That Religious Guy Wants YOU to take the SURVEY!!

..... Ok Delta Kings and Queens, please take The Stagg Line survey by following this link: http://staggline.com/

1. Go to Web site.

2. Click Multimedia section

3. Go to Budget Cuts Survey

..... The purpose of this survey is to let SUSD hear the voice of students and what we think of the Budget Cuts. It seems that in this economic recession, the only group not being asked for input on matters of education is the students! Take the survey and be heard! Results will be published in the January issue of The Stagg Line.

Thanks,

Jeremy Dela Cruz

That Religious Guy: Rosaries and Gangs?

Here's an editorial I wrote for catholicpriest.me.uk (I revised it a little but it will mainly appear the same on the Web site.) :

..... The rosary is a Roman Catholic devotion that some say originated from St. Dominic, who had been given this gift by the Virgin Mary. To many, these simple beads and a crucifix are a sign of personal piety and veneration of the Blessed Mother and her Son. To police officers and school administrators in South Lake Tahoe, California, the rosary is considered a "gang sign."

..... Apparently on Wednesday, a group of predominantly male and Latino students were apprehended by a South Tahoe High School resource officer for reportedly using rosaries as gang affiliation. All the rosaries were confiscated and the students were photographed and their pictures put on a database. Some of the young men had previous disciplinary problems and so the belief that they were misusing their religious articles seemed valid. In our opinion, however, South Tahoe High School was wrong and was violating religious freedoms.

..... This little episode, however, caused quite a stir on campus as an organized students protest took place against the administration's actions. Word had spread through the electronic grapevine of a demonstration complete with signs and chanting. The atmosphere at 9 am Friday in the quad was one filled with banners reading "Stop Discrimination" and phrases of "We are one" being spoken throughout the crowds. Many were complaining that teachers were unfairly taking rosaries away from students, intolerable acts indeed.

..... If the rosaries at South Tahoe High were really being used as gang signs, why would the student population go to great lengths to show their displeasure and side with the Latino students? One student even considered it racial profiling since the administration seemed to be only selecting minority students for confiscation. It seems that the school and police officers in that area misconstrued devotion for deviance. The officers justified their policy because adult gang members had confessed to using rosaries as identifiable signs.

..... Granted that there may be a chance that some teens use rosaries as gang signs, school administrators, however, shouldn't see this sacred symbol as one of violence. Students at South Tahoe are now being encouraged to wear their rosaries under their shirts as a matter of safety. This does not attack the problem, but only reinforces the mentality that rosaries should now be associated with red shoelaces and Old English lettering. If anything, by asking students to hide their rosaries, this is a way for administrators to effectively keep religion off school grounds.

..... For Catholics, we must take offense to this since the Blessed Mother is one of our greatest guides in life. Her rosary is a sign of community, not gangs. Some Catholics may not like the practice of wearing rosaries because of the belief that it should be used for devotion not decoration, but many people wear rosaries as an expression of faith, a faith meant to be seen not hidden.

- Jeremy Dela Cruz

P.S. I guess we should start worrying about nuns with guns!

Technology and Teens

Okay so we live in a very complex world with a ton of technology. In society we have those adults that choose to work and those that don't choose to work. Then there are children from ages 6-11 that are somewhat familiar with technology and then there are teenagers. Yes I am on of those so called "trouble makers" that someones grandparent calls them.

Technology is important to everyone in the world. Obviously right? In my eyes there are two groups of teens: there is your technology freak-a-zoids and then there are those who really don't give much of a flying hoot. I am in the group that just doesn't give a hoot. The technology freak-a-zoids can't even live without their phones! I mean come on, are you for real?! It reminds me of my sister, she is in the group that I call the "technology freak-a-zoids" Well her and a few other that I know.

Teens these days are getting way out of whack with their phones, the Internet, and video game systems; practically all of technology. Our age group takes advantage of the technology given to us. Like the cell phone for example, girls or guys take advantage of the "use" of the phone. Some will send nude photos or antagonizing text messages, this is known as "digital abuse." When I was at the mall Saturday with my friend. There was this little girl no older than 11 maybe and she was yakking on her phone and cussing up a storm like it was the thing to do and get this she was doing it in front of her mother in a public place. Now that's embarrassing to her mother. If that was my child "ooohhh" she would of gotten slapped and no phone.

I'm not saying that I am just the perfect person and I don't cuss, because I do. But there is a certain extent especially if you're in public. "You make yourself look like a fool!" My bestest Anayeli said. Nobody is perfect, but I mean come on you should have more common sense. The Internet is a whole different story that we won't even get into at this point.


Overall technology is evil just like money is the root to all evil. Our society was alright without technology. Then again there is your good technology like new medical technology and then there is your evil technology such as cell phones, the computer, etc.. That's pretty much all I have to say for now. Adios mis amigos!

CARINA 360°: Houston Elects First Lesbian Mayor

A couple of years ago, Houston voted against a ballot that would give benefits to same-sex partners of city workers.

Now following in the footsteps of Providence - Rhode Island and other cities, Houston Texas, as of December 12, 2009, has elected their first openly gay mayor, Democrat Annise Parker.
(Not only that but she has also made history again for being the second female mayor of Houston.)

As a 53 year old mother of two, she and her partner of 19 years have never made an issue out of her sexual orientation. Before becoming the new mayor of Houston, she was city controller for the past five years.

Even though only 16 percent of qualified voters showed up, Parker still won. With 53 percent of the vote, she beat city attorney Gene Locke.

