San Jose Plastic Bag Ban:

The city of San Jose has placed a ban on plastic retail bags. Grocery stores, pharmacies and retailers will be affected by the law, but nonprofit organizations and restaurants will not. During the first two years of the ban, the charge for a paper bag made with 40 percent post-consumer recycled materials will be ten cents. After two years, the charge will be 25 cents. The law is an effort to help reduce pollution and our carbon footprint in San Jose.

Pros:

It was obvious that plastic bag litter was getting a bit out of control in our city. The law is an effort to help reduce pollution and our carbon footprint in San Jose. This law will encourage everyone in San Jose to use reusable bags. This easy alternative to a paper bag can save our environment from much pollution. Although it may seem inconvenient at first to bring reusable bags to the store, once the people in San Jose get into this habit, it will become much easier both on us and the environment.

Cons:

However, as noble as the intentions may be, this law may not be the best solution to the problem. Reusable bags, although they do help us to reduce our waste, will not last forever. Additionally, some argue that it should be the decision of the store, not the city, to help reduce waste. For example, Urban Outfitters uses reusable bags instead of paper at their store. If you do not want a bag, they will donate the ten cents they would have spent producing the bag to a local charity. This is a great example of a retail store making a difference for the environment and the community through their own decisions; not the decisions of the government.

LGBT Equality Laws:

Many laws were enacted this year that made great progress for LGBT equality in California. A notable addition is the California Gay History Law. This law requires that social studies text books in California public schools must include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender accomplishments. This July, the California Gay Bullying Law will also take effect. School districts will be required to have a uniform process for handling gay bullying complaints. Also, it will mandate that school faculty must intervene if they witness an incident of gay bullying.

Pros:

The California Gay History law not only educates about the LGBT community, but it also serves as a gateway for discussion on the topic in schools. The California Gay Bullying Law will hopefully make schools in California a safer place for gay students and bring an end, or at least a decrease, to gay bullying in California.

Cons:

Some Californians may believe that schools should not educate in public schools about LGBT history. Some religious groups object to the law because they believe homosexuality to be morally wrong. They do not want schools to be educating their children about this lifestyle and culture.

Tanning Bed Ban:

A new law in California bans the use of tanning beds for people under the age of 18. Before this law, the age restriction was 14 in California, but people between the ages of 14 and 18 could only use the beds with parental permission.

Pros:

Although being tan is glorified in society and the media, tanning beds are known to lead to cancer due to the intense levels of radiation exposure during tanning. This law attempts to protect minors from this harmful practice by restricting them from access and therefore protecting their health.

Cons:

Some believe that minors should have the right to use tanning beds if they choose. This law makes California the state with the highest restriction for using tanning beds.

California Handgun Open Carry Law:

As of January 1, California citizens may not openly carry a handgun. Before the law, anyone with a gun permit could carry an unconcealed handgun in California. This law, however, does not ban one from carrying a rifle or shotgun in California with a permit.

Pros:

Police officers support the new law because a situation can become potentially dangerous for a cop when an openly displayed handgun is involved. They cannot be certain if a handgun is loaded or empty. This law increases safety for not only police officers, but also all Californians.

Cons:

Although it is an effort to bring about greater safety in California, guns rights advocates condemn this new policy because they believe it infringes on their right to bear arms. As American citizens, they believe they should have the right to carry a handgun in public because of the second amendment.

The Dream Act:

The Dream Act will go into effect July 1, 2012. It allows undocumented students to apply for and receive financial aid at California public colleges and universities. Also, if the student meets the income requirements, they can apply for Cal Grants. However, these students may not receive aid from Cal Grants until all documented California residents have received the aid they are eligible for.

Pros:

This bill will allow undocumented students in California to receive an affordable college education. Undocumented students were brought to our country by their parents, so it is unfair to penalize them because of the actions of their parents. Many of them have been in America for as long as they can remember, and this country is their home. Through education, these students will be able to have a better life in the United States. Also, this law will not affect financial aid given to documented California students.

Cons:

Many tax dollars will be spent on this bill. Some citizens do not want tax dollars to be spent on undocumented persons and instead be spent on those citizens who do pay taxes in California. Those opposed to immigration worry that the Dream Act will encourage more immigration by providing inexpensive education to immigrant children. Parents may be more inclined to immigrate with their families to receive government aid for a good education.

