The porta open

The Porta Open

 

As some people may know, I used to wrestle in high school and I did pretty well at it my last two years.  When I’m a freshman in college now, I haven’t wrestled for some time, and this last weekend I decided to go and wrestle at an open wrestling tournament in Petersburg Illinois.  Many of my friends and family told me not to wrestle, not because they didn’t have confidence in me but because I happened to break my left hand one week prior to the tournament.  Even with everyone telling me it is a bad idea to still wrestle and that, I could get hurt worse, I still wanted to wrestle and that’s exactly what I did. 

As you could guess the wrestling tournament didn’t go so well for me, having a broken hand and all.  My first match I didn’t even hand my hand taped up because there were no trainers at the meet and the person that was going to tape my hand got there a little late.  Before I even stepped out on the mat, I was extremely nervous.  I hadn’t been on the mat for close to a year and I had no idea if I would forget everything or if it would all come back to me.  When the whistle blew for the first match to start I was more focused and was able to think more clearly.  I ended up losing the first match, not because I was out of shape or didn’t know what to do, it was I couldn’t really do anything with my left arm because I could grip or control his movement with the broken hand.  For the second match I got my hand taped up and wasn’t as nervous as before because the worst had already happened, I lost and my hand was in pain.  In the second match I went out more aggressive and fought through the pain a little more but it was all for nothing.  I ended up losing my second match as well and since it was a double elimination tournament, I was done for the day.  People told me that this was exactly how it would end up but I believe I have to make my own mistakes so I can learn from them myself.  The main thing I learned from this tournament is that I need to get some training in before the next tournament and I need to let injuries rest.

The Schools Are Destroying Freedom of Speech

The Schools Are Destroying Freedom of Speech

“The Constitution makes clear there can be no religious test for holding office, and it is just as clear there can be no religious test for individual expression of free speech—or censorship thereof, including at a high school graduation.”—Nat Hentoff, author and journalist.  John W. Whitehead expands on this and shows what’s wrong with our school systems today.  He begins by saying how students today know very little about their own freedoms and rights.  How are these students going to be the hope of freedom and democracy if they don’t even know what their freedoms are?

 Whitehead goes on to say that schools are reluctant to apply such rights as the First Amendment in the schools.  For the few amount of students that do know their rights are forced to deal with school officials who, more often than not, fail to respect those rights.  The courts are supposed to be the guardians of freedom, but are increasingly upholding acts of censorship by government officials.  John Whitehead says, as a result of this, the horrific lesson being taught to our young people is that the government has absolute power over its citizens and young people have very limited freedom.  What’s the point of having freedoms if we aren’t able to exercise them because of our government?

He also tells two stories of two students who were graduating top of their class and got cut off during their speeches in the graduation ceremonies.  Each student decided to say what they wanted to say but the officials of the schools unplugged the microphone in the middle of their speeches.  If things don’t change young people will eventually give up and get the idea that they have no say in what goes on and everything is decided by the government.  Whitehead wraps up by saying, unless we want free speech to end up in a totalitarian graveyard, no one, no matter their viewpoint or ideology should be censored in any state institution.