January 2010 Volume 6 Issue 5

SOLO PIECESAn Obama Guantanamo

Roxanne RahnamaPage 5

Health Care BillTommy Huang

Page 9

Sports are Fun… Right?Corey Breier

Pages 12-13

No ExcusesMax Lipxcomb

Pages 13-14

Pirates vs. NinjasKevin Yang

Pages 14-15

The DroidSaurabh Radhakrishnan

Page 16

iPhone vs. DroidScott WeyPage 16

THE REGULARSCopenhagen Conference

Page 4

Finals Before BreakRobert Chen

Page 5

Political CorrectnessAaron Guggenheim

Page 8

Chari tDelivering Gunn’s Culture and Politics

T H E

CAMP EVERYTOWN PAGE 10Photo: Priya Ghose

TO BE OR NOT TO BE...VACCINATED PAGE 5What You Should Know About... H1N1Brittany ChengPage 6

H1N1: Swine FluAlice LiPage 7

Vaccine InjuredYoyo TsaiPages 7-8

Vaccinations Save LivesDaljeet VirdiPages 8-9

An Everytown ExperienceBrian ZhangPage 10

The True Value of EverytownAndrew LiuPages 10-11

Exclusive Inclusivity Max LipscombPages 11-12

Editors-in-ChiefRobert Chen

Aaron GuggenheimSenior Editors

Ben Bendor Andrew LiuSarah Zubair

Copy EditorsAndre GarrettTommy Huang

Graphics/LayoutBrittany Cheng

Scott WeyAlexandra Yesian

CirculationJacob Guggenheim

PublicityPriya Ghose

Contributing WritersRon AcknerYoni Alon

Arjun BharadwajNeil BhatejaCorey Breier

Will CromartyNaor DeleanuHenry GensTara GolshanJames GuptaAnish JohriRyan LeeAlice Li

Max LipscombJeff Ma

Sam NeffSaurabh Radhakrishnan

Roxanne RahnamaHina Sakazaki

Yoyo TsaiDaljeet VirdiIan WilkesKevin YangStanley Yu

Ethan YungOmer Zach

Kevin Zhang

Foundation/Group Sponsors

Adobe SystemsDaughters of the American

RevolutionPalo Alto Lions Club

Palo Alto Roller-Masonic Lodge

Patrons ($100+)Lauren Michals and Vinod

BharadwajSteven Guggenheim

Shirley Zeng and Yajun LiuSponsors ($50-99)

Contributors ($21-50)

Special thanks toAdvisor, Marc Igler

2 January 2010

Dear Readers,We would first like to welcome you to the new year and also thank you for your continued readership and support. It means a lot to all of us who work on putting The Chariot to-gether that we have people who are actually interested in the reading the magazine.

This issue, our focus shifts to Camp Everytown. In light of the return of recent Every-towners, we wanted to evaluate it: discuss pros and cons as well as talk about what exactly goes on in this mysterious woodland camp. Also, in our new issue is a discussion on swine flu and a debate over the benefits vaccinations.

We hope that you enjoy this new issue and as always, keep an open mind and write us if you want your opinion on what we have published heard.

Until our next release in March,Aaron Guggenheim and Robert Chen

Editors-in-Chief

About UsThe Chariot is intended to create and promote political discussion at Gunn and make peo-ple aware of issues that matter. We ask that you respect all opinions which are reflected in our publication, and write letters to the editors if you wish to voice your opinion. The views expressed do not reflect that of The Chariot, but rather those of the individual writers.

The Chariot was originally founded in 2004 as the Partisan Review by Gunn alumni Ilan Wurman (‘06), Channing Hancock (‘06), and Sarah McDermott (‘05).

Visit our website, www.gunnchariot.com if you wish to view any issues from previous years or for more information about us. Any questions, comments, suggestions, or requests to join can be sent to gunnchariot@gmail.com

If you’d like to make a donation or subscribe, please send checks to:

Marc Igler Re: The Gunn Chariot780 Arastradero RoadPalo Alto, CA 94306

Checks can be made out to Gunn High School with “The Chariot” on the memo.

The Chariot

You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and

gentleman. – Colonel Quaritch, Avatar

I know that the American people will appreciate their sacrifice. I pray that

the government they serve does the same.– Unnamed US official, in response to the killing of eight Americans in an Afghan CIA base bombing

Those who fell yesterday were far from home and close to the enemy,

doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism.– CIA Director Leon E. Panetta

The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean

peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship; between North Korea and the US.– Statement issued by North Korea

We are at war, and when President

Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe.– Former Vice President Dick Cheney

British Man ExecutedIn a surprise move on December 29, the Chinese gov-

ernment executed British Akmal Shaikh via lethal injection for drug trafficking . He was the first European to be ex-ecuted in China for nearly 60 years, inciting a firestorm of criticism.

In September 2007, Saikh was arrested for carrying 4kg of heroin, with possession of over 50 grams resulting in

death. After 30 minutes of deliberation, during which Saikh was not allowed to plead insanity, he was sentenced to death. His family claims that he was mentally ill and had been tricked into carrying to drugs by a gang.

The case was sensitive to both Chinese and British gov-ernments. The Chinese are tackling growing heroin problems in the Xinjiang providence near Kazakhstan, and it brings up memories of the opium war begun by the British a century earlier.

The British are incensed that Chinese judges refused to allow Saikh to be evaluated mentally for the claims that he had bipolar disorder and delusions. The court backed its decision, stating that it had no reason to suspect Saikh of mental illness because he had no previous history.

His execution was con-demned by many around the world, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, “I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.”

Bombing AttemptIn an attempted bombing on December 25, Umar Farouk

Abdulmutallab tried to set off explosives on his flight, in-bound to Detroit from the Netherlands. His plan was foiled as nearby passengers noticed him and took him down. He had attempted to blow up a syringe full of PETN, an explo-sive used in the past by terrorists, which he says he received from an al-Qaeda bomb maker in Yemen.

