Circuit Writer

I’m highlighting this article because of it’s authors: three high school seniors from Michigan.  They eloquently expressed their concerns about the costs for host nations and cities of the Olympic games, providing both concise comment that they backed up with factual information.  This is just a quick look – I hope you’ll check out the entire article here.

Grace Hirzel is a senior at Otsego High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:

In both former host countries [Australia & Greece], citizens are not only still paying for the games but also the upkeep of huge Olympic venues in their taxes. At least in Sydney these facilities are being put to good use. In other places, Olympic venues are closed up, falling apart and vandalized.

Trenton Bulat is a senior at Hartford High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:

So, what is such an imperial monument [Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium] being used for today, hardly a year later? Nothing! The stadium has fallen on hard luck when it comes to attracting anything other than vendors around the Olympic Green, and seats have been shaved off in an effort to simplify the stadium’s design. In fact, Beijing’s own soccer club was ready to call the Bird’s Nest home, but backed out because of the still-intimidating capacity.

Ben Wells is a senior at Galesburg-Augusta High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:

The honor the Olympics provides is not given to the city or country that has enough money to win a bidding war, but to the elite men and women who have what it takes to bring home a medal.

Now that the metaphorical dust is settling on the disaster that has befallen Haiti, it is the time to begin remembering what we are already forgetting.  Distracted by the commentary and wrangling surrounding the State of the Union Address, we’ve lost track of the tragedy of an estimated 150,000 dead (the U.N. confirming 111,481 based on bodies recovered as of January 24).  While there is no doubt that we should acknowledge the economic problems here in our country, it would be a failure of nerve and moral courage to shift our focus inward upon ourselves on account of an arbitrary requirement that the President “shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union.”  (Article II, Section 3, U.S. Constitution)

I’ve previously written concerning the real nature of Haiti’s “curse” and Christian responsibility in the wake of this disaster, but it’s time for us to move beyond talk and take action.  For everyone who has already become involved, sending recovery kits and making financial contributions, I thank you and commend your actions.  However, as Richard Kim points out, our charity simply isn’t good enough: continue reading…

This is my latest column for The Tahlequah Christian for the week of January 24-30.

We’ve all watched and listened in horror to the unbelievable destruction in Haiti. Granting that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a devastating force, we should all be asking the question as to why the estimated death toll has skyrocketed to over 100,000 dead with countless other injuries. The greatest tragedy in Haiti has not been the earthquake itself, but the absolute lack of basic government services to support the population and insure safe living conditions for the people. This is a byproduct of rampant political instability in the country, an irony considering that it is one of the oldest republics in the Americas, gaining its independence in 1804 (that’s just 21 years after our recognized independence in 1783), and we seem to believe that democracy is the answer to any country’s political woes. continue reading…

Originally from the “Wired Science blog” at Wired.com – News For Your Neurons

Green jobs growth outpaced other-colored job classifications by nearly 250 percent over the last decade, growing 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, versus 3.7 percent for the overall job market.

There are now 770,000 green jobs spread out among 68,200 businesses, according to the new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. While that’s a tiny slice of the overall American jobs pie, it is already approaching the same scale as the traditional energy sector — coal mining, utilities, big oil — which employs 1.27 million people. As a job creator, it stacks up even better against biotechnology, which (despite a longer history and greater investment) employs only 200,000 people…

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