I, among many, wondered why Iowa was the first state to hold a primary (which is actually a caucus there). It’s in the middle of the nation, is not first alphabetically, and doesn’t have the most people in the nation either, an honor which belongs to California.

It turns out that Iowa has always gone first every election year for no other reason than that they wanted to. Many states have tried to topple Iowa, as the publicity that comes with being first in the primary is impossible to duplicate. However, states are not allowed to move too much, and Iowa still holds its spot at the head, something that looks unlikely to change.

The Iowa caucuses, usually a deciding factor in the Republican nomination, happened on January 3. With a number of candidates vying for votes, including Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Ron Paul, and presumed front-runner Mitt Romney, the likely winner was anyone’s guess.

Indeed, Iowa turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. The results were heavily disputed, and were eventually changed. Originally, Mitt Romney was said to have led by twenty votes, however, a later recount showed that votes were over counted in certain counties both for Santorum and Romney, leading to further investigation and a final decision that Romney had indeed won, but by a much slimmer margin of eight votes.

As with most primary seasons, the Republican race has quickly become a match of who could sling the most mud, resulting in a flurry of disparaging commercials started by extremely wealthy organizations known as super PACs. These super PACs quickly aligned themselves with a certain candidate and started searching for nitty gritty details about the other candidates that could be used to ruin their match. One such example is Herman Cain’s alleged relationships, something that ended up losing him his bid at candidacy.

“The super PACS have mainly created negative ads directed towards other candidates that pose a threat, and they’ve worked pretty well,” says junior Diana Le, who has been researching them for Speech and Debate. “Newt Gingrich, who was in the lead with 37% of the ballot, ended up in 4th place [in Iowa] after $4 million worth of negative ads from Restore our Future (Mitt Romney’s super PAC) were released to the Iowans in the weeks leading up to the vote.”

“No one really expected Gingrich to end in fourth place and no one even knew who Rick Santorum was until his super PAC created $500,000 worth of ads in support of him.  You see this complete reversal of the places in the polls, and it’s astonishing that the super PACs created the ads.  You begin to consider the enormous amount of power corporations and the wealthy have in politics.”

In fact, the wealth of the candidates came into play after both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s campaigns died a slow and painful death. As their funding decreased after their poor showings in the first two primaries, their races came to a grinding halt by the third primary. Mitt Romney, the obvious front runner, is the wealthiest Republican candidate, with more than $32 million in donations, according to the New York Times’ “2012 Money Race.”.

Nevertheless, Romney’s wealth was not enough to help him avoid a rocky showing in South Carolina on January 21. Despite winning New Hampshire handily, he was surprised by a resurgent Gingrich in the conservative state, making pundits wonder if Gingrich could give Romney a run for his money.

Some even wonder if the California primary on June 5 could finally matter. Although that’s likely too late in the game to make a significant impact on the nomination, an article in the San Jose Mercury News suggested that this year’s topsy-turvy race might make California a deciding factor in the Republican nomination.

“It’s still a long shot, but the possibility of a contested June Republican primary in California is greater today than it has been in many years,” said Dan Schnur, a former GOP strategist who now directs the University of Southern California’s Unruh Institute of Politics.
Despite the unusual race so far, political pundits expect Romney to take the upcoming Florida, Maine, Nevada, Minnesota and Colorado primaries.

All in all, the elections have gone from a remarkably different band of candidates who then turned out to be slightly less different than we thought they were. Some dropped by the wayside, but in the end, we’re left with many of the same people who were running in the last election– including Barack Obama. According to Oliver Pursche, co-portfolio manager of GMG Defensive Beta Fund, as well as many others, Obama is expected to win re-election in 2012 and serve out his second and final term. Only time will tell who will win the top prize, but on the Republican side of things, it’s an open field. Anyone could rush in and get it.

Have you ever wondered, like Lynn, if those end-of-the-semester teacher evaluations do any good? Are your voices, opinions, and suggestions really being heard? The answer is yes: thanks to Vice Principal Ms. Edson, every single multiple choice and comment form is read and reviewed.

Okay, so our voices are heard. But what does this mean in the long run and how can our opinions lead to actual changes in the classroom?

There are two School Administrative Evaluations, or as we students would call them Student Perception Surveys, that are sent out at the end of each semester. As you are all familiar, students take the surveys during each class period. These surveys are then sent to Ms. Doolin, usually by a volunteer who’s dying to waste even more class time and just can’t wait for an opportunity to get out of her seat.