Immediately following the attempt, airport security was sharply increased. Among the changes implemented were increasing the screening, limiting passengers to only one carry-on, and restricting movement around the plane for the last hour of the flight.

The government’s no-fly list has come under scrutiny for failing to be effective in blocking Abdulmutallab from boarding the flight.

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3January 2010

The World in a Blurb

“““““

Akmal Shaikh

Health Care Bill Clears SenateThe new 871 billion dollar health-care bill was finally

passed through the Senate. It promises to expand coverage from 83% to 94% of legal residents. The provisions of the new Senate health-care bill make it so that by 2014, insur-ers can not deny customers coverage due to a pre-existing condition and that employers must provide affordable health care coverage to their employees or face penalties. The senate bill also makes for a state-based health-insur-ance exchange that would enable people without employee coverage to become covered. It is estimated that by 2019, some 30 million people will be covered under this option. But, under this new bill, there will be no public option. The differences between the Senate and House health-care bill still need to be hammered out before Obama signs the new bill into law. Obama hopes that this new bill will be signed into law before his State of Union address in Janu-ary.

Pope Attacked As Pope Benedict XVI

delivered his Christmas Day address, a woman bypassed Vatican security barriers and knocked down the Pope. The 82-year-old pontiff was thrown to the floor, but was unhurt and was able to continue the services. The assailant, an unidentified Swiss-Italian woman known to have a history of mental illness, also attempted to get to the Pope last year at his Midnight Mass.

She is now in the custody of the Vatican police who are now reviewing security procedures to find out how their perimeter was breached.

Iran ProtestsOn December 30, Iranian government backers demon-

strated support for their leaders in Tehran. Iran has faced days of intense anti-government protests after the govern-ment tried to restrict funerals for Hossein Ali Montazeri, an important Shi’a cleric and anti-government figure. Mr. Montazeri was originally designated as the successor to his mentor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but fell out of favor with Khomeini as a result of disagreements over hu-man rights abuses.

These protests take place in the holy month of Mu-

harram, which for Shi’a Muslims recognizes the martyrdom of one Hussein, a relative of Muhammad and leader of the Shi’a movement. Some protests have become violent, though it is unclear whether this was before or after aggressive police action, which overall has killed 8 to 10 people.

Furthermore, the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hos-sein Mousavi was killed in an apparent assassination. Some protestors have been using religious language tied to the month of Muharram, likening Supreme Leader Khamenei to the killers of Hussein.

What’s That?Copenhagen Conference Leaders of 192 nations met in Copenhagen, Den-mark, from December 7-18 to find an international consensus on how to tackle global warming. The leaders agreed to a statement of intention that generally fell short of expectations of the summit, and United Na-tions climate change official Yvo de Boer said that the accord, while “politically incredibly significant,” did little to advance the treaty process from where it was two years ago, when countries pledged to reach a binding agreement in Copenhagen.

The deal, written by only five countries (including the United States), includes provisions for major emitters to cut emissions, to help developing nations develop expensive clean-energy technologies, and to aid states vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but none of these measures is legally binding. “We have a lot of work to do on the road to Mexico,” said de Boer, refer-ring to next year’s conference in Mexico City.

Even this small deal required substantial political maneuvering and was stalled by differences between developed and developing nations, as well as long-held mistrust of the United States, which remains the only “Annex I” industrialized country that has not ratified the decade-old Kyoto Protocol. Different blocs, in-cluding the developing Group of 77, African Union, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and developed countries, made the debate difficult and impassioned. A Sudanese delegate even compared the effect of the accord on poor nations to the Holocaust.

The World in a Blurb(Continued)

The Chariot

4 January 2010

The Chariot

5

An Obama Guantanamo

Roxanne RahnamaContributing Writer

Soon after his inauguration back in Jan-uary 2009, President Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. With this order, the Presi-dent asserted that the Cuban prison, which has been operating since 2002, would be closed within the next year. He also reit-erated the point that the closure process would not be a simple task, citing the re-location of the inmates as a primary chal-lenge.

President Obama proposed the poten-tial relocation of Guantanamo inmates to facilities on US soil as a possible solution. This tentative course of action would only begin after thorough investigation of the legal, logistical, and security issues at hand.

Many concerns and questions have been voiced since the closure of Guanta-namo Bay was first ordered, ranging from where those charged would be tried to where those freed would be sent. Then, there is the issue of the 250 confirmed and 21 pending detainees accused of be-ing connected to terrorism.

To this day, 215 inmates remain behind the walls of the detention center, while approximately 565 have been released or transferred out of the prison. Of the transferred prisoners, only one was relo-cated to the US. He is presently anticipat-ing his trial in New York.

There are also about 65 cases which have been deemed feasible for prosecution in federal courts or by military commis-sions. Furthermore, 78 inmates have been

cleared for discharge by a government task force.

At the rate that the closure process is moving, it is clear that the deadline will be considerably prolonged. Nonethe-less, President Obama is still resolute in his decision to close Guantanamo Bay. Despite his continuous efforts, there are several underlying factors that have ham-pered the speed and efficiency of the process.

One key factor is the resistance of many countries to take in the detainees. Obama has not been able to persuade other nations to harbor the prisoners. This refusal to accommodate the de-tainees, however, is rather justified since Washington will not accept them on US soil.

According to a Columbia Law School professor, Mathew Waxman, “It’s very difficult to persuade third countries to accept the political or security risks in-volved, especially when the United States has been unwilling to accept that risk it-self.”

Thus far, there have been a very few European nations that have agreed to take in detainees, including Portugal and Ireland. Another cause for delay is the pending decision of where to try the 40 to 60 prisoners accused of terrorism.

