The All State

» Jenelle Grewell – jgrewell@my.apsu.edu

When I started showing my first signs of womanhood, my parents pulled me to the side and gave me a lecture about sex. My father showed me pictures of STD-infected genitalia and my mother told me horror stories about friends of hers who had to raise babies on their own or get secret abortions.

My parents never really shoved it down my throat that I should be abstinent. When I got my first serious boyfriend, my mother discussed birth control options with me and my father sat down and discussed the motives of teenage boys.

Because of this openness in my family, I felt as though I could come to my parents for any questions or concerns I had about sex. And because of this easy and comfortable access, I feel I have been able to make smart decisions about my sex life.

Some peers of mine have not had the advantage of educational and open parents and, therefore, have not had the ability to make well-rounded decisions about their sex life.

This lack of information has lead to these peers to do such things as misusing contraception, an inability to recognize signs of STDs and a skewed idea of the emotional consequences of sex.

I feel the right education at home can really help teens to make smart decisions in their sex life, whether they choose to be abstinent or not.

Some schools may offer sex education programs, but I, among many of my fellow students, only experienced abstinence-only programs. These programs tend to be chock-full of overdramatic stories about the certain death that follows pre-martial sex.

And even if you are lucky enough to have your teen attend a real sexual education course, they need the emotional backup of an at-home mentor.

There are a lot of nontraditional students at APSU and students getting ready to graduate and start families, and I hope these students will consider sitting down with their children and really educating them about sex. This education is important to help prevent pregnancy, HIV and STIs.

Even if your morals say one should wait until marriage, it is important for parents and schools to offer more than just an abstinence-only education. Abstinence-only education runs risks of higher STI and pregnancy rates.

On Advocatesforyouth.org it states, “according to Columbia University researchers, virginity pledge programs increase pledge-takers’ risk for STIs and pregnancy.

“The study concluded that 88 percent of pledge-takers initiated sex prior to marriage even though some delayed sex for a while.

“Rates of STIs among pledge-takers and non-pledgers were similar, even though pledge-takers initiated sex later. Pledge-takers were less likely to seek STI testing and less likely to use contraception when they did have sex.”

Reasons teens with abstinent-only educations tend to have a higher risk for STIs and pregnancy tends to be from the lack of accuracy. “Analysis of federally funded abstinence-only curricula found that over 80 percent of curricula supported by the U.S. Department of Health & Human

“Services contained false, misleading or distorted information about reproductive health. Specifically, they conveyed: false information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, false information about the risks of abortion; religious beliefs as scientific fact, stereotypes about boys and girls as scientific fact; and medical and scientific errors of fact,” said Advocatesforyouth.org.

Basically, with parents and programs trying to drown kids in how shameful and bad it is to have sex, they ignore a glaring fact. Teens will be teens.

They will more than likely experiment at some time or another. Why not offer your teens the education to make sure if they choose to have sex, they will not make mistakes.

Don’t shame them into not seeking testing or condoms. Be supportive and open.

If you are uncomfortable about talking to a teen about sexual education, try using a site like sexetc.org. Make sure you check with a health care provider for accuracy before using it as your prime resource. TAS

»Ashlie Talley – atalley2@my.apsu.edu

Last week in a 9-6 ruling, an all-white church in Tomahawk, Ky put a ban on extending church membership to interracial couples, according to CBS News and the Christian Science Monitor. The congregation lost 25 out of 40 members over the issue.

The remaining congregation stated the passing of the vote was “not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.”

No more than a week later, the Gulnare Baptist Church is now repealing its decision to ban interracial couples from its congregation. It is a justified repeal when, according to Genesis, all men are made in God’s image and, according to Psalms, all humans are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Although the ban has now been lifted, the mere fact there are still Christians in our communities who believe interracial coupling is wrong and would rather drive them away than show them true Christian values is tragic.

The ideals of Christianity are vastly misunderstood by many people. Everything a Christian does is put under scrutiny and over analyzed because of the religion’s strict call for its believers to better themselves. However, people who call themselves Christians often times don’t “walk the talk,” so to speak.

For example, it is known Christianity warns against passing judgment on others unless they want to be judged likewise, but many people in the Christian faith seem to pass harsh judgment on others regardless of their own fallacies.