In the hands of Ms. Doolin, all the surveys are scanned and the results generated. There are percentage results for every multiple choice question for every class. She then organizes the opinion sheets as well. Ms. Doolin passes down the surveys to Ms. Edson, who reads through every evaluation and reviews all the data, all while taking notes on areas which call for improvement.

But the process does not stop here. The surveys then take a trip to each of their corresponding department chairs: Math classes go to Ms. Goldau; Science classes go to Mr. Pistacchi, etc. Each department chair reviews each survey just as was done previously by Ms. Edson, and finally pass back the surveys to the individual teachers themselves.

Sure, they read through all of the surveys, but what do they do about them? Each teacher is required a 30-hour minimum of professional development activity such as teaching workshops each year in order to continue improvement and progress in their teaching skills, and many teachers do even more than the minimum requirement. Teachers also often set goals at the beginning of each school year, whether they be incorporating more technology into their teaching methods or being more clear about extra credit guidelines. Teachers want to do the best they possibly can, and the teacher evaluations help them focus on their individual developmental needs as teachers. In short, the evaluations help teachers become better teachers and help to validate the success they have already achieved as well.

In the fall, these evaluations are copied and kept in the teacher’s personnel file. In the spring, the evaluations are handled the same way, but a copy is not put into their personnel file.

Which evaluations are really considered and which are simply discarded? Every survey is reviewed, but if a student is being particularly harsh or stating concerns that are not concurrent at all with the views of the rest of the class, then they are not taken into consideration. According to Ms. Edson, the staff must see “what the majority is thinking and feeling” to make any just assumptions. However, if the majority of the class expresses a particular issue or concern, then the problem is addressed. The department chair uses the feedback as a focus for each teacher’s development strategy, and the chair may choose to meet with the teacher to discuss methods for improvement or direct the teacher to a certain class or workshop.

So yes, whether your comment is positive or negative, each teacher sees them all. Ms. Goldau confirms, “I do read every single comment.” She also expresses her own method of handing out the evaluations, saying, “I personally like to give the comment forms before the bubble forms because it gets the students writing instead of just sitting there and filling in bubbles.”

Teachers read all the comments, which may make many of you nervous about how anonymous the surveys really are due to the possibility of handwriting detection. However, Pres has begun to do a great deal of the surveys online with Survey Monkey this year. Having the electronic options, students feel more anonymous and therefore are more open to share their opinions without the fear of being tracked back to them.

Junior Alex Sheredy said, “I enjoy the electronic evaluations because I feel more secure and definitely more anonymous, especially in the English department because they see our writing so much. I feel that if you have very recognizable script then the teacher may accumulate a vengeance against you if you give them a bad review.”

Also, with the paper evaluations, administration has found that students view the three open-ended questions as optional, whereas through the electronic versions, the number of comments greatly rose, which means more helpful information to foster improvement.

Having the evaluations online not only allows for more open responses but also saves trees and a valuable amount of time. Paperless evaluations allow for the passing-down process to go from an average of one week with the paper copies to only one day with the electronic data. “The sheer volume of paper not only causes guilt but is also more time consuming to organize, hard to make copies to pass down, and is less time-efficient than doing everything electronically,” said Ms. Edson.

There are some down sides to the electronic versions of the surveys, however. Along with obvious technical complications that may occur, some teachers feel the comments would be less personal. Ms. Goldau notes, “Sometimes my students will draw the hearts, stars or flowers. I enjoy these, but encourage my students to explain the reasoning behind their artwork, especially if they decide on drawing the daggers.”

According to Ms. Edson, the School Administrative Evaluations are “broad brushstrokes on an overwhelming scale” but are focused on listening to the major concerns of the students– not only in order to give the student body a voice, but also to use their feedback to make the staff aware of areas that may need adjustment. After all, we’re all human and there’s always room for improvement.

According to America’s latest political and economic movement, these companies’ executives would fall into the top 1 percent of the country. The other 99 percent would fall into the category of people represented by Occupy Wall Street.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) began on September 17, 2011, when about 1,000 protesters gathered in Manhattan’s financial district and marched through the streets.

At first, very few people, sometimes including the protesters themselves, knew what the movement was about. It was not until about a week later, when the media began thoroughly covering the event, that most Americans knew the basic goal of OWS.

That goal, stopping greed, is the only thing that encompasses the entire movement. There is no single, official list of demands from the protestors. However, many want more income equality, bank reform and a decrease in corporate influence.

