opinion3
wingspan • may 20, 2011
• Staff Editorial
DREAM Act one solution to complex problem
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What is your opinion of the DREAM Act?
We’re not going to pass the DREAM Act or any other legislation program until we secure our borders.” But securing our borders seems to be an impossible task. Miles and miles of fencing and electronic surveillance devices have only slowed the number of illegal immigrants entering the country. The Senate is forgetting that children brought to America at a young age have known no other life outside America. Deporting them back to their “home”
country is equivalent to shipping them to a foreign country. After all, children can’t crawl across the border. In December, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the DREAM Act would “reduce deficits by about $1.4 billion over the 2011-2020 period.” So why punish children who had no say in their illegal entry to America? By giving the children of illegal immigrants a pathway to gain citizenship, we all benefit. “The DREAM Act would be a better alternative to citizenship. If they are not wanting to go through the process of naturalization, then this would be the path to take. If they are unwilling, it wouldn’t apply to them.”
“If minors are willing to work here and go to college, they should become citizens. Yet if there is someone who is not willing to go through the process and go to college, then they should be deported.”
Carter Holland freshman
“Most people would disagree with the act, but it’s applying to young immigrants. If they go to college or join the military and offer something to this country and give back to their communities, then the act would be a good thing.” Hannah Kyung sophomore
Lee Reesor junior
“I think that the DREAM Act would cause a lot of conflict. People would probably get upset because immigrants are getting opportunities to go to college, yet we’re trying to get into colleges as well.” Melanie Evans senior
• Viewpoint
Should we continue building nuclear power plants?
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s the world watches Japan’s catastrophic situfter an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the ation unfold and as the Japanese government Richter scale struck Japan, the world attempts to bring the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear watched in horror as a tsunami pounded power plant under control, other governments around Japan’s northeast shore, swallowing everything the world have begun to take action with their own in its path. The wall of water crashed against the plants. Many citizens have protested against the develsea walls, collapsing them as it continued inland. opment of new reactors, citing that the dangers outThe tsunami crushed houses, swept away cars weigh the positives. and destroyed entire towns. However, nuclear power is the world’s only reli As the water slowly receded, a new threat able alternative source of energy. emerged. Three nuclear reactors at the Daphne Reed Both the oil and coal industries have been huge Fukushima Daiichi power plant underwent Brandon McArthur Assistant Feature Editor factors in contributing to greenhouse gases and global nuclear meltdown after the tsunami caused a Feature Editor warming, not to mention energy waste. As citizens power outage that prevented the fuel rods from are well aware, the price of gas has steadily risen over the past cooling. Volunteers are still trying decade. In the past year, the average price of a barrel of oil has to prevent the cores from completely melting down and to contain gone from $77 to $103. Despite the rising prices, the United several radioactive leaks at the power plant. States alone uses about 17 million barrels of oil a day according With the incident that has occurred in Japan, many people to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. are beginning to realize the benefits of nuclear energy are not This high demand for fossil fuworth the risk. Using nuclear energy to produce electricity was els has a direct correlation to rising first thought of in 1947 when the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission greenhouse gas emissions: the U.S. began trying to find ways to use nuclear energy peacefully. After Environmental Protection Agency almost 10 years, the first nuclear power station was built on the concluded that emission levels have increased by 17 percent coast of Cumberland, England. However, doubts about the safety from 1990 to 2007. of nuclear power plants emerged in 1979 after there was a par While oil and coal dominate world energy sources, nuclear tial nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island power plant in power only makes up about 6 percent. However, the death toll Pennsylvania; radioactive partiratios for each industry reveal the clearest answers. Worldwide, cles were released into the surthe death rate for coal workers is 161 deaths per terawatt hour; rounding area. More doubts were for oil, it is 36; for nuclear power, it is 0.04. Nuclear power is raised in 1986 after several explothe safest alternative option to fossil fuels. Yet in spite of the sions occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, obvious statistics, the situation in Japan has many people still and radioactive debris fell out over Eastern Europe. With the claiming that it proves that nuclear power is an unsafe option. Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident, people are continuing to The situation in Japan is tragic, but it should not hinder have doubts about the risks of nuclear energy. (based on a survey the government’s development of the safer option of nuclear Supporters of nuclear energy argue that in the 60 years nuclear of 286 students) power over oil and coal. The reactors in Japan had been built more plants have been in production, there have only been three major than 40 years ago. Instead of demanding that nuclear development catastrophes: Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and now the Fukushima Daiichi plant be halted, the industry should be encouraged to build safer, more efficient reactors. in Japan. But three major accidents are too many. It’s only a matter of time before Germany, for one, has halted all nuclear research while China has stopped cona nuclear accident spins out of control and clean up proves to be impossible. Of struction, but is still developing plans for a new nuclear plant that is considered safer the 104 nuclear power plants in America today, 27 of them have suffered radiation than those in Japan. The United States is taking similar action as the Chinese, reviewleaks in the past. And with pipe lines underground that cannot be checked for ing proposals for new reactors as well. damage or leaks, it is likely that there will be many more in the future. In 2007, the I-35 West bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people. The Not only is nuclear energy very capable of harming the environment, but it is reason for this, though bridges have, of course, long been considered safe, was the age also not economical. Not by a long shot. Each power plant costs approximately of the bridge and the faulty hindsight that it would become one of the most traveled $4 billion to build, not including building the storage facilities to hold nuclear bridges in Minnesota. After the collapse, bridge construction was not stopped, but waste that is no longer being used, the cost of maintenance, licenses and worker’s merely redesigned to accommodate the traffic and location. This is what should be training. When a person looks at the pros and cons of nuclear power, it becomes done for nuclear reactors. evident that this cure could be even worse than the disease.