In spite of the obstacles standing in the way of the successful closure of Guantanamo Bay, Obama has made some improvements since he took office. The detention center’s population has been diminished by a few dozen. In addi-tion, Obama’s administration announced that five of the most high-profile inmates who were supposedly engaged in the September 11th attacks, would be tried in a New York civilian court.

In the end, the blame for the delay of closing Guantanamo Bay cannot be directed at a single per-son or nation. Ultimately, the collaborative support of both Congress and US allies in the world are required to terminate the existence of the unjust prison camp.

January 2010

Finals Before Break

Robert ChenCo Editor-in-Chief

Simplify the school calendar by making finals and the end of the first semester before Winter Break.

With this, we would get an actual “break” free from worries of im-minent tests and last-minute grade-boosting. Without these nagging thoughts, we could enjoy a truly re-laxing break.

It is inevitable that students for-get much of what they learn over the break. Everybody knows of the slight brain leak that happens every weekend. And Winter Break is a fourteen day weekend.

The ban on homework over the break has been ineffective because it is too easily bypassed. Many teachers assign the work for January instead, hinting that much of it should be completed over the break.

Why not give us another way to start anew come the New Year?

Gunn Update

The Chariot

6 January 2010

Brittany ChengGraphics/Layout

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7

H1N1: Swine FluAlice Li

Contributing Writer

Since its outbreak in Veracruz, Mexico, in March of last year, H1N1 has driven people and governments across the globe to scramble for cover. Some of this agita-tion is justified; everyone is susceptible to the new viruses that cause flu pandemics. Since pandemics typically come in two or three waves, the world will still have to be alert and wary in the coming year.

Bird flu frightened scientists into look-ing out for possible new pandemics, so we were well prepared for one at the outbreak of swine flu. There is already substantial knowledge about the H1N1 virus and the progression of symptoms. We know that the majority of the infected will be the young, who will recover completely and quickly after experiencing only mild symp-toms.

With only 12,121 confirmed deaths, H1N1 currently causes only a fraction of total deaths from influenza. Some, such as those who are pregnant or have underly-ing conditions, will be at increased risk, but the virus will not come close to being as deadly as the 1918 Spanish flu, which left over fifty million dead.

Future disruptions from H1N1 will be brief, lasting only four to six weeks, but ar-eas that had evaded infection are likely to be affected in the next wave as it falls from the northern hemisphere to the southern.

The pandemic will continue to overtax the world’s healthcare systems. The few who will need intensive care will place a large burden on already overstretched hos-pitals, while the uneven distribution of vac-cines (with most concentrated in the richer Western world) and the limited number of

vaccines will ensure that several billion go without needed vaccinations.

It is the developing world, areas with-out the adequate infrastructure, supplies, or sanitation, that will fail to provide medi-cal care and will suffer the most from this pandemic.

Vaccine Injured

Yoyo TsaiContributing Writer

As flu season comes around, the spread-ing H1N1 virus takes the vaccine debate to a whole new level. Even though most people in the world believe in the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine, oftentimes there are reports that say otherwise. I do believe in the improving medical world and I hope to join it soon after college; however, I refuse to inject within myself with dead viruses for a flu vaccine with relatively little efficiency.

The immune system of anyone is lim-ited to the extent of how much white blood cells can be produced within a cer-tain amount of time. With a deadly new virus going around, there’s simply so much panic spreading that rationality disappears. While there are numerous vaccines with proven usage and efficiency, the flu vac-

cine is least studied and tested. Within every couple years, a new strand

of viruses spread the world during “flu season.” From experimentation to test tri-als to distribution of new drugs and vac-cines, the process can take years for it to be approved by CDC. Then how reliable can a new flu vaccine be?

In order to measure efficiency, trials must be done to imitate what would most likely occur in reality. Taken directly from the label of the flu vaccine FLULAVAL, it says “…and there have been no con-trolled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with FLULAVAL.” No controlled trials mean no proven statistics on the efficacy of the new vaccine and why take a vaccine with no effect?

The American Medical Society con-ducted a study that showed only 1 out of every 100 people are actually prevented from getting the flu after getting a flu shot. Simply said, all that the scientific studies have shown us are the relatively little scien-tific studies done on the flu vaccine.

When commented on the relatively little efficacy of a flu vaccine, health care offi-cials simply say that it takes approximately three weeks for the vaccine to go into ef-fect, meaning that there is still a strong likelihood of getting the virus even when you believe that you are protected. How-ever, there are still two points in which health officials do agree on.

First of all, vaccines are made in ad-vance and scientists must predict the strain of a virus that will emerge nine months ahead. This can only be accurate to some extent, further decreasing the efficacy of the vaccine.

Secondly, even if the virus and vac-cine do match, the response is not 100%. Ironically, those who need the protection

January 2010

TO BE OR NOT TO BE... VACCINATED

the most (the sick and elderly) are least likely to get a protective antibody response.

As both sides of the extreme pile facts, statistics and outrageous claims upon the average American, it is hard for someone to decide whether a vaccine is worth it. While sym-pathetic that it really is hard to come up with just the right flu vaccine that works on most everybody at the right time, health officials and pharmaceuticals simply push the vaccine upon us and hope that we’re protected, going on the little substantial evidence that it may work.

With the accumulating ridiculous amount of side effects that could result and little proven data, I would find it hard to believe in the current medical knowledge on flu vaccines. Sometimes it’s better to let the course of nature run its path.

We were given bodies with sufficient ability to protect our-selves; thus, there’s simply no need to dash off towards a flu vaccine that may end up doing more harm than good.

In Defense of VaccinationDaljeet Virdi

Contributing Writer

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of a serious reaction to the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine is approximately one person every million vaccinated. In the 1976 Swine Flu vaccination, approximately 48 million Americans were given the vaccine. Of those 48 million, 532 de-veloped a serious life threatening disease. That means one out of every 90,226 people was infected with a serious life threaten-ing disease.