Some people have criticized OWS for this lack of official demands, claiming that it makes it disorganized and disunited. Others approve of it because they say that no single list could cover all of the problems America’s people face.

Since OWS started, it has inspired similar protests in thousands of cities across the globe, including Oakland.

Occupy Oakland was first catapulted into the foreground of the movement after police officers fractured the skull of Iraqi war veteran Scott Olsen when a tear gas canister hit his head at the Oct. 25 protest. Olsen is now considered a nationwide symbol of the Occupy movement.

On Nov. 2, Occupy Oakland held another protest. That time, the protest was peaceful until late at night, when some protesters set fires in trashcans, broke into buildings and vandalized walls with graffiti.

Occupy Oakland has condemned these protesters, calling them “anarchists” and accusing them of changing the peaceful message of the protest.

John Blackstone of CBS News said that he believes the perpetrators are possibly part of an international anarchist organization known as Black Bloc.

Anarchists or not, many middle class citizens and small business owners of Oakland do not support the movement.

Some recognize that the protesters themselves are not violent, but are unhappy because the protests attract violence. This causes the already cash-strapped city to spend more money on its police force and often takes away business for local shop owners.

In addition, the Nov. 2 protest shut down the port of Oakland. Import is one of Oakland’s main sources of revenue.

Many Oakland residents, protesters and non-protesters alike, are angered at Oakland Mayor Jean Quan for her inconsistent stance on the protests. At first, she was strongly opposed, but has since taken a supportive position.

She has offered to find a new location for the protests so local businesses do not lose any more customers. Many believe Quan is trying too hard to appease everyone.

The only certainty is that this movement will not just go away. Until their demands are met, these protesters will occupy the world.

Ms. McCullough (formerly Ms. Murphy) was married on July 3, 2011 at the Presentation Center in Los Gatos, CA to Casey McCullough, who works at Bellarmine. She said, “We tried to keep things sustainable and local by having my uncles cook our rehearsal dinner, buying flowers from the farmers market and I wore my cousin’s wedding dress!”

Mr. Blightman married Jackie Honma (a math teacher at Quimby Oak Middle School) on July 30 at Clos La Chance Winery in San Martin, CA.

Congratulations to the following teachers who recently had a newborn added to their families!

Mrs. Odell gave birth to her first child, Amber Nicole, on March 4, 2011. She weighed 6 lbs., 2 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.

Ms. Livingston had her second child on May 3, 2011. Jack Thomas was 7 lbs., 4 oz. and also 19.5 inches long. She said, “He is a happy baby and smiles all day. His big sister Natalia just loves him and so do we! Our family is complete.”

Athletic trainer Ms. Murphy, added her first child, Aiden Jaxton, to her family on April 13, 2011. He was 6 lbs., 4 oz. and 19 inches. She said, “I am pretty sure once we start to host athletic events here on campus, he will be here often to cheer on our sports team!”

Public relations director Ms. Pizarro gave birth to Alexander David on July, 3, 2011. He weighed 9 lbs., 2 oz., and was 20 inches long.

Athletic director Ms. Mallison welcomed her first child, Sadera Lyn, who will be called Sadie, on August 3, 2011. Sadie was 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 inches long.

“The Presentation Sisters have always been very supportive and passionate about being green. Our mission flows from their lead,” said Mary Miller, principal. Our school is constantly trying to find ways to go green, which is obvious from the several changes that have been made to the school this summer.

The first thing students probably noticed when they came to school on August 15 was that we have new sliding doors. Besides the obvious convenience that the sliding doors provide to students who come to school laden down with backpacks and class projects, these new doors are great energy savers.

Normally, during the winter, the doors in the main building would be left open as people came in and out of the school, making it very inefficient for the heaters to keep the school warm. Since the sliding doors open and close as needed, heat stays inside, requiring less money and energy to warm up the school.

Though saving money is a good thing, “The money saved is less an issue than our desire to be responsible stewards of the environment–taking as little off the energy grid as possible,” said Ms. Miller.

Other developments to the buildings include brand-new dual pane windows, which help insulate the classrooms better than the old, single-pane windows, and new energy efficient lights.

Besides the administration, students and teachers are starting to catch the “going green” bug too, inspiring attempts to save as much paper as possible by doing things online. Moodle is the next big thing at Pres— a website that allows teachers to upload files such as calendars, PowerPoints, and handouts so students can access them on the Internet instead of using paper copies.

