2<Table oF Contents>

The Tea Party Recruits at GSBAnonymous- Pages 3,6

Arizona and ImmigrationAbhi Gupta- Pages 4-5, 10-11

SchedulesAnonymous- Pages 5, 13

A Brief Guide to Facebook EtiquetteScott Geldzahler- Pages 6-8

The UnitCaitlyn Dougher- Page 9

Summer JobsSam Rosenthal- Page 9

Keep It Simple: Reflections on the Junior Research ProjectMalcolm Dey - Pages 10-11

An Open Letter to the Students of GSBCharlie Beck- Pages 11-12

The Perks of Being a Junior (Or Not)Rachel Sherman and Brendan Connell- Page 12

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The Voice StaffEditorsCaitlyn DougherBrendan McLellanRachel ShermanBrendan Connell

Technical EditorsAbhi GuptaNathan Holland David Orr

ContributorsNatalie ZuckermanScott GeldzahlerIoana BrankovaBrett SleysterMr. SchmidtKatie Grabowski Jaoquin DominguezSam RosenthalKendall MurthaAlexis GriecoSarah MorrisChris CosciaMalcolm DeyDaniel Sonnenberg

Faculty AdvisorMrs. Wengel

The Voice staff would like to thank those who have chosen to submit thier articles anonymously.

The Tea Party Recruits at GSB

I don’t know if you’ve been approached to join the ‘tea party’ club yet, but you likely will be. The litter that has recently appeared on the ground around campus has been quite extraordinary, including empty matchbooks with copies of the U.S. Constitution inside and spent bullet casings with ‘freedom’ scratched into them. To this reporter these are clear signs of tea partiers (and the radical militia who have taken their ideas of government to heart) in our midst. This suspicion was largely confirmed by a conversation with GSB Security.

As it was revealed in this reporter’s investigation, there is pretty good evidence that strange visitors have toured the campus. Since it is required that all ‘guests’ register in one of the divisional offices, GSB Security Personnel were very surprised to see Martha and George Washington, Abigail and John Adams, and John Dickinson present themselves at the Lower School ‘checkpoint’ last week. It seemed a bit suspi-cious, especially when Mr. Washington and Mr. Adams asked for directions to the ‘powder room.’ Also curious in the encounter was Martha Washington’s question if students at the school supported national health care reform. Mrs. Adams was a bit confused when she presented her NRA card for identification and GSB Security asked for a driver’s license or a birth certificate.

The most disturbing aspect of what took place at the Security desk involved a number of Lower School parents apparently acquainted with these unexpected guests, asking them to join them at their homes for tea. Security Guard Edwin’s antennae extruded upward toward the ceiling with such force that Mr. Dickinson nearly choked on the tea bag he was chewing. Regaining his composure, he asked Martha to reach down his throat to fish out the string and yank the bag out of his esophagus. Abigail, renowned radical feminist, exclaimed, “Hey, Dickinson ol’ boy, women’s work is never done, is it? Just keep in mind that when that national health care plan goes into effect this procedure will cost you more than a week’s wages!”

Following these and other leads, this reporter was able to discover that the strange ‘guests’ were visiting the History Department. Mr. Ripton assured me that their ultra-conservative approach to contemporary issues was quite edifying for many students. Some were genuinely excited by plans to disrupt the next ‘town hall’ meeting, as the distinguished visitors explained, by not shower-ing for several days, carrying quill pens and wearing powdered white wigs and large bustles, and beseeching the ‘founding fathers’ to bring down the totalitar-ian communist state just elected into office.

(Continued on Page 6)

Ken U.B. Leavethis

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Arizona and Imigration Abhi Gupta

To say that illegal immigration is divisive would be an understatement. After all, America is supposed to be a haven for all the downtrodden and poor people seeking the oppor-tunity to find success in a new land. Most people understand and empathize with the experiences immigrants in the United States, given that everyone living here who isn’t a Native American is either an immigrant or a descendant of one. However, when illegal immigration is brought up, Ameri-cans give a range of responses that range from mild sympathy to indignant anger to complete hysteria.

Here in the Northeast, being far from the Mexican border that serves as the primary entrance point for these illegal immigrants gives us a more detached perspective on the problem. But for those who live in the Southwest, illegal immigra-tion is taken more seriously. The over 11 million undocu-mented immigrants across the country compete for many low paying jobs in fields such as construction and food service, driving down wages for documented citizens, who are often lower class Caucasian people, that would otherwise fill these positions. Many people who live on the border also worry about the crimes that these immigrants can bring across. The huge battles between the various Mexican drug cartels have escalated over the years as they compete for control of lucrative border crossings and the access they give to the American market, the largest drug market in the world. The activities of the drug runners who bring drugs, and often illegal immigrants, into the US worry Americans because of the potential they have to commit crimes on the northern side of the border. These twin factors have caused growing panic for border states, such as Arizona.