In the 1970s, media reporting of the adverse effects of the whooping cough vaccine led many parents to not give the vac-cine to their children. The caseload for the whooping cough rose dramatically—there were 100,000 more cases from 1977-1980. Only when confidence in the vaccine was regained was there any significant drop in the number of cases.

Vaccines are not perfect, but they are useful and have made a positive impact in the health of our community. The greatest benefit is the collective protection built up by mass vaccination. The benefits of preventing suffering and death from serious in-fectious diseases greatly outweigh the risks of rare adverse ef-fects following immunization.

Vaccines have been very successful since their creation. Mass vaccinations have almost completely eliminated polio and have

The Chariot

8 January 2010

Political CorrectnessAaron GuggenheimCo Editor-in-Chief

Political correctness is defined as narrowing the range of acceptable opinions to those held by a small group that enforces them. It makes any ideas outside of those considered politically correct thought unacceptable.

I am all for ridding the world of derogatory opinions that hurt or oppress people. I believe that it should be wrong for people to use racial slurs and the like. But, I want for everyone to loosen up a little bit on being politi-cally correct.

Being politically correct does not mean that you are be-ing right and should not be used as justification for doing something wrong.

For example, when enslavement was legal, it was viewed as being politically correct. Freeing the slaves was thought of, by those who held them, as a derogatory view and therefore, an evil.

But, slavery is wrong and by making it politically cor-rect, it was protected and nurtured. Only when those who thought independently, outside of the acceptable public opinion, was this injustice righted.

The other problem with modern political correctness is the oversensitivity with which people adhere to it. A recent example would be when an author tried to publish a book based off the classic fairy tale about the three little pigs. The book was judged unsuitable because of concerns about offending the Asian community and the cultural issues the subject matter raised.

This is a ridiculous example of strict adherence to po-litical correctness overriding simple logic. The author was trying to get his book published, not hurt people.

The short of it is, be politically correct when the mat-ter being discussed is derogatory, but don’t let strict ad-herence to being politically correct blind you.

Evaluate each side’s opinion, whether or not they are considered to be politically correct, and don’t become so oversensitive that it limits our freedom of speech. Inde-pendent thought is the cornerstone of freedom from op-pression.

Just because they say it’s good, doesn’t make it so.

The Life

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9

helped eliminate smallpox, which had been killing every seventh child in Europe. Ac-cording to research published in Time Magazine, vaccinating all U.S. children born in a given year saves an estimated 33,000 lives and prevents 14 million infec-tions.

But opponents of vaccinations claim that these figures are flawed—that the suc-cesses in the field of health are not due to vaccinations. Some argue that a reduc-tion in overcrowding and poor sanitation is the true reason for the successes; others say that immunity given by vaccines needs booster shots and is too weak to stave off harm. They say that surviving a disease is better because it gives permanent immu-nity.

But proof that vaccinations are dan-gerous, rather than ineffective, is hard to come by. Many other times, the stud-ies that point against the effectiveness of vaccines are conducted in flawed manners without accounting other biasing factors.

It seems most logical to conclude that vaccines, though their effectiveness is am-biguous and depends on many factors, is a positive safeguard that should be used.

In fact, there is much evidence that shows the negative consequences resulting when there are no vaccinations. In 1873 in Stockholm, due to religious objection, people stopped taking vaccines.

Consequently, later that year, a major smallpox epidemic took off. The epidemic ended when there was a rise in vaccine us-age.

Just recently, in the early 2000s, a con-servative leader in Nigeria spread suspicion of western medicine, namely vaccinations. Consequently, polio reappeared in dozens of previously polio-free neighborhoods and Nigeria now accounts for over half the polio cases in the world.

With the H1N1 virus looming, a vac-cine shot is a good idea. Data shows that it is very rare to get a serious reaction from the shot and that otherwise, getting the shot is extremely beneficial.

So, it is my sincere suggestion that you walk into your local hospital, hold tough, and get your shots.

Health Care BillTommy Huang

Copy Editor

President Obama has said that his num-ber one priority was to fix the health care problem in America. Clearly, Obama has kept his promise in that respect, as he has been fighting for the passing of the health care bill since mid-July.

The bill narrowly passed through the House of Representatives on November 7th by a 220-215 vote, and has recently passed through the Senate. Each of these were hard-fought victories for the health care bill due to unanimous Republican op-position. But is this health care bill really what this nation needs?

Only minor details were altered in the Senate and the House, with only slight discrepancies as to which year each plan would be implemented. Obama’s $871 bil-lion health care bill not only has been held most-ly intact, but also seems to cover everything that he planned for.

There are plenty of long-term benefits that won’t be taken into effect until 2014 or later, while there are also plenty of short-term benefits for the impatient. Republicans have claimed that this health care bill is a type of layaway plan, where money is spent now and benefits are seen later. Also, if no benefits are seen early, it could cause unrest in the American popu-lation for seeing no change arise from the elevated taxes they are seeing.

Health care coverage would vastly im-prove under this new health care bill, as it is expected to increase coverage of legal Americans from 83% to 94%. The bill does this by requiring Americans who cur-rently do not have health insurance to take the government-run health insurance plan.

Originally, there was to be the public

option, meaning that the uninsured indi-vidual could have a choice to go with a private competitive plan or with the gov-ernment plan. However, this option was removed in the passing of the health care bill through the House.

By requiring health coverage, this will help millions of Americans who have never had health insurance finally get the coverage that they need to pay off regular physicals, doctor appointments and pre-scription drugs.

In addition to this, the new health care bill will give cheaper, more affordable health insurance to those with disabilities and those who have an extensive medical history. Private health insurance compa-nies have shied away from providing cov-erage to such individuals due to the huge cost of keeping them under plan, but the new health care bill promises to give them affordable health care and protection in the case of an accident.