It is actions such as those of the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church that breed hatred against the Christian community, and with good reason. When the only Christian values a person witnesses are that of ignorant, backward translation of biblical scripture, what else are they to think?

There are many biblical scriptures that suggest the forbiddance of interracial dating and marriage, most of them being in the Old Testament pertaining to the Israelites establishing their own nation under one God.

When the Bible is examined closer, we find God is not concerned with interracial coupling, but rather the religious beliefs of the persons that are involved in a relationship. Biblically, God would prefer the union of Christians.

The passage is referring to situations such as a Christian marrying a polytheist, for example. Perhaps many people disagree with this, but it is much better to choose a person based on a part of their character rather than an ethnicity they had no power in choosing.

Unfortunately, however, there are people who continue to carry on traditions of backward thinking and refuse to accept anything other than what they’ve been taught their entire lives.

They don’t take into account the scriptures that are contrary to their beliefs, and often, so-called Christians such as those at the Gulnare Baptist Church wind up sticking their feet in their mouths. Furthermore, if a religious church body passes legislation that can be so easily overturned, it obviously was not rooted very firmly in the values of that religion. If the Gulnare Baptist Church had been at all justified in establishing such a rule, it would not have disappeared at the first sign of controversy.

When dealing with something as significant as a person’s spirituality, leaders have to be steadfast in developing arguments in favor of their decisions before they are made, or they lose all credibility. This shouldn’t be news to any church.

Most devout Christians believe incorporating their faith into their both their daily lives and things like education and law-making. However, these Christians will now stand out as an example of how Christians everywhere are incapable of separating justified necessity from mere whim, whether it’s true or not.

The Bible does not indicate the existence of a superior race, or that keeping the races biologically separated is important. To translate scripture in such a way and insinuate such garbage is sad. TAS

» Kristin Kittell – kkittell@my.apsu.edu

Like a bad game of middle school dodgeball, it looks like sides will once again be unevenly divided for the 2012 Presidential Election. The jocks get the charismatic all-star while the underdogs have been left with the chess team.

With the House of Representatives so enticingly stacked with Republicans, you would think it wouldn’t be so hard for the party to put up a worthwhile candidate.

However, they’ve fallen short, leaving us with forerunners including an alleged sexual predator, a two-timing ‘idea man’ and, worst of all, a politician who can’t make up his mind. It seems as though Obama has the election in the bag.

I won’t say Obama’s first term in office has been perfect. The economy, while it has shown slight improvement, is still unstable, and his administration has failed to handle the growing budget deficit.

His backseat treatment of Libya is viewed by some as a diplomatic failure, much like his similar attitude toward the Occupy Wall Street movement has been viewed as a domestic failure. Socialized health care, one of the main talking points of his 2008 platform, has been met with almost nothing but scrutiny and uncertainty.

However, in rewinning the affections of voters in 2012, the Republican treatment of his administration will only work in his favor.

The current experiment in bipartisan leadership has yielded little more than repeated failures in progression. If one party proposes something, the other party staunchly objects to it.

Health care and the budget are both prime examples of a fundamental failure to compromise. There has been little concern for the wellbeing of the American public and entirely too much emphasis on which party was good or bad.

We’ve reached a point where politicians make up their minds about policy before it’s even proposed. When an issue comes down to name calling and mud slinging, we’ve reached an unsatisfactory level of immaturity. If we’re still playing dodgeball, this point goes to the Democrats.

The public impression of the Republican Party was bad in 2008, and the past three years have done nothing to improve it.

At best, the Obama administration has proven neither party is perfect. At worst, it has proven reducing politicians to children is as easy as asking them to share. Either way, the bitterness of Republican House incumbents has only pushed Americans further left.

For challengers to the Presidential office, the Republican Party, for whatever reason, has produced nothing but candidates who are essentially the opposite of everything a Conservative should be. They lie; they cheat and fluctuate on fundamental conservative issues.

Each candidate continues to profess his stance on social values. As right-wing politicians, they believe in outlawing abortion as well as gay marriage for the protection of the American family.

Unfortunately for them, actions speak louder than words. Herman Cain is currently under investigation for several counts of alleged sexual harassment. Newt Gingrich is currently on his third marriage and has a reputation of sexual infidelity.