Faced with this influx of illicit immigration, the federal government has tried to tackle the issue over the years. Bush reorganized all of the agencies responsible for immigra-tion and border security when he created the Department of Homeland Security back in 2002. In 2006, he, with the

cooperation of major Congressional leaders, then tried to pass a comprehensive overhaul of our nation’s immigration system, which included increased policing of our borders, along with provisions to simplify legal immigration and provide a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants already here, just as Reagan had done in ’86. What should have been a simple, easy passage quickly devolved into a bitter intra-party fight as Republicans from the Southwest went crazy over what they saw as “amnesty” for immigrants that they felt had broken US law by entering the country and ought to be deported because of it. Leaders in Congress saw it as ridicu-lously impractical to deport 11 million people and were aware

of the negative economic impacts in addition to the political fallout among Latino vot-ers, who would have been furious if such a large scale depor-tation had been attempted. And so, despite the Repub-licans’ control of both houses and the presidency, federal immigration reform crashed and burned.

Given the failure of the fed-eral government to adequately address immigration, many states have taken

the issue into their own hands. One of the ways that anti-illegal immigration politicians and activists have attacked the problem is by trying to restrict illegal immigrants’ access to public facilities and schools, with California’s failed Proposi-tion 187 from 1994 cited as the most famous example. The more successful, and visible, tactic in states’ wars on illegal immigrants have come through law enforcement. State law enforcement officers, empowered by the federal government, now take a much larger role in border patrols and detention of immigrants. By far, the most famous (or infamous, depend-ing on who you ask) is Sheriff Joe Arpio, known in Maricopa County, Arizona as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” As the elected sheriff of over four million people, his department is contains over four thousand officers and a three thousand vol-unteer posse that helps him and his police round up suspected illegal immigrants. He’s raided so many homes and arrested so many people that he’s resorted to housing them in a huge tent prison, as he ran out of room in the jails. Naturally, his policies have generated backlash. In his home state though,

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the sane voices that call his tactics excessive and repressive are drowned out by those who back his extreme approach.

This huge anti-immigrant sentiment is present in a bill Arizona passed a couple of weeks ago. Riding a wave of public discontent over the federal government’s inability to effectively police our nation’s borders, Arizona took it upon itself to deal with illegal immigration. Lead by state legisla-tor Russell Pearce, the Republican controlled legislature and the Republican governor passed a sweeping bill along state lines that made it a state felony to be in the country illegally, and gave Arizona police officers the authority to arrest anyone who they meet and have a “reasonable suspicion” is an illegal immigrant if that person cannot present proof of citizenship. This law goes beyond merely taking what is rightfully the federal government’s job to do and opens the door for huge abuses of power and widespread racial profil-ing. Empowering even the lowliest policeman to decide who is and who isn’t a citizen simply because of “reasonable sus-picion” and lack of papers is an un-American attack on our civil liberties and freedom. Any Latinos, who make up over a third of Arizona’s population, can now be arrested because they look “suspicious” to the police and may have forgotten their wallets at home. To ensure that they are not arrested, they must carry around their papers, just like South African blacks were forced to do during Apartheid. To top that off, if anyone feels their own local police force isn’t being draco-nian or excessive enough in its enforcement of the law, they can sue their police department. This provision, for all of its irrationality, is even more of an issue as it shifts the burden of policing borders and dealing with immigration issues onto local police departments, the level of law enforcement least able or suited for dealing with what is really a federal-level problem. This huge litany of concerns has garnered criticism from all sides.

Even as the bill comes under fire by everyone from President Obama to the Archbishop of L.A., who called the bill “the country’s most retrogressive, mean-spirited and useless anti-immigrant law,” there are many in Arizona who, sadly, support it. The anti-immigrant hysteria that has gripped the state’s white voters and its Republican leaders (Arizona Democrats universally opposed this bill while polls and protests show Arizona’s Latinos are equally repulsed) has spread beyond the state legislature to engulf even the once respectable John McCain. In the primary for McCain’s Senate seat, his very conservative rival J.D. Hayworth is polling well, having whipped up support among Arizona’s Republican base by accusing McCain of betraying conser-vative principles. McCain, caring more about his political future than his moderate principles and history as a maver-ick, has swung sharply right over the past months to bolster his support among the conservative, white Republicans that

(Continued on Page 10)

5Schedules Anonymous The biggest flaw that many students and faculty members will find with the school week is the schedule of class periods. The schedule is very confusing, which has led to many problems throughout the year. For example, all this year, students have been late to the class that starts after the first lunch period, all because of a typo in the original copy of the master schedule that was given to the teachers. The class starts, has started, and always will start at 12:50, not 12:55. However, students and teachers alike are still confused, because there were too many reprints and new versions of the schedule, and it was too confusing to understand at the beginning of the year. Therefore, people couldn’t both get the hang of it and remember when classes started, thus resulting in classes starting at 12:55, even though they don’t. Also, the fact that there are 45, 55, and 75 minute class periods throws off teachers and students alike. I know that there are still both students and teachers who have to ask each other what period or color a specific class is, how long it runs, or what class comes next.