“Around 100 classes are already on Moodle,” said Ms. Renner, head of Presentation’s Technology Department. Though some teachers are not yet active in their use of Moodle, these roughly 100 class pages are up and ready to use on the website.

From there, teachers can have students enroll into their classes, distribute files, give assignments and quizzes, share blogs and videos, and even have students turn in homework and projects. It’s a work in progress, but expect much more interaction and efficiency with the website once they system is a little more settled and in regular use.

Pres has a fairly large faculty, and small actions make noticeable differences in our school’s environment. Mr. Buell is one example of a teacher who loves Moodle and has actively used it for all homework assignments since the first day of school.

He appreciates how it helps him be more organized—where he would normally have a desk stacked full of papers to grade, everything issystematically arranged on Moodle, where he can view, grade, and comment on students’ work.

“You can only access the K-drive at Pres, but you can access Moodle anywhere with Internet,” he said.

After just the first week of school, Mr. Buell notes, he has already saved 130 sheets of paper from handouts he would have given to students and homework that would have been turned in on paper.

Mrs. Stampfl also actively promotes saving paper, having increasing numbers of assignments submitted online in addition to the class blogs that have been on the Internet for the past few years.

This year, the AP French class’ workbook is online, and all workbook assignments are viewed, submitted, and graded on the Pearson website. Besides helping conserve the environment, going online makes it easier to organize homework for both teachers and students.

It’s a work in progress, but expect much more interaction and efficiency with the website once they system is a little more settled and in regular use.

Student initiatives to go green include the garden at Jenvey House run by the SEAS club. Club moderator Ms.Rahmig said, “It’s a way to show everyone that you can grow your own food.”

The 1,000 square foot garden contains everything from strawberries and tomatoes to squash, corn, and zucchini. The food that comes out of the garden— a bag or more of vegetables a week— goes to the girls who help work there. It provides the benefit of organic, home-grown vegetables, which is great for the environment.

The next time you use the new sliding doors at school or turn homework in on Moodle, keep in mind Pres’ efforts to become a more eco-friendly school and try to see what you can do to help. In the words of Ms. Miller: “It is simply the right thing to do.”

Deepika Bhatnagar’12 talks about the purpose of this green event, “We’re doing this to promote green living, and to show people the impact of making a small change to your daily routine can have on our environment. If they like the feeling of the crisp morning air on their face as they cruise through the streets of Willow Glen, then we encourage them to make it a permanent change.”
Melanie Borreli, a Senior at Presentation High School, biked a total of 4.2 miles to school to help show her support for the environment. When asked why she biked to school she stated “I always wanted to bike to school and it just worked out this year. It was really good exercise and I love saving the Earth!” After being told about how much of an impact she made by not biking she said “I will definitely bike to school more often. I fell motivated to do it again!”

Melanie is just one example of the many students that helped make a difference by biking to school this week. Bike to school week was just the beginning of all the ways students can help make a difference at Presentation. It is up to you now to help protect the planet even if it is just by biking to school one day a week.

Who knew that small changes in our habits could actually make a difference in the pursue to create a more “green” planet? Young women at our own school have done their part in going green and should be a reminder for others to do the same. There are so many different ways each girl can try and make a difference, and these are just a fewexamples.

Senior Elise Miller takes shorter showers in order to save the amount of water she is using, and turns off the lights when no longer in the room.”I do this as a small way to do my part in trying to save the environment and conserving energy,” said Miller. Recycling is just one step away. While she’s making her attempt to stay green, she says, “When people don’t recycle and there is literally a recycling bin right next to the trash can, that can really be annoying.” So take that extra two seconds to reach and put it in the BLUE can. That small gesture really helps.

Whenever senior Diana Self leaves any room, she also turns the lights off. A significant thing her family does is unplugging absolutely everything when it is not in use. This includes things like their toaster and their TV. Their family recently started unplugging things, and they feel as if it is slowly making a difference and is definitely conserving energy.

“My aunt thinks it’s a good idea to unplug everything when it’s not in use because it will help reduce the impact on the environment from easy changes they make,” Self says.

Her inspiration comes from observing others. She sees how others always carelessly wasteful, and knows if she does her part, it can slowly make a difference. “I really hate it when people take like one bite of their food, and then throw it away. That creates a lot of unnecessary landfill,” she says.