Obama plans to accomplish these hefty feats through in-creasing the ex-cise tax and lay-ing a heavier tax on those with higher income. All in all, the health care bill, despite its huge e x p e n d i t u r e over the next few years, will actually decrease the debt that the government has

amassed in the long run. In addition to limiting the income tax

deductions that the affluent claim, employ-ers and companies will also be required to help pay for health care for their employ-ees.

The health care bill may not be perfect, but the Democrats and President Obama are taking a strong step in the right direc-tion. It has been a goal of the Democratic Party since FDR to accomplish some sort of national health insurance.

Obama is admirably making his number one priority come true for many currently uninsured Americans.

January 2010

An Everytown Experience

Brian ZhangGuest Writer

“A stranger is only a friend you haven’t met.” This quote from Camp Everytown epitomizes my experience at this year’s camp. Everytown fosters a community of openness where attendees build friend-ships and develop personal pride.

Camp Everytown is a program developed by Silicon Valley FACES that serves many local high schools including Gunn. This year, Gunn sent around 70 students, whom were nominated by staff members and previous student campers, to the camp. They board buses on a Wednesday after school and return Saturday afternoon.

Everytown is in some sense a utopia. Retreating into the Santa Cruz mountains, the students and staff participants are iso-lated from the demands of school, so they can focus on the time spent with others.

Confidentiality of specific camp pro-ceedings is stressed to protect those who share and so future campers can have a firsthand experience, without having had the activities spoiled by a friend.

To create an open environment, stu-dents are encouraged to sit with new peo-ple during meals and give hugs. Though the attendees represent a diverse popula-tion of the student body, their common Gunn background draws them together. Staff members are able to share insights from a different stage of life. Discussions of the activities performed take place in large as well as small groups so individuals can feel comfortable sharing.

Let me give an overview of the themes discussed at Everytown without reveal-ing too much. First, there is the issue of racial stereotypes. By hearing how others have struggled to cope with the stereo-types placed upon their race, the campers are more motivated to halt the circulation of these messages, starting with their own words and actions.

However, I often hear eliminating rac-ism cited as the primary purpose of Every-town, yet I feel it falls short of summing up what the program accomplishes. Rather, I

think Everytown works toward the goal of build-ing personal pride, and so stereotypes are covered for the reason that they dimin-ish the self-worth of those who don’t fit the general-ization. By looking past their prejudices, the at-tendees can see each other as they really are, and over the course of the camp this creates a very tangible atmosphere of acceptance.

Everytown also addresses gender ste-reotypes. This discussion focuses on the messages we hear from TV, music, and those around us about men and women’s proper gender roles, and how they have made us feel.

A third topic is family values and rela-tionships. I feel we are generally hesitant to talk about our families with others, but Everytown brings this issue out into the open. By communicating this area of their lives, students can feel supported by their peers despite possible family flaws.

Through these personal discussions and the time spent with others, it should be of no surprise that most attendees make many new, close friends. When the camp draws to a close, it is hoped that these con-nections can be sustained to provide en-couragement to those who need it.

The True Value of Everytown

Andrew LiuSenior Editor

When I returned from Camp Every-town several weeks ago, I found myself looking at life through a different set of lenses.

Society’s problems—violence, stereo-types, and prejudice—were no longer re-moved from me like the tragic, faraway stories on the national news, and I became keenly aware that social barriers and biases continue to divide and misguide us.

Even here in the United States, a repub-lic founded on principles of democratic equality, we are troubled with discrimina-tion and ingrained stereotypes despite the substantial progress that we have made in the past two centuries.

It is exactly this awareness and motiva-tion to change that Everytown sparked in me. While it is a stretch to say that Every-town completely changed my life, Every-town certainly did transform my perspec-tive and kindle inside of me a new fire to inspire.

Everytown has had similarly profound effects on many of the other student par-ticipants, as well as Gunn and community facilitators, and has empowered many of them to bring the message of acceptance to the communities around them. There is no doubt that Camp Everytown is an invaluable positive force, not only an eye-opening experience for the individual par-ticipant, but also an engine for change in the community.

Everytown largely benefits the partici-pants through several facets. First, Every-town makes participants aware of the bi-ases around and within them, shows the impacts of prejudice in violence and social divisions, and helps to dispel these biases in the individual. But on an even larger

The Chariot

10 January 2010

CAMP EVERYTOWN

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11

scale, Everytown develops honesty and leadership by fostering open communica-tion on traditionally suppressed subjects like racism, sexism, and family relation-ships, and empowering a community of leaders to reform the problems around them when they return.

All the while, participants bond tight-ly with their peers and teachers and face the social reality that is often eclipsed by the academic and extracurricular rigor at Gunn. These components make up the cliché “amazing experience” that is Camp Everytown. In many participants, the change from those four days of camp re-mains for years in character and behavioral changes, simply because the experience is so unique and stirring.

But Everytown also advances the com-munities of those whose lives are touched by the experience. Gunn, which has par-ticipated at Everytown many years, enjoys a tolerant community atmosphere, as evi-denced by the harmony within a diverse student body, organizations like the Gay-Straight Alliance, and events like Not in

Our Schools Week. Everytown plays no small role in this, by inspiring returning students to reach out to the estranged, mix groups, break down barriers, communi-cate honestly, and lead by example to positively influence others’ behavior.

Everytown’s ben-efits, however, extend far beyond the school community. Every-town participants re-turn to their families, sports teams, church-es, and other social groups with the same intent – to spread the message of social justice. They become especially power-ful agents of change among their close friends, families, and mentors, who are all

more inclined to listen to more intimate calls for change that start from right within close circles.

Additionally, Everytown is one “of the most effective crime prevention programs we have,” according to police chiefs across the Silicon Valley. Everytown is instrumen-tal in tackling violence that often emanates from ignorance or prejudice, and strives to stop the cycle of crime and abuse among youth, during a crucial period of develop-ment.