However, this issue did not simply appear at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. It seems to be a problem GSB has had for a long time. Even with the old schedule, there were problems that required multiple reprints of the schedules that students got. I personally got three new schedules at the beginning of last year, and all three were identical, with no changes made between them. I would imagine, then, that there must have been problems with other people’s schedules, not mine. These problems are not solely reserved for the class schedule.

Another major problem that the administration at GSB has is the scheduling of large events. It doesn’t make sense that for all the strategic planning the school can ac-complish: getting well-known speakers to appear at assem-blies, setting up student events such as theatric performances and sporting events, etc…, the problem lies with when these things take place, and their proximity (time-wise) to each other. There are many times when sporting events clash

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A Brief Guide to Facebook Etiquette

Ever since humans invented language, we have been fine tuning what is acceptable to say in conversation. For ex-ample, in polite banter we do not discuss religion or politics. But lately (and I would argue unfortunately), communication has become less conversation centric. One of the primary instigators and beneficiaries of this shift is the Facebook, the social networking site. It is estimated that over 400 million people have a Facebook account, and a large majority use it every day. For many, Facebook acts as a primary form of com-munication. So naturally, like polite conversation, communi-cating over Facebook requires etiquette. Humanity has had thousands of years to hone conversation etiquette, and less than ten for Facebook Etiquette. So once again, I am forced to make the world a better place with my gratuitous knowl-edge (and humbleness). I present to you a brief guide on what is acceptable and what is not to do on Facebook.

Who Are You Again? (Managing Your News Feed)

I will start with something pretty basic. As you all know, Facebook has a News Feed where a user can see all of the things that their friends like, pictures of you and your friends, comments on peoples statuses, groups people have joined, etc. But as a user gains more and more friends, the News Feed gets more and more clogged. That is why it is ok to hide someone from your News Feed.

Removing someone from your News Feed is not like un-friending them, as they will be none the wiser. Removing “acquaintances” from your News Feed helps you avoid the awkward situation when you ask how your best friend’s girlfriend is and he says that they have been broken up for a month and a half already. Had you had your feed cleaned, the update on his relationship status wouldn’t have been lost in the your News Feed and that entire awkward conversation would have never happened .

STOP CLOGGING MY FEED! (“Liking” Things Wisely)

This is a personal peeve that I have to get out of the way. I should never have to see on my news feed that John Smith liked “yo homez, dat partay wuz off da hook”, “chex out dis pic of megan fox. Damn!!!”, “Soft Pillows” and thou-sands other groups my “friends” have liked. Do not become a fan of every single group or thing you see, only the things that are actually funny, ironic, or describe you and your interests. Along the same lines as that, all of those “Hey, like this page to see this picture” or “You will never guess who was caught

Scott Geldzahler(Continued from Page 1) When asked about their position on race, class and gender issues in Mrs. Summers’ course of the same name, the august group deferred to George Washington. Mr. President assured them that “slavery wasn’t nearly as bad as national health care and gender equality is a matter that Abigail had brought to rest in her famous missive to her husband asking him not to forget the women. As to class, well, that is a bit of a sensitive subject, don’t you agree? You recall, don’t you, that the ‘founding fathers’ had to meet in virtual secrecy in writing the Constitution, just in case a reporter might spread the news to the rabble that American aristocrats were issuing a new Constitution. The damn fools could hardly read or write, but we didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.”

Mr. Diamond remarked that these mysterious visi-tors seemed to be “walking backward into the future.” Mr. Roche was drawn to the buckled shoes worn by the three historic men, inquiring if they came in powder blue. But on closer inspection of the footwear he realized they were made in China under the label Nike Retro. It seems the tea bag enthusiasts could not escape the new realities of the modern world despite their efforts to turn the clock back to those hal-cyon years when men bit bullets or drank a fifth of whiskey as surgeon sawed their arms off with rusty handsaws.