As with any gay or lesbian public figure, Parker did receive protest from anti-gay groups. Residents of the city got mail telling of the relationship with her partner.

"I have always stood up for the fact that I am gay. It's part of the resume that I bring to the table, but it's just a piece of the package," Parker said.

But she has nothing to worry about now, she won!

Fabled Faith: ET Can't phone home? :(

              See a U.F.O? Well, I wouldn't waste my time calling Britain, because they obviously don't want to hear it.

I recently read that Britain no longer has a U.F.O hotline. Where's E.T supposed to phone home now? They said the U.F.O hotline had been existent since 1959, but some felt that it was time for it to go. According to msnbc.com, too much money has been wasted.

This organization is estimated to save  about $ 73,000 a year. With all of the prank phone calls, "fake" sightings, and  mentally deranged people calling, they thought that getting rid of  the hotline was the best way to go.

Others aren't taking it so well. In a few articles, there were people who thought it was dangerous. "Where do we go when there's an arial attack?", they said, "What about the terrorists?" 

Oh come on! Seriously? People are getting tired of hearing the same voices calling and telling them they saw a U.F.O when it was only an army plane passing overhead. 

Anyway, I'm just a little intrigued by this, and am actually really interested to see what you guys think.

Clearly Claire: Stuck in Catholicism for a Week

I am not by any means "That Religious Guy," but that doesn't mean that my family isn't religious. My family used to wake me up at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning to go to church and I would sit bored through the whole thing. The only thing I ever liked about church was the singing. I love to sing.

Slowly, though, my parents decided that they weren't going to go every week, then we became Christmas and Easter Catholics. We would go to church on the important holidays, you know, the day Christ rose from the dead and the day he was born. A few years ago, though my parents decided they were too busy making Easter dinner to go to church, so we only went on Christmas. Last year, we didn't go to church on Christmas either. How can God compete with opening presents?

So, you may ask how in the world a person who hates church and doesn't go could wind up in a convent for a week, up at 6 a.m. every morning praying to God that I didn't jump off a cliff. I went to the convent almost two months ago and am still recovering from the horrible week

My great aunt is a nun and I love her so much, but I would never want to be like her. They had prayer meetings everyday that lasted an hour. I could barely get through one hour of church on Sunday and she had to go everyday. I felt like such a sinner.

I also decided to visit the college located near the convent and had to spend two hours watching a play about Jesus and his disciples singing songs about the grace of God. It took all I had to not burst out laughing when some girl started singing a love song to Jesus. But my eyes were open to a whole new world.

I realized that to a lot of people, religion is everything. It keeps their families together and can unity a community, it just isn't for me. I am a sinner, through and through. I was born to be one and I can't change that, but I don't really want to. I like that I am not spiritual. The week was horrible, but it someways it was good, because I learned about a different place where, even though it doesn't make sense to me, it makes sense to others.

So I won't be going to that college, or becoming a nun anytime soon, but I might go to church more....

Okay, Maybe not.

Mikeala AxToGrind: (un)Cool.

So...

It's time to come clean.

I like Adam Lambert.

And it's hard to say that I really care what people think about it. It's not as if I'm some main-stream junkie or Idol fanatic, I just appreciate talent, and unabashed nature.

Lambert is a far cry from the usual stock of humanized, modest Idol finalists and, reflecting on contestants of the past, it's a bit of a wonder how he even came to be even accepted as far as Hollywood, as opposed to receiving the ax for, I don't know...over dramatics? (see; Bikini Girl? Hello?) But I suppose that raw talent does count for something nowadays. (Hopefully)

So, Lambert survived the Idol and at the 2009 American Music Awards made his (re?)debut, much to the displeasure of many. In a closing performance for the awards show, Lambert led two leather clad men across the floor by leashes, ground a singers face against his pelvis and kissed a male band mate. Lambert is still suffering the fallout of this performance, having been cancelled from Good Morning America as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Lambert tweeted his response to the ABC cancellations, saying that the station was responding to "FCC heat", brought on by his "racy" performance.

But, really now? Of course there's virtually no mention anywhere of Janet Jackson fondling one of her dancers during her AMA performance.

And then there was the matter of the Early show censoring the photo of Adam Lambert kissing his keyboardist before showing a perfectly unedited photo of the infamous Britney Spears/Madonna kiss. CBS responded to the questions raised by issuing the following statement,
"We gave this some real thought. The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television. The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences.”

I really can't be the only one smelling double standard here.

Female musicians have gotten away with risque performances in the past, not garnering even close to nearly as much controversy as Lambert has in his short time in the public eye. Because Adam Lambert is a man, he simply can't do what women can do (no pun intended). And because he is a homosexual man, people feel that he shouldn't even try.

If a female performed Lambert's AMA "scandal" to the T, there would be no controversy.

and that's what irks me. There's a double standard here, pertaining to female and male gender roles.

People try to put Adam Lambert in a box. And he doesn't like boxes. He puts a nail-polished fist through boxes. Boxes for how as a man he should act. Boxes for how, as a man for American Idol, his performances should be.

Well, I've been criticized and chastised for showing an interest in Adam Lambert (beyond his supposed controversies), because he is deemed main-stream. Because he is from American Idol. And as I've stated before, I'm not an Idol fiend. It's now cool to be a critic. It's now cool to like the uncool, to be uncool.

And that's why it's not cool to like Lambert, because he's popular. You shouldn't talk about him, unless it's about his "racy" aspects.

But if being uncool is only now cool, then I've always been ahead of the curve.