Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Prom


Talawanda held their 2010 Prom Saturday at the Harris dining hall in Oxford. Morgan Retherford and Shelby Hart were named King and Queen of the event.

Click here to see more pictures.

The history of Prom in the United States goes back over 60 years. The word Prom is short for promenade, the formal, introductory parading of guests at a party. The Prom can be traced back to the simple co-ed banquets that 19th century American universities held for each year's graduating class.

But the Prom has not been without its controversy. Some schools don't just forbid Prom they forbid dancing and rock music of any kind. In April, a Mississippi school district canceled its Prom rather than allow a student to bring her girlfriend as her date.

Do you agree or disagree with these actions? What if you were a parent or school administrator? Would your opinion change?

Our own school required a dancing contract to be signed by all Prom attendees this year. Did this change the way students behaved on the dance floor? Is your dancing offensive?

How has dancing changed over the years? What does each generation's way of dancing say about them?

Boycott Baseball?



Is it fair to Boycott the Arizona Diamondbacks in response to the new immigration law? Where do many MLB players come from? Who are the D-backs owners? Will you attend the Reds game in September when the D-backs come into town? Why/not?

Which famous celebrities have publicly supported the AZ boycott?

Does Ohio Need Immigration Law?!


Our own Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones is billing the government for housing illegal immigrants in his jail. This straight talking Sheriff is also pushing legislation to deal with illegal aliens at the state level.

Does Ohio have an immigration problem? Is this something we need thousands of miles from the border? Why or why not?

Are illegal immigrants really hurting the economy?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Another Brick in the Wall


Immigrants have not always been welcome to the United States as they once were at Ellis Island. 120 years ago fears about Chinese Immigrants led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Today similar fears have led us to put up walls and hire border patrols along the US/ Mexico border.

And now because of a $2 million grant from the state of Texas, anyone in the world can watch grainy live video scenes of cactuses, desert mountains and the Rio Grande along Texas' portion of the international border.

Is this money well spent? What threats or problems does immigration cause? Why do we welcome some immigrants but exclude others? Is this discrimination or are we just protecting our backyards?

Monday, May 3, 2010

Immigration Law


Tens of thousands of people marched in protest in major US cities against a new Arizona law that allows police to detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Local governments and rights groups have called for a boycott of the state.

Do you agree with this law? Why/ not? What do these protesters say?