As this reporter ruminated over the ideas and desires that motivated tea partiers to travel the country drumming and fifing up support for the overthrow of creeping com-munism in Washington, DC, it became clear that bullets and whiskey are cheaper than a national health care plan. So, if approached by someone in colonial costume or not, listen carefully to their plea that freedom is based on the right to a carry a gun, even into a bar in Virginia now, that the founding fathers were so prescient that they knew 200 years ago what was best for the country in perpetuity, and that a national health care plan is like shooting yourself in the foot with your concealed weapon.

I have only one thing to say to the Tea Partiers and their sympathizers:

TEA PARTIERS UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTH-ING TO LOSE BUT THE TEA BAG STRINGS THAT BIND YOU AND THAT 45 MAGNUM IN YOUR SHOULDER HOLSTER!

Tea Partiers at GSB6

kissing Justin Beiber: Like this page to find out” pages are spam in other peoples newsfeed. You can survive without seeing an obviously photoshopped picture of J B smooching a pig.

Another thing along the lines of liking things is being a smart “liker”. For example, the rule that I always use is never become a fan of things that would make my Grand-mother have a heart attack. And I really have to abide by that rule because I am friends with her, which brings me to my next point:

Pick Your Poison (Friending for the Appeasement Conscious User)

This is a tricky one, because there is a psychology behind it. If you ignore someone’s friend request, there is a chance that instead of not noticing, he or she can get quite angry at you. For instance, you are quite popular on Facebook, and James Turner friends you. Being so popular, you can’t remember who he is and you casually ignore his friend request, thinking nothing of it. But, it turns out that you and James used to hang out together in middle school, and although you haven’t talked to him in months, James thought that you and he were really close, leaving James feeling rejected and friendless when he sees you ignored him. Situations like this can be avoided.

There are a few factors of whether or not to ac-cept James’ request. One way to judge is by mutual friends. My rule is that if a person has over 75 mutual friends with you, click accept. Because you don’t want James telling that guy/girl you like (and that he is friends with) that you’re an

inconsiderate jerk. Another way to tell if you should be hovering over the decline or accept button is if you see the person a lot. If you see a tentative friend at least 3 times a week, press accept. Most importantly though, is this final rule: go with your gut. Like with every set of rules, there are plenty of exceptions, so if you really don’t know what to do, just do what you think is right.

As for friending adults: once you become a friend of one adult, you have to become a friend with all. I hate to sound like a quintessential teenager, but “adults don’t get it like we do.” So if you friend your aunt, you better be sure to become friends with your mother.

Finally, the hardest decision I hope you will ever have to make in your life: removing a friend. You should never remove a friend who has commented on something you said, liked something you said, tagged him/her self in a photo with you, inboxed you, chatted with you, or had any contact with you within the last year. Also, before you unfriend someone, make sure you check their profile to see if they will notice. It is a huge insult to be unfriended, tantamount to being exiled. As for the more personal cases, whether to unfriend an ex should be decided on a personal basis. And finally, if there is someone who has said hateful things to you, or someone who you would prefer not to be associated with, remove them as a friend.

It’s Not a Video Game, It’s a Social Experience (Using Ap-plications)

Similar to liking too many pages is playing to many games. If you play a game on Facebook (Farmville, Mafia Wars, Bejeweled, ext.), make sure that you don’t allow the game access to your wall. Contrary to what you may believe, most people do not care that you just harvested your Aloe Vera or found thirty sniper rifles. If you have another friend that likes to play the same game as compulsively as you, it is totally acceptable to form a symbiotic relationship. You water her crops, she waters yours, and everything is peachy keen. But please don’t ask random friends of friends to donate coins to your “I need a new tractor fund”.

Other apps, like Friend/Lover/Enemy/Picture/Video of the day are just spam, but they can be acceptable. It makes your profile look bad if the only thing someone sees is Pictures of the day, but at times they can be quite funny and ironic. It’s up to you.

Finally, don’t let applications get the better of you. Like all those fan pages, applications besides Social Interview will most likely give you the following statement: “Does Trisha think you are stupid? Click to find out.” These applications are what I like to call squatters. They just squat

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A Breif Guide to Facebook Etiquetteture/status update asks you to remove it, I recommend that you do so.

It is also acceptable to delete stupid comments/statuses you have posted. This is an exception to the rule about deleting comments stated earlier. Also, check your privacy settings. If you only allow close friends to see your profile page, you do not have to be so conscious of offending someone (even thought you shouldn’t say those things at all). Facebook updates the set of privacy options at your control every couple of months and it’s in your best interest to make sure they haven’t exposed more of your private life than you would like.

A little off topic, but use Formspring at your own risk. While this is not a Formspring etiquette article, Formspring has become a big part of Facebook, so therefore it deserves to be mentioned. If you have a high tolerance for insults and aren’t

scared by much, then try it out. Otherwise, stay far, far, away.