• PRO 49%
CON
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Katie King Brandi Martin
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Amy Taylor
SPORTS EDITOR Camen Royse Michael Turlington
MANAGING EDITOR Kim Randall
OPINION EDITOR Kaitlyn Reddy
FEATURE EDITORS Meredith Cole Whitney Howell
SENIOR EDITOR Kiersten Ellsworth (News)
ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR Hailey Johns
WEB EDITOR Josh Wentzel
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Hailey Robinson
JUNIOR EDITORS Natalie Rice Catherine Swift
ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Diane Gromelski
ASSISTANT FEATURE EDITORS Bella Bonessi Daphne Reed
Part 1: We get the diagnosis
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Art by Tyler Pederson
he Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act — better known as the DREAM Act — is a good idea that has been around for a long time, and that’s the problem. It is time for lawmakers to seriously consider this common sense legislation. The DREAM Act was first introduced in the U.S. Senate in August 2001, almost a decade ago. The proposed law would provide legal resident status to illegal immigrant children who arrived in the United States as minors under certain conditions. These students would have to graduate from a U.S. high school and demonstrate good moral character. Then, if they were to complete two years in the military or two years at a four-year college, they could obtain temporary resident status for an additional six-year period. Within that period, they could complete their college degree and/or military service while working toward citizenship. Following years of inaction by lawmakers, versions of the DREAM Act were reintroduced last year. At one point, members of the House of Representatives passed a bill while senators debated it, but never voted. So the dream died. That is unfortunate because if the act had become law, students like junior Santiago Ortiz-Lopez would not face legal proceedings and the threat of deportation. Each year, more than 65,000 youth in the U.S. are unable to pursue their dreams past high school because they and their parents are illegal immigrants, according to www.dreamact.info. The DREAM Act was designed to stop the deportation of children. Under the proposed law, children who had not broken any laws themselves could eventually gain citizenship. So what is the problem? Sen. Lindsey Graham said to the U.S. Senate on Dec. 18, “To those who have come to my office, you’re always welcome to come. But you’re wasting your time.
Just Josh
FEATURE WRITERS Collin Armstrong Tyler Bice Kelli Bishop Brandon McArthur Katlyn McCarthy Katie Miller Rachel Shoemaker Aury St. Germain STAFF WRITERS Lara Bannister Suzanne English John Huntley Robert Purcell Tiernan Turner Josh VanWingerden
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wingspan
Talons & Feathers Feather to all the spring sports teams that participated in the playoffs, including women’s soccer, men’s tennis, men’s golf, men’s and women’s track, baseball and softball Feather to the freshman class for sponsoring the Hayley Hustle 5K to raise funds for muscular dystrophy Feather to the junior class or an outstanding prom Saturday night Talon to the handful of students who behaved inappropriately at the funeral procession for CWO Terry Varnadore
tried several times to start several columns. My decision to abandon them was not because they were bad or their themes half-baked. I just couldn’t help but feel that I was only writing a place-holder. I had planned to write something that was sharp and witty and which would have nothing at all to do with my own life. I had planned to postpone my reflections to the next issue of Wingspan. I just couldn’t fully commit to any of my first columns. No one Josh Wentzel should ever have to write the column I did. As many of you know, my dear mother passed into eternal life on April 28 — my 18th birthday. On March 15, 2011, my mother, my most constant comfort and the greatest reservoir of love in my life, was diagnosed with lung cancer. I remember calling her from school that morning to tell her, very exuberantly, that I had received a scholarship and my first college acceptance. I remember her happiness at the news, and I remember her saying that she hoped she would have good news later that day when the doctor called with the results of her lung biopsy. We knew she had something in her lung, but didn’t know whether it was cancerous. I remember getting in the car after school and hearing my father say, “Now you need to be really nice to your mum... because she has cancer.” And that’s how it started. I cried. She cried. We all did. How could Hye-Sook Yun Wentzel, who had never smoked in her entire life, who had more vivacity in her 50s than three average people do in their 20s, have cancer? I didn’t know. I will never know. After doing some research on cancer staging, I decided that while the 3 cm tumor in her upper left lung was bad, it was easily curable since it hadn’t metastasized. Mom was afraid of surgery. Still, she had her head on her shoulders enough to know that surgery would be necessary and that it was the best course of action. At this point I believed that she had Stage II, non-metastatic, cancer. The prognosis was fair for such a diagnosis, and I felt that there was a possibility of a full recovery. I told her that it was a good sign that they wanted to do surgery; it meant that the cancer was still contained and had not spread. She had been scheduled for an MRI to check her brain. I didn’t know how likely she was to make it. The MRI results would tell me that. I got home from school one evening, and she told me she had good news. It had to do with the MRI results. I, optimistic, but equally fearful, asked what it was. “Josh, I don’t have to have surgery,” she said. “Oh, then what stage?” “Four.” And that’s when I knew. Whereas most people would be permanently devastated at such news, she grew more positive and decided that she would beat this cancer. She said that while Stage IV cancer kills most people, she wasn’t most people. She would beat her odds. As she told me on one of the walks we took after her diagnosis, she was aware that medicine could only delay death and that only through God would she have a chance at recovery and a return to normalcy. Continued in Issue 6
The student forum of West Henderson High School is published seven times each year by the newspaper journalism class. The purpose of Wingspan is to convey school and community news to the students, faculty, administration and community. Wingspan content is determined by an editorial board of student editors. Wingspan is a Southern Interscholastic Press Association All-Southern, National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker and All-American, Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medalist and N.C. Scholastic Media Association AllNorth Carolina and Tar Heel Award publication. Staff editorials express the opinion of the editorial board. Columns reflect the opinions of the writer. Circulation is 1,200. Printed by Mullen Publications of Charlotte, N.C. 28273. Contact the staff at wingspan@henderson.k12.nc.us.