No matter if its Styrofoam or a Jamba Juice cup, Catherine Mote always makes an attempt to recycle everything that can be. Her mom got her in the habit of taking the time to recycle everything they can. “This will help reduce the amount of landfill from recycling everything we can.” Landfills have the potential to leak and contaminate ground water and soil, so it’s important that we try to reduce the amount of trash we use.

“I know it sounds weird but it bugs me when people over-water their lawn. Like when their sprinklersare on a timer and go off every day, its unnecessary and wasteful,” says Mote. Remember to talk to your parents about how to change the settings on your sprinkles to go off only when completely necessary, a like when the weather is really dry.

See a water bottle on the ground? Pick it up and put it in the nearest recycle bin. These Pres girls have already set an acceptable example of staying green, and now it’s your turn to remember what small things you can do to help. Make sure you do your part by conserving, recycling, and remember everything is better in moderation.

Leading up to the team’s great success at Nationals, dance team has been very successful at local competitions such as Homestead, Monte Vista, Lincoln High School, and now, a very successful time at Nationals. At Nationals, the dance team went up against a new set of competitive teams and school teams. But with all the hard work they’ve put into comp season, these girls were prepared for whatever came their way. Because there are so many different teams and school that come to compete at Nationals each year, it is hard to say that there is just one main rival, but nevertheless, the Pres Dance Team knows they’re going up against (and beats!) many of the really serious Southern California and Utah schools.

     The team has always been well-known for their success in hip-hop, and has always been a favorite. This year, the team was really excited to compete in the hip-hop division at Nationals because they have worked so hard to improve every week going from third, to second, and finally first place at local competitions. “This has been an exceptional year for the dance team bringing home the most first and second place trophies at our local competitions. We are looking forward to our break and preparing for the Fashion Show and Spring Dance Concert” says dance team coach, Sara Cuddie.

 As far as favorite dances go, every member has their own personal favorite, usually according to what genre dance they are best in, and it always shows when they perform. “I love [the division] Small because it’s a comfortable style and I can connect to the dance. Whenever you can connect to a dance on a personal level, it just makes it so much easier and more enjoyable to perform!” said team member Madeline Bernstein, junior.

     The team had been anxious to see how they would do considering how competition season has been so far, because they hadn’t seen all the competitors yet making difficult to judge. The important thing is that these dancers have all come so far as a team and have been working hard all the way through, and doing so well in every competition. Great job, Dance Team!

Let’s put it into perspective. The Americans revolted against the British rule for many years. The Egyptian revolution against President Hosni Mubarak lasted a few weeks.

On Tuesday, January 25, 2011, Egyptians crowded in the streets of Cairo to revolt against the 30-year regime of Mubarak. His government did not fulfill many promised reforms to the people, moving them to fight for representation.

It was violent, and it was big. Riots, curfews and labor strikes, marches, rallies, civil disobedience and shouts of police corruption and abuses in every city eventually had their effect. After 335 deaths, February 11, 2011 was Farewell Friday, the day that Mubarak finally stepped down from office.

Why did the revolution in Egypt occur, anyways? Part of the reason was the successful revolution in Tunisia. People protested against the Tunisian government and president, who was eventually forced to step down. Sounds similar? That is exactly what happened in Egypt, too.

But the cry of revolution has not stopped in Egypt. A revolutionary domino effect is causing a rage across the the Middle East and Africa. The stable authoritarian regimes are now being overturned. Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, and Yemen are just a few of the many countries demanding reform. According to Shadi Hamdi of the Brookings Doha Center, other governments are trying to bribe their citizens into not protesting through tax cuts and compromises.

In Libya, one of the most violent revolting countries,  citizens are protesting the Libyan regime, presided over by Moammar Gadafi. He has reached four decades of power and is aggressively attempting to hold onto his regime, threatening to kill protesters “house by house.” Gadafi continues to lose control of Libya as the protesters continue.

The Arab League, a league of nations in North Africa and Southwest Asia,  issued a statement rejecting foreign assistance in the crisis. America must choose between standing firmly on the side of democracy and getting involved in the conflict or respecting the wishes of the Arab League and holding back. It is a difficult decision, but extremely important in determining the fate of the Middle East.

The roots of unrest are only starting to show on the surface. Tunisia and Egypt’s domino effect continues to topple governments across the Middle East and Africa. This has sparked a chain reaction that is sure to remain in history books for years to come.