Finally, take care of your image. Like in real life, people initially judge you by who your friends are and what you look like. So as a rule of thumb, make sure that your activities (that is, what you like, who your friends with, what you post), reflect who you truly are. The “do not do anything that would give your grandmother a heart attack” rule serves as a good guideline, because the things you have on your profile stay with you forever.

I hope that this little guide will help you get out of those awkward and indecisive situations you encounter on Facebook. But as with conversation, the biggest rule is that every rule has exceptions. Always go with your gut, and ignore the rules if you see fit. Because it’s you, not someone else, who delegates who you are and what you do… damn, I just got all preachy! So I’ll just end with this: Facebook may very well be the future of interaction, so make sure you use it appropriately.

8(Continued from Page 7) on your profile, do nothing (as no one uses them), and oc-casionally give you annoying notifications. In fact, there is a good chance that Trisha allowed this squatter access to her profile long ago, and forgot about it.

To Send a Message, Or Not to Send a Message (Inbox Management)

Once in a while, a picture that you were tagged in gets commented on so much that it takes five minutes in order for you to even load the picture because of all the comments. While it is ok to remove your comment in order to cut down on notifications (unless someone else has made reference to it), there are times where the appropriate thing to do is to create an inbox. The inbox is a nice little feature in Facebook where you can have a “thread” of conversation between you and all of your friends. Threads have many ad-vantages over comments. Besides being hidden and private threads let you remove people from them, are separate from your notifications, and are much more pleasant to look at. But there are some rules about threads. First, do not clog other people’s inboxes. Only make threads between a group of close friends or a club. If you wish to tell people about a party or get a large group of people involved in a chat, event pages and groups are there for a reason. If you want to contact a close friend privately, use Facebook Chat. Chat is also a plus because the history of the conversation is deleted when both users end a chat session.

Using inboxes helps cut down on unwanted notifications, but on the other hand, inboxes have notifications of their own. If you are annoyed by inbox notifications, remove yourself from a few threads. Just understand that you may miss out on some valuable information.

Look Out for Yourself Kid (Keeping your Online Image Clean)

Last one, and the hardest to explain. I’m going to try and do this without getting all preachy and stuff. So, as many of you have heard, there are people you don’t know on the Internet (I will wait for the sarcastic gasps to finish). And as you have been told countless times, you have to keep your Internet image clean because colleges look at what you have done. But you also don’t want to look bad for personal reasons. So it is acceptable to un-tag yourself from pictures. If you are un-tagging yourself to cut down on notifications, make sure to leave a comment saying that. To continue, Make sure you don’t post pictures/say things about people that they would not approve of. And if someone in a pic-

9 It’s been 6 years and I can’t believe it is almost over. I vividly remember starting my first day at Gill: my bus made me late and as an extremely stressed, nervous, just-turned-12-year-old, I ran/stumbled my way into my 7th grade homeroom class as everyone stared. It turned out pretty good though, considering my not-so-graceful first impres-sion. Over the years I’ve learned how to dress (I came from a uniform-wearing Catholic school and started out at Gill with a rotation of 6 outfits), how to work hard, how to make new friends, and Gill gave me new experiences I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.

One aspect of Gill that has probably made the big-gest impact on my life since coming here is Unit. Unit was a completely obscure subject when I first arrived, but it soon became clear that I got to choose what I wanted to learn. I have never had a bad Unit experience, and still laugh at the jokes and memories that were created on them. I have trav-eled for every one of my high school Units: freshman year to Seattle for music, sophomore year to England and Scotland, junior year to Iceland, and my last, as a senior, to France. I never paid attention to who was going on these Units; I chose them not because of my friends, but because I learned that I love to travel.

Each year I jumped into a Unit alone and made new friends with people I didn’t expect. I went to amazing places, did crazy things (Icelandic techno concert anyone?), and had so much fun. I have countless memories that I smile just thinking about, and I loved learning about and experi-encing the different cultures as I traveled. I’ve been to music and art festivals, castles, lochs, geothermic pools, techno concerts, and met incredible people along the way.

In Scotland a few of us met a man selling scarves at his sister’s shop, as she was busy with details of her wedding. We asked where he was from and he said, “I am global, I live in this world.” He told us of the places he’s visited, the people he’s met, and some of the experiences he’s had, and how he’s captured most of it on one camera. In Iceland I met an old fisherman, who was so sweet and said “I’ve been to New Jersey once, right across the Hudson from New York.” In Seattle we met hippies at a music and arts festival and tried to get us to buy their wares as they told us about “free life”. Those are just some of the people I’ve met and just those few encounters gave me new perspective on life and what you should take from it.