Some say that Everytown, in pursuing a message of inclusivity, unintentionally ex-cludes those who are not chosen, starting as early as the selection process and ending with the close-knit community that forms afterwards.

But the reality is that only so many stu-dents can attend Everytown in a given year and that “exclusion,” if judged by this un-fair criterion, is inevitable because there will always be some students left out. Fur-thermore, Everytown students return to actively break down barriers and make it

a goal to reach out to include those who do not go, leading to more inclusivity, not exclusivity.

The nomination process, contrary to what some see as exclusive, is a result of the limited number of students Gunn can send to Everytown. It chooses students who will get the most out of the program and make an impact on the community.

One image of Everytown that stuck with me occurred on the first school day after camp. Many of us had been uncom-fortable returning to reality after living in a near-utopian community for four days and rising to impossibly sublime heights. But then, during that first brunch, I saw several of my Everytown friends greet-ing people that they had never met before, smiling at and hugging each other and oth-ers that had not gone. To me, this vignette is the spirit of Camp Everytown, one that is undeniably a positive force in our com-munity.

Exclusive InclusivityMax Lipscomb

Contributing Writer

I want to add a small disclaimer before I start this article. My purpose is not to de-grade Camp Everytown in any way. I sup-port both the camp’s purpose and practice and I would have gladly attended it myself.

While it is admittedly tough to have a friend return “significantly altered” after a few days in a forest, I think it is a testament to Camp Everytown’s general success that only a handful of alumni over the past few years have spoken badly of the camp or its activities. Unfortunately, there is not enough forest for everyone and the camp’s continued exclusiveness impedes its goals of acceptance and understanding.

It is difficult not to notice the numerous pieces of camp paraphernalia sported by the newly graduated alumni in the weeks following Everytown. Though appreciably reduced this year, the sight of friendship necklaces, name tags, and T-shirts bear-ing the camp’s name proclaim differences created where there were none a few days

January 2010

Priya Ghose

prior. Unfortunately this unification comes at

the expense of the school’s solidarity as the student body is temporarily split into two factions: the campers and the non-campers.

Many of our peers whom we have known for months or years prior to their camping escapade return from Everytown and start to criticize the use of words they had used not a week before. They no lon-ger laugh at jokes they previously found hilarious because these same jokes have now become inconsiderate and politically incorrect. They now look at the world through rose-colored glasses with hopes to change it for the better, despite the fact that Gunn students have been attending Everytown for over a decade.

While these changes are good at face value, I think the problem, which most students have found is that an exclusive group begins to preach inclusiveness with the expectation that their Everytown ex-perience will do nothing to bar the under-standing of other non-attending students.

Apart from being paradoxical, it tends to create division between campers and the rest of the student body. This brings me to my main problem with the camp: admission. I’m not bothered by the “su-perior” actions and attitudes of returning campers because they are rooted in nomi-nation-based admittance.

Telling people they have been selected for something from which their fellow classmates have been excluded bestows a certain feeling of advantage, often seen as a sense of superiority. Although nomina-tions are completely sensible for academic based school activities, Everytown and is not, in the words of my fellow writer An-ish Johri, “an experience for everyone.”

Replacing the nominations with a first-come first-serve or lottery system would eliminate the perceived superiority and the disconnection between groups of stu-dents. There would be nothing separating a camper and non-camper other than the fact that the camper had signed up or been favored by chance. No more supremacy.

Other than providing equal access, this system would give Gunn students with the most interest in the camp the opportunity

to attend it. After all, those people should stand to gain the most, as they’ll be recep-tive to the camp from the get-go.

No matter from which angle I analyze the admissions process, I see no reason for the continued use of the nomination system other than the inclusion of certain individuals who teachers may feel “need” the camp.

However, to say that the system should be interest-based is not to say that teachers cannot make recommendations or that a small number of spots could not be put aside for teachers to nominate those indi-viduals who would be especially affected by it.

This year’s Everytowners have done a good job in attempting to correct what many Gunn students consider to be an undeniably undesirable experience in deal-ing with the demeanor of returning Ev-erytown students. Despite this effort, little further improvement can be made without the adjustment of this camp to a model which unifies the entire school, and not only those who attend it.

Sports are Fun… Right?

Corey BreierContributing Writer

I have been a busy athlete throughout my high school career. Not quite as busy as I could be, perhaps, but I believe that I have sweated enough to earn the “jock” label.

My sports were drastically different from each other: lacrosse made me run, water polo forced me to swim, and wres-

tling taught me to stay completely alert while exhausted. But all three were similar in one respect: they tried to take over my life.

It wasn’t always blatant, except when it was. My lacrosse coaches would make off-hand references to “Fall Ball” that implied that everyone on the on-season team was still playing lacrosse in the off season. In that respect, it wasn’t forced upon us.

Wrestling was similar, but not quite as expected: Coach Horpel would simply keep us aware of off-season wrestling op-portunities, but he didn’t tell us to specifi-cally attend them.

It was water polo that was the most overt. I remember my coach telling me sophomore year that I would be drastically hurting my future prospects on the water polo team if I did not join the swimming team. “I hate swimming!” I would say, “Why would I ever join the swim team?” “To get better, of course,” was always the response.

Now, it is at this stage that we enter a slippery slope of priorities. I root for Gunn teams of all kinds (I would hope that goes without saying) and wish them the best. But there is a fine line between necessary team conditioning, and conditioning that only exists in order to make us win more.

For example, could our water polo team, with harder and longer practice, have gone farther in the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament? Certainly.

But would the payoff be worth the effort,with the loss of sleep, decline of grades, and general student stress that would follow? No.

There may be certain students who would welcome such a tradeoff, but my bet is that the majority of athletes would not. The coaches always say, “You’re students first and athletes second,” but a rigorous program of season-long, four-times-a-week, 6:00 AM morning practices does not seem to jive with such a statement. One should not have to choose between sports and schoolwork.