Mitt Romney, a man whom Fox News has dubbed “the man-with-no-principles,” is notorious for changing his mind according to whatever serves his purposes best. So much for family values, right boys?

Even the most anti-political person can easily see past the platforms of these men and note their inconsistencies. Furthermore, even the most hardcore Republican would easily choose Obama, whose public adoration of his family has become a model for fathers and husbands nationwide.

The icing on the cake appeared in a recent Republican debate in which the candidates repeatedly expressed support for waterboarding, the controversial and decidedly violent interrogation tactic used to procure information from detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Even Sen. John McCain, the politician who lost to Obama in the 2008 election and is never shy to speak out about the mistakes the administration has made, publicly chastised the men for their remarks. Waterboarding is torture, plain and simple.

I have to believe, from a statistical standpoint, there are still good Republicans out there somewhere, hiding behind a sea of embarrassing ringleaders.

Barack Obama is not the worst president we’ve ever had, but he isn’t the best either. These guys make him look like a saint.

Like it or not, there is no real challenge to the Presidential office in the 2012 election. Unless Republicans can magically manifest some right-winged, incredibly scrupulous family man with a streak of honesty, this election will be a landslide. TAS

»Ashlie Talley – atalley2@my.apsu.edu

Judging and being judged are unavoidable aspects of life. People will always have opinions about the actions and decisions of others While everybody finds it offensive to be judged, they are constantly judging others themselves.

Interesting as this may be, what’s even more interesting is we use separate levels of judgement towards acquaintances and strangers than we do ourselves and the ones we love. It is safe to say we judge others based on logic and ourselves based on emotion.

When we’re judging those who are less than friends, we use strictly logic. We don’t take into account the experiences leading up to the event in which we made the judgement, how this person was feeling or what they were going through at the time of the event.

We don’t take these things into account because we don’t know any of them. Say one is passing an accident, and they note it was a fender bender. If we don’t know this person, the first thing that pops into our minds is, “Well, they should’ve been watching the road.”

All we have are the facts, or rumors in many instances, and that’s what we base our judgement on in cases of strangers. Because we do this, our judgement is a little harsher than if you know the person personally.

When we’re judging the ones we love, considering we typically know the history, instances and feelings leading up to the event we’re judging, how harshly we judge them really depends on where we stand with them at a given moment.

If we’re mad at a person we love, our reaction to them rear-ending a car would be similar to the reaction toward the stranger.

If we’re in good standing with them, however, we wait to know what happened before we make a judgment.

When it comes to judging ourselves, we do things a bit differently. We look at the situation from every angle available to us so we can excuse ourselves from harsh judgement.

Or in the least, we excuse ourselves from believing we deserve a harsh judgement.

Had we been involved in the car accident rather than a stranger or a loved one, our reaction would be one of two things. We’d either start blaming the person we hit or we’d acknowledge we did it and brush it off because it can happen to anyone.This is because we as human beings find it difficult to empathize with other people.

When we look at the mess we live in these days, take into account the world got this way because of people, and further take into account how many times we’ve been hurt by other people due to their mistakes, we look at the situations of others and we feel no sympathy for them.

We tend to think, “It’s their fault, so why should we help them?” or, “It’s their fault, so why should we feel bad?”

The truth is, everybody makes mistakes, including both you as the reader and myself. Indeed, there are many times when we observe the actions of another and it completely baffles us, but the old saying goes, “Don’t ever say what you wouldn’t do, because you’ll do everything you said you wouldn’t do and a thousand things you never thought of doing.”

It’s easy to watch other people and pass judgement when we have no idea what they go through. When we notice the mistakes other people are making, instead of passing judgement on them we should empathize with them.

Life has a tricky way of dealing out karma and you never know when it’s going to be you. TAS

» Letter to the Editor by Joseph johnson

Like many people, I grew up watching football. I love the game and what it brings. Understanding this, I have a deep concern for what’s going on with our football team.

During the week of homecoming, a lot of time and money was spent decorating.

I talked with many others about what we thought was a waste of money and why. If our football team played 100 percent every game and still lost, they would have my full support.

During this season, however, players were walking off the field, laughing on the sideline while down two touchdowns and, in one case, a player was upset with the poor play calling and yelled to the stands that they just threw on three downs.