While actual school has been beneficial, I think I’ve learned more and grown more as a person with each Unit trip. It has showed me that I love to travel, I can make new friends easily, I love new experiences, and I’m not afraid of what I don’t know. I think this will prepare me more for col-lege than anything a class has taught me. By learning more

The Unit Caitlyn Dougher

about others, whether its new friends or different cultures, I learned about myself as well. As I move from high school to college, I still have one more Unit to learn from and I could not be more excited… Bonjour, France!

Summer Jobs Sam Rosenthal

So my parents have been badgering me about where I want to get a job this summer, which was really getting on my nerves. I kept telling them I want to work with animals, possibly Petsmart or Petco. After searching their websites for what seemed like an eternity, I was unable to find any type of job registration section.

The idea of getting a job seems very intimidating to me since I can be pretty shy and I’m not much of a people person, and working a cash register doesn’t seem like it would be the best job for me (lets just say that math isn’t my favorite

subject). I want to work somewhere that doesn’t require me get up early because after all, its still sum-mertime.

This spring, my parents wanted me to start volunteering at Petsmart on Saturdays. I quickly dismissed this idea, arguing that I was wrapped up in doing the sophomore research paper and studying for the final exams, which were right around the cor-ner. My dad, searching for a solution to this problem, wanted me to make a list of the places I want to work at or things I wanted to do, which consisted of a whopping four: Petsmart, Petco, Taylor’s Ice Cream in Chester, and something to do with photography. A job involving photography seemed like it would have been the job for me, since taking pictures is something I can do very well. I’m wasn’t sure what job I could have gotten that might have incorporated photography, maybe something like a local newspaper.

Eventually I went to Petsmart and got a job appli-cation. It actually seems like it would be fun to work there because it is only really crowded on the weekends, and the people that work there are nice. Plus, I get to work with animals. But I hope they don’t put me by the reptiles, because I hate snakes!

10Keep It Simple: Reflections on the Research Project

Malcolm Dey

To all the current sophomores, the three words, junior research paper, may seem incredibly daunting. However, I’ve realized that the entire process isn’t as torturous as one might think. Once the sometimes unorganized lesson plans are taken out of the equation, this project is, just another research paper. In a nutshell, the process of writing any research paper consists of finding, borrowing, comparing and/or contrasting, and finally citing published works by other people. So why does the Junior research paper sound so horrific? The main reason why most of this year’s juniors complained about the entire process was that the structure of going from a topic to a final draft among the various Biology and Psychology classes didn’t keep everybody on the same page. This at times became quite disorganized, but wasn’t much of a hindrance anyway. So how exactly does one get through this behemoth of an assignment given the disorderly lesson plans?

Everyone’s seen them by now; those yellow and red books with the picture of the professor and the student on the cover that the juniors were carrying around all winter. Con-trary to what most believe, this book does simplify the process of writing the paper in a sense that it flows through the steps logically. Writing the introduction for a Scientific Literature Review before the parts of the paper that come before it sounds odd at first, but it all makes sense in the end. Just fol-low the book’s steps, consult it and the librarians when you’re confused, and understanding the process will be much easier. But what has to be the most annoying, tedious, and frustrating part of writing this paper? Everybody thinks paren-thetical citations are annoying, but have you ever wondered what it would be like to have to place citations in the middle of a sentence after certain terms? Though this doesn’t exist in the awesome world of English papers and the MLA format, it is commonplace in many a scientific literature review.

Another noteworthy point is the fact that critical essays and analyses of books not only circulate through more accessible source types such as printed anthologies, but they are also possible to understand by almost any high school student, even if the dictionary or lit notebook is needed from time to time to clarify those complex literary terms. However, open up a scientific literature review and the very title of the docu-ment may be absolutely incomprehensible to everybody. This is simply because of the fact that scientific literature reviews are meant to be thoroughly read and understood by an incredibly small group of about thirty scientists with the collective knowl-edge close to that of an all powerful deity. By now you must be thinking, “How will I possibly write this paper?” All that can be said is this, don’t worry about it. The process really isn’t

that awful even though it may definitely seem that way from the outside looking in. Just stay on top of the work, follow the book’s instructions, go to the librarians for help whenever needed, and writing the junior research paper will be an easy task. It may require hours of time and effort, but finding good sources and information isn’t impos-sible. One final crucial point to note, especially for all the students who can’t stand science and would rather read Shakespeare for five hours than be within twenty feet of a lab report, is to remember that this still is a paper you can pick a topic about. So be sure to pick one that interests you greatly. Sure, it’s a long paper, but picking your own topic makes the research ten times less painful and in some cases genuinely interesting. So remember, pick a topic you like, be organized with the work, get help whenever needed, and put in some solid effort. These steps will produce a genuine research paper with the possibility of a bit of fun in the pro-cess of writing it as well.

