping the FBI, the FBI would take care of the Angiulo Brothers who controlled North Boston and were challenging Whitey. In return, Whitey basically had the freedom to do whatever he pleased. However, once Whitey’s rivals were out of the picture, Whitey started racking up money. He started paying off John Connolly and others, gaining power and growing. However, John Connolly became corrupt and the FBI started to notice. Eventually, they went after Connolly and Whitey. Along the way they also got Stephen Flemmi, who was very close to Whitey.

                The very beginning of the movie showed Kevin Weeks talking to a FBI agent to try and get benefits from talking about Whitey. Kevin was a bouncer outside of one of Whitey’s bars, who Whitey noticed and brought up into the higher ranks. Later in the movie, it showed that Stephen Flemmi also talked to the FBI in regards to Whitey. Both of these instances, according to the movie, happened after Whitey escaped from Boston.

                At the time that the FBI got Connolly and Flemmi, someone tipped off Whitey about the FBI going to arrest him. Due to that tip, he escaped Boston.

                However, Whitey was caught. He escaped to California, where in 2011 a tip was given to the FBI in which he was arrested, about thirty years after he had escaped from Boston.

                Almost everything in the plot of the story was historically accurate. However, there were a few jarring details about how it differed from what really happened. One big jarring difference was that Flemmi also became an FBI consultant. The film did not depict that at all. Instead, the film only depicted Whitey and how he made an alliance with the FBI. The movie also made a big deal of how Whitey hated informats and rats, yet he still became one. There was another big part of the movie in regards to these events, and that is when Whitey told Stephen Flemmi that he was making an alliance with the FBI and explained why, stating that it was for the good of them all by making the FBI do all the dirty work for them.

                All in all I felt as though the plot of the film was more historically accurate that not with regards to Whitey and South Boston, with a few jarring details as described above. The only other thing that stood out was the portrayal of characters. Some of the characters seemed to be a little odd, as in different than that of which I had expected them to be in history. However, the depiction of Whitey seemed pretty accurate with his story arc and how his character changed throughout the movie in response to the changing conditions of his life.

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Parks and Rec now on Netflix

The show Parks and Recreation is currently available to stream on Netflix. It stars Amy Poeler and Nick Offerman and Aziz Anzari and Chris Patterson. It is very similar to the show the Office, as it is a mockumentary show depicting the government office of parks and recreation in the town of Pawnee, Indiana. It is a seven season long show, with twenty two average minute long episodes. It is a good show to watch for anyone looking for a new show to watch on Netflix if they have not watched the said show of Parks and Recreation yet.

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