Our problems with the team seem very fixable, and ask any vet, they would coach the team for free.

I watched a lot of APSU teams and I can honestly say the softball team is the greatest effort team we have along with soccer, volleyball and mens’ baseball.

All of these teams are playoff contenders. We should not waste money building a new stadium for the football team that does not perform. Granted, we don’t have a big name team, but if you’re going to lose, why not make the other team earn it?

The 40-0 APSU win on the front cover made a lot of people laugh because it seemed like it was surreal.

I would like to see the paper do a poll on what APSU students think of the football team and a coach who understands the importance of discipline on the team. TAS

» Kristin Kittell | kkittell@my.apsu.edu

The Thanksgiving holiday is finally upon us. Many students are preparing to vacate the halls of APSU to travel home to see their families. Others will stay with friends to feast on Domino’s pizza and Pepsi.

Either way, the Thanksgiving holiday is a time for festivity, relaxation and gentle overeating.

Fortunately for corporations, the festivities are short-lived. Before the day has even begun, families are preparing for the overshadowing big brother of the last Thursday in November — the following Friday.

Known as “Black Friday” because of its reputation as the only day of the year during which retail business’ budgets are in the black, the Friday following Thanksgiving has become a notorious holiday of its own.

Stores begin preparing for it as early as Oct. 31. When the costumes come down, time temporarily stands still as retail workers everywhere share an apprehensive moment of silence.

Customers flock to the checkout lines for the best deals they’ll get year round on things like TVs, watches, movies and clothing.

Economically speaking, Black Friday is a godsend. Buyers can make great Christmas purchases for cheaper prices and stores can bask in the glory of an end-of-year fiscal high. In this sense, Black Friday is great.

The problem is the moral implication that Black Friday presents, or rather, the immoral. The day has become infamous for cutthroat survivalists and rampant consumerism — everything the Christmas season is intended to discourage.

In 2010, a Walmart employee in Long Island was trampled and killed during the midnight stampede at his store. At a Toys-R-Us in California, two shoppers were shot as a result of a dispute over merchandise.

These deaths are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Black Friday mayhem. Shoppers who dare go out run the risk of being trampled and seriously injured for the sake of a $20 discount on a Blu-ray player, and the worst part? The video will be viral on YouTube within a matter of minutes. By next year, you’ll be another unheeded warning to a shopper who will risk the same fate as they venture out to make their Black Friday purchases.

While wanting to give your loved ones the best gifts possible is a wonderful sentiment, the manners through which people will obtain them are not sentimental in the least. In fact, the ritual of Black Friday is a nightmare far more fitting for Halloween than the Christmas season.

Christmas presents are a wonderful thing, but Black Friday has helped usher them onto the top of the metaphorical Christmas tree where the Northern Star should sit. In short, dear Christians, where did all the Jesus go?

The consumerism is bad enough. Internet, print and broadcast media are littered with promotions for weeks prior. The public succumbs to the greed of material possessions and therefore cheapens the Christmas holiday itself. You can justify the transfer of gifts as a celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus, but it should not be the only celebration.

It certainly should not overshadow the transfer of so many greater things, like love, memories and warm wishes. As I recall, Jesus gave us the gift of life, not a brand new iPad. If you disagree, I have to wonder what you’re doing celebrating Christmas in the first place.

Furthermore, Black Friday encourages us to forsake Christian charity entirely for one day of every-man-for-himself shopping. Once we walk through those sliding double doors, we find ourselves making moral decisions we would easily rebuke any other day of the year.

There’s a pregnant woman under your feet — so what? Her fetus will never know its mother didn’t get that Xbox 360, but your son won’t shut up for months.

Why do Americans go to such great lengths for a good deal? Is it because we want to offer our loved ones wonderful things on Christmas morning?

If so, why do those wonderful things have to be purchased at a retail outlet?

I hope one day when I start my own family, I can teach my children love, charity, patience and kindness all year round. I hope they understand the true meaning of Christmas — it is more than gifts under a tree; it is a symbol of the most precious day in the Christian faith.

Most of all, I hope I never catch a single one of them trampling a fellow shopper in a Kmart doorway so they can be the first to the jewelry counter. TAS