Arizona and Imigration(Continued from Page 5)will be voting in the primary. Now this wouldn’t be sad if Mc-Cain had a record of being an overtly racist anti-immigrant politician who always hewed close to the party line, but

McCain’s entire persona is built around him being a maver-ick who’s not afraid to push unpopular measures, like when he and Feingold pushed for campaign finance reform or his work with Ted Kennedy on the ’06 immigration bill, both of which cost him politically. He’s used his maverick status

11An Open Letter to the Students of GSB Charlie Beck

Dear Students of GSB,

As I leave Gill at the conclusion of this year, I know that there are a few things that I will leave behind: a photo in Hockenbury, the lasting memory of a debate in Mr. B’s civics class, no legacy, and the record for the least amount of days spent at school during the 8th grade. How-ever, none of these things really matters. What does matter is the impression that Gill has left on me. That is why I have made a list of the nine most important things I’ve learned during my time at GSB:

1. Don’t Take Anything For Granted: Always respect what you’ve got, even if you want something else. Just make do with what you’ve got.

2. Realize the Impact a Corny Joke Can Make on a Crappy Day: I might’ve had a terrible class with Dr. V, but once I entered Mr. Sumliner’s room, and heard him tell a joke, my day began to not look so bad.

3. The Nurse is Here to Help: Never be afraid of the nurse. In general, nurses are usually the nicest people that you will ever find, and the same holds true for the nurses at Gill. They take care of you when you feel like crap! And they are always ready to have a lengthy conversation with you.

4. Go to Open Mic Night: The thirty minutes I spent at the open-mic nights were probably the most fun I’ve ever spent in the café in Hockenbury. Plus, if you’re in Mr. Lutz’s class, free extra credit never hurts!

5. Take a Walk on the Outskirts of the Campus Dur-ing Your Free: It’s quiet by the stream, and it’s one of the only ways to get away from it all.

6. Support the Robotics Team: Most of you probably don’t know much about what goes on with the robotics team, just the occasional announcement at assembly. Why don’t you find out more? Talk to Mr. G, go to the competi-tion, or even join. It’s more fun than you think.

7. Don’t Let College Scare You: Especially don’t let college effect what classes you take in high school. Don’t take a class just because of the fact it looks good on your college transcript, take it because you actually are interested in what it teaches. However, if you do take a course you hate, don’t complain, because it was your decision to take it.

8. Become Friends with Seniors: They’ll look out for you, check up on you, and be there for you if things

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Have an OPinion You Want to Share?SubMIt to the VOIce!

in the title of one of his memoirs and even built his whole presidential campaign around the idea of him being willing to do what he knew was right instead of what was popular. In supporting this bill, McCain has betrayed that fundamental principle, putting his reelection ahead of his values.

Beyond whatever short term benefits McCain and the Republicans may draw from this measure in the upcom-ing election, in the long run they have dealt themselves a huge blow. While this bill may bolster Republicans’ support among anti-immigration groups and white, working class voters whose jobs are most affected by the increasing immigrant competition, the party is likely to suffer down

the road as they alienate our country’s fastest growing block of voters: Latinos. While Caucasians still make up the major-

ity of today’s America, in the decades ahead, their share of the overall population will decline as the effects of immigra-tion and a low birthrate compared to minorities change the makeup of the American electorate. Both Republicans and Democrats have tried to secure the support of this crucial constituency over the last decade, but with the Republican failure on immigration reform in 2006 and the association of prominent, inflammatory anti-immigrant politicians and movements like the Minutemen, the Republican Party may have driven Latinos toward voting Democratic. In the recent ’06 and ’08 election, Democrats won a significant majority of the Latino vote. Conscious of their vulnerability, Repub-lican national leaders, such as minority leader McConnell, have disavowed the state-level Republicans, knowing that polls show that Latinos are speaking out in overwhelming numbers against the bill. This creates a huge opportunity for Congressional Democrats and the President to move ahead with their own immigration bill.

For all of the Constitutional issues and racist un-dertones of this bill, its passage may be a blessing in disguise. The sheer scale of its moral, legal, and ethical transgressions gives our Congressmen an opportunity to craft a new over-haul of immigration at the federal level that will address the underlying issue of illegal immigration once and for all.

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just suck. Plus, you’ll have a friend in college next year, and that’s pretty cool.

9. Just Be Who You Are: There’s no point in hid-ing who you are; it’ll come out eventually. Besides, being different is what keeps us sane.