Here in Palo Alto, we are fortunate to have access to world class athletes to teach our young athletes. We get Stanford coach-es of all kinds who volunteer their free time in order to enrich our lives. Our new

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12 January 2010

Robert Chen

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football coach has already been named Coach of the Week by the 49er foundation. Our own Athletic Director Chris Horpel is an All-American and Pac-9 Champion wrestling champion. When our previous water polo coach (who played on the US National Team as well as professionally) stopped coaching in order to raise a family, we found new ones who had played on top tier college teams.

We could not ask for better coaches. These men and women know their sports intimately and love them – which makes these mentors uniquely qualified to bring that love of the game to the next genera-tion.

But that may be exactly the problem. These coaches have grown up with

their sports, competed at the highest lev-els, and given their all to athletics. But here at Gunn High School, I hope I speak for more than just myself when I say that my highest priority is not becoming a better (fill in blank) player. I don’t plan on play-ing in college; I don’t even play in the off-season. I play sports to have fun. But that mindset seems to have become defunct somewhere in the past few years.

The goals of playing a sport are now to win and to get better so that some college

will offer a scholarship. Both of these are great goals to have, but they are not neces-sarily goals that all of us share.

Sports are supposed to be recreational and fun. We live in a world where sports are also professions, which is fantastic for both those talented enough to play profes-sionally and for those who love watching them play. But we would do well to re-member that at the high school level, we are not playing to earn a living.

We play for many other reasons: for sportsmanship, for a workout, for enter-tainment, or for self-improvement. But there is no one reason why we play. All coaches should remember that.

No ExcusesMax Lipscomb

Contributing Writer

Despite America’s place as the “rich-est” country in the world, presidents dat-ing back to Eisenhower have been repeat-edly calling for an end to budgeting and spending as the American people have now come to know them. Years of swip-ing credit cards and overdrawing bank ac-counts have cemented in our minds that credit can be considered as good as cold, hard cash.

Just as the average citizen of our coun-try has the ability to finance everything from a house to a new plasma screen tele-vision, our government has been able to get seemingly infinite loans on new mili-tary technologies, health care, and social security.

This has created a culture of debt, en-couraging excessive borrowing while is-suers such as Countrywide and Bank of America made unprecedented loans to the riskiest candidates without a second thought. Cue October 2008 and the col-lapse of Lehman brothers, initiating the crisis which has brought the economy to the forefront of every American’s mind.

As our total debt nears ten trillion dol-lars, the question has been increasingly asked: Will America ever become debt free? Well, no, we won’t, and in my opinion we shouldn’t. Low levels of federal debt are beneficial to a country because they can keep borrowing rates low, and, when combined with slight inflation, offer favor-able interest nullification. Before anyone breathes a sigh of relief or disregards this article for its lack of importance, I want to clarify that we still have a problem.

Though the average person might not know it, a stop by Wikipedia or the Con-gressional Budget Office’s website will re-veal that our fiscal situation is much worse than advertised, and that if action is not taken soon, irreversible damage will be caused to our economy and livelihoods.

Unfortunately, our debt is not low and looks as though it will keep on rising. Cur-rently, the national public debt stands at around 70.2% of our GDP, which by itself

January 2010

Sterling Hancock

is not terrible. However, appropriations such as the stimulus package, while neces-sary, have contributed to a sharp increase in our projected debt, which is now pre-dicted to rise to 15.7 trillion dollars (100% of our GDP) by 2011. Furthermore, our fiscal hole, or our total money owed which will eventually be due, will total more than 60 trillion dollars in the same year.

Now take that into account with the re-mainder of America’s economic standing; we are superpower in decline with an unfa-vorable balance of trade and a weakening currency threatened with replacement as the world’s reserve standard.

Up-and-comers such as China, India, and Brazil threaten to outpace us in pro-duction in an increasingly competitive market through their low labor costs and government support to the private sector. The United States cannot be expected to be a legitimate competitor in this market if it is tied down by public debt greater than the country’s economy as a whole.

The necessity of alterations in this country’s fiscal policy is unequivocal, but the past 40 years have given little hope for American budgetary sustainability. Allow-ing debt to continue its pileup will even-tually create political instability as less and less of America is owned by its own peo-ple, and international powers compete for their own interests in our country.

Printing money will only depress the dollar and harm not only our economy but that of the entire world. The answer to this complicated question is incredibly simple, increasing my frustration with lack of suc-cess on the subject. The seemingly elusive answer was articulated well by the chair-

man of the Concord Coalition, Robert Bixby, who said, “budgets are like a diet,” you have to ensure that you take in and let out the right amounts.

To help do so, United States Citizens must demand reform and truth from our politicians. Health care was our most ex-pensive budget item in 2008, making its recently passed reform crucial to cutting our spending. Social security and tax re-forms must follow however, and for them to be successful, the public must ignore the politicians telling them they can have their cake and eat it too, instead supporting those who are truthful and honest.

Just because a man is president does not mean that he can enact numerous pieces of expensive legislation while magically cutting our budget. The money has to come from somewhere.

Our predecessors’ practices may have proven successful in the short run, but in a longer stretch they will have disastrous results for America and its people. In our youth it is easy to ignore these problems or even be completely oblivious of their existence, but we must acknowledge that this debt will one day become ours.

Eventually, we will be the ones owing foreign countries trillions of dollars, and we should begin taking the steps reduce those trillions now. The best thing to do is register to vote when you turn 18, then actually vote and make educated decisions when doing so. Our debt is the largest long term challenge facing the United States by far, and if it is resolved, we will succeed in the future. But to reap that eventual ben-efit, we can accept no excuses now.