Well, I’m finished here and I’m off to Westminster in the fall, hopefully learning even more life lessons. However, it’s these lessons, the ones that I learned at Gill, that will make me a better person in the future. Good luck being sophomores, juniors, seniors, and college freshman.

Sincerely,

Charlie Beck

An Open Letter

1. Junior Research Paper

Follow the simples steps and you will be just fine… and maybe ask the librarians…. and Mr. Stil and/or Mr. Wen-dell…. and maybe your parents?

2. SAT’s / ACT’s

A test with a 3-letter name decides the next 5 years of your life. YAY!

3. The immense amount of homework

You gain a personal relationship with your local Star-bucks baristas for those extra caffeine boosts

4. Talking about college so much you think your head will explode

Every relative, family friend, or any person you talk to asks about what colleges you are considering or have vis-ited, but it never ever gets old listing off the schools and explaining why you chose them. Everyone’s input counts, right? I really took twice-removed Uncle Bob’s advice to heart, along with the woman in my neighborhood who is fondly known as “the crazy cat lady”. I’m sure the applica-tion process is the same as when her kids were applying to schools forty years ago, just like she says

5. Talking about college to the point of panic but not being able to apply for another whole year

I love checking collegeboard.com at 5 A.M. for SAT scores that I know will just make my day.

6. You’re in classes with seniors and you now have senioritis because of them

Who doesn’t love the false sense of relief you have, fol-lowed by the feeling of impending doom when you real-ize that these final grades are crucial? I know I do

7. The new Kyleigh’s Law stickers add that fun color to your license plates you knew you were missing

I really want to take this time to thank the state of New Jersey for brightening up my license plate in ways I never thought possible. Oh and I also want to take this op-portunity to say hi to the nice man in the white van who follows me home because of the gorgeous, red-orange stickers.

8. Social drama reaches an all-time high

Congratulations you have made it this far and are done with all the drama! Oh wait, we have another year left together. Cherish it for all it’s worth!

9. Loading up on AP classes for next school year knowing you will hate yourself for choosing them next year

AP Physics sounds awesome, Thanks Mr. Bostian. A social life? Who needs that? I know I don’t. I only need Facebook and my favorite Starbucks barista as my pals.

10. Personally not caring about anything, even though it is your most important year

RVCC/ CCM bound. Who’s with me? Homework, who needs it? Test grades are just fun numbers for decorating the page, lucky number 13 anyone? Using “Eeney meaney miney moe” to pick your multiple-choice answers. Guitar Hero or pretty flower designs to bubble in your Scantron, anyone?

The Perks of Being a Junior (Or Not) Rachel Sherman and Brendan Connell

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(Continued from Page 5)with arts programs, times when arts programs happen at the same time as extracurricular clubs, times when extracur-ricular activities clash with sports, and basically every other combination of every other type of activity that GSB has to offer. Now I know this appears to be an article directed at the confusion and waste that the scheduling process at GSB causes, but there are far greater implications of the above mentioned problems that lead to conflict in the lives of GSB students. The school is advertised as having activi-ties that meet every one of its student’s interests, and this is factually correct. However, with the major disaster that is coordinating these interests, students cannot feasibly pur-sue all their interests while still maintaining their academic standing or health. For example, there are activities run by the arts that feel like they need a bigger audience. The issue is not that people are not interested in what they have to of-fer, it is that they are somewhere else that they want to be at that time, and cannot do both. The same is true for sports that feel like they have no following, or in some cases, have no following. Another common occurrence is when two events happen at the same time, and involve a student or students that have key roles in both activities. For example, on April 28, a member of the choir who had a solo in that night’s concert was also committed to the baseball team,

who needed him for a big game they had scheduled that day. He ended up going to the concert and singing, because, as it turns out, the concert had been scheduled for a much longer period of time than the baseball game, and so this student’s prior commitment was to the choir. Thankfully, it happens that at least the theater and choir departments always make their schedules together, so conflicts can be kept to a minimum. Granted, sports have their own rules, and GSB does not have any control over tournament matches or championship matches, but the rest are in their power. The example I previously cited about the baseball player was concerning a match that was scheduled by the school.

What this conflict boils down to is a lack of efficiency on the part of the school. We need someone who is good at time management to set up the way things will happen, because otherwise it is left up to the students, who should be being taught time management skills anyway. Since the scheduling problems are not likely the school’s sneaky way of teaching students to take these matters into their own hands, it is up to the administration to remedy the situation. If the theater and music department can make sure their schedules gel, why can’t sports, academics, arts, and other extracurricu-lar activities get on the same page too? It would make everything much easier, and it would lead to a reduction in the amount of phone calls to the school by parents, which would be a good change for everyone.

Schedules