Pirates vs. NinjasKevin Yang

Contributing Writer

Turn on the TV, pull open a newspa-per or continue along this page and you will read, hear, and learn about conflict. Conservative vs. liberal, Republican vs. Democrat, Stanford vs. Cal. Our lives are rife with the constant collision of opin-ions. A great number of these questions hold solutions to significant problems in the world. Each side has staunch propo-nents and vocal critics. All have two things in common: neither position has been conclusively proven wrong and people get very angry defending their beliefs.

So, in the spirit of holiday togetherness, let’s take a look at an unresolved conflict to which everyone can relate and over which no one loses sleep, and maybe we’ll learn a bit about ourselves.

No, I’m not talking about intervention-ism vs. independence, or sleep vs. grades, or Edward vs. Jacob. I’m talking about the millennia-old battle between forces of questionable good and evil.

On the left, you have your ragtag band of seafaring brutes. Armed with every-thing from swords and arrows to assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, pi-rates have sailed the seven seas since man learned to float on a log. These ex-landlub-bers have fought for everything under the sun, from England and Queen Elizabeth to coastal protection from encroaching nations. They are numerous and disorga-nized, as it takes little more than half of a man to make a pirate. Peg-leg technology has made quantum leaps over the years, after all.

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14 January 2010

Marcus Hadlock’s Pirates vs. Ninjas

Up-and-comers

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On the right, you have the stealthy, se-cretive ninja. His tools include the ninja star and the trusty blade. Legend has it that ninjas can disappear into thin air and climb walls with no tools. Most are well-honed survivalists, and some are rumored to be even capable of magic. They are hard to spot and even harder to kill. Motivated by gold and gold alone, the ninja’s loyalty is, and has always been, tied to the coin. Ninjas are few and far between, but make up for their scarcity with training and dis-cipline.

Instead of postulating ludicrous theo-ries about each faction’s unbeatable strate-gies as we are wont to do, let’s look at the facts. The pirates win the size battle—re-cruitment is easier because the entry re-quirements are lower. Ninjas, however, are more disciplined and better trained—there is no pirate handbook, and pirate clans are small and fragmented. Ninja stars, howev-er accurately thrown, cannot hope to com-pete with automatic and explosive weap-onry. That, and there are also no known records of ninjas swimming. However well ninjas fight, pirates are simply too numer-ous and too well armed to overcome deci-sively. Neither side is capable of annihilat-ing the other.

When facts fail to provide the desirable outcome, people and pundits turn to rea-son. If you can’t win on the physical field, why not claim victory morally. “It can’t be done without sacrificing our humanity! It’s irresponsible and immoral!”

Neither pirates nor ninjas can claim higher ground. Pirates may fight for a wor-thy cause, but their methods are inherently disruptive. Ninjas may follow strict spiri-tual guidelines, but they exist to break the traditional rules of engagement.

At the end of the day, neither party can claim superiority. Both ninjas and pirates still exist at varying levels of visibility and functionality, and there seems to be an un-spoken non-aggression pact in place. Like most other conflicts, there is no immediate resolution. Roles will shift and the debate will evolve. Like Whigs to Republicans, and Republicans to Democrats and Dix-iecrats to Republicans, in a hundred years space pirates will be battling cyber ninjas.

Unless the ninjas spike the rum.

Motorola DROIDSaurabh Radhakrishnan

Contributing Writer

After years of disappointment, it’s about time that Motorola came up with a phone that’s really worth buying. Yes, they had the Razr, but after that, their phones really haven’t been in much demand. Now, they’ve come up with something that might just be able to compete with the iPhone. Motorola has paired up with Veri-zon and Google and released the DROID, one of the few phones which runs on the Android operating system.

This is where Google comes in. For the people who aren’t tech nerds, Android is the operating system for cell phones that has been created by Google. Much like the iPhone software, you can create and down-load apps for your phone.

The major difference: Android is open source, meaning the source code for the operating system is freely available, and Google encourages people to improve the code and submit it back into the commu-nity.

The phone itself is quite a seductive piece of work. Unlike many of the new phones, it doesn’t have the smooth, round curves. Instead, it is all hard edges and angular slopes. It fits perfectly into your hand, and it has a sensuously heavy heft to it. Combine that with the soft-touch mate-rials and the cold highlights, and the phone is sleek and definitely a must-have.

It has two parts: the keyboard and the screen. The 3.7 inch screen completely covers the top, filling from edge to edge.

Surprisingly, the DROID lacks multi-touch in the United States, but a version of

the DROID released in Europe does have mutlitouch, so we know it is completely multitouch capable. The second layer has a QWERTY keyboard that is again, against convention. Unlike the silky snap back most phones with a QWERTY keyboard have, the DROID requires a bit of force to open and close.

The top of the phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a power/sleep but-ton, along with a 5 megapixel camera with flash. It has picture and video capabilities, both being better than that of the iPhone.

In addition, it has a 16 GB music ca-pability. The speakers on this baby are amazing. They are definitely louder and clearer than the iPhone. They really make it worth the effort of putting music onto your phone.

The best part of the DROID is that it can multitask. On the iPhone, you have to kill one program to go to another, but for the DROID, you can keep multiple pro-grams open. It’s like a computer, except considerably sleeker.

The “app store” for the DROID, called Android Market, doesn’t have the same caliber of apps the iPhone does. For apps, developers are necessary, and for develop-ers, publicity is necessary. The iPhone de-veloper ecosystem has a 3 year head start, so it will be difficult for the Android de-veloper ecosystem to reach that level, but I think that in a few years, it is possible.

Price wise, the DROID is exactly the same as the iPhone. $199 with a Verizon contract or $599 without the contract.

So you may ask, why should I buy the DROID over the iPhone? For now, there is no comparison, and the iPhone is better, hands down. But because this is due to the number of apps, buying a DROID phone will be well worth it when the developer ecosystem for Android becomes consider-ably better. So go out, find a Verizon store, and try out the new Motorola DROID.

January 2010

Which one is the ninja?

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The Chariot

16 January 2010

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