jparishy

[edit date=may 21, 2009] Hey, everyone. During my daily after-school routine (Ice Tea + IRC Backlogs), a buddy of mine noted that I had a few fallacies and I just wanted to update this post in order set some things straight.[/edit]

If there is anything that I’ve learned from my ripe, old age of 16, it’s that in my youth I was an idiot. I was probably the most stubborn, disobedient, and rude child you had ever met. Along with this came my inherent dose of ignorance, which I used quite effectively.

I used to think I had opinions of my very own. Ideas that I had come up with, and not stolen from one of my elders. I used to think I had experience in this world. I used to think I was always right.

And please don’t misinterpret that; I still have the arrogant, elitist personality. I probably always will. It’s my persona. Just ask any of my friends and the classic response would be something along the lines of: “Julius? He’s a hater.” (This usually gets me pretty angry, however. I’d try to counter the statement, but they would probably just use that as additional evidence so I subdue the temptation.) Anyway, just note that the difference between me now and 5 years ago is that I currently acknowledge my attitude.

I don’t know everything. But I wish I did. I enjoy learning and processing new information. If that includes some minor side-effects then so be it. And I hope that in another 5 years I find this page and read it to myself so that I can continue to understand how I work and continue to improve myself.

With that being said, I just wanted to bring up an old topic of choice: The Pledge of Allegiance.

When I was a young boy floating precariously through middle school I used to come up with opinions on all sorts of controversial topics, be it abortion, the war, and in this particular case, the Pledge of Allegiance.

I know it’s a bit of a early topic from this millennium, but the fact that it seems to have died down is upsetting.

All American schools are required by law to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning (or at some point) in school.

There are two clear reasons while this requirement is ridiculous:

1. It wastes valuable time. On average it takes 12 to 15 seconds to recite the PoA. That’s over a minute per week; 4 minutes per month, and 36 minutes per year. Over the course of the average high school career, a student will spend over 2 and a half hours saying the PoA.
2. It is religiously bias.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America,

and to the republic

for which it stands:

one nation under God,

indivisible,

with Liberty and Justice for all.

Cosmetically, the simple statements seem fine. They just constitute the mood for the day: you are in the US, the greatest country ever. However, our founding fathers, as revolutionary as they were, decided to slip in one very important claim: we are a nation which operates under the protection and/or supervision of God. [fix]The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. It did not become the national pledge until 1942, 50 years after it was written. The words “under God” were not included until the 1950’s.[/fix]

There are two interesting contradictions here. The first being that the implied existence of a god is against the first amendment. The Bill of Rights was designed to take away the power from the government and give it to the people. Part of this was to allow anyone to choose their own methods—or lack there of—of religious practice. For the first time in a large society, religious freedom was a basic right, unlike the rules in Europe at the time.

The second issue here is that this also counters the separation of Church and State. Public schools, and education all together, are state regulated. They are financed by the taxpayers and ran by state officials. Because of the direct affiliation with the government, public schools should not be exempt from the rules. By reciting the Pledge of Allegiance we are allowing de facto traditions of the US that would otherwise be illegal to continue.

And it’s been like this for many, many years. The Constitution was built with the religious tolerance in mind, but they neglected to see that they cannot favor Christianity just because it is the majority. Besides, who knows how long that will last. With massive influx of immigration and emigration and different cultures intertwining with our own, Christians will have their hands full trying to keep up with the changes. One cannot make decisions based on the expectation of one religion dominating another in the years to come.

How the Supreme Court does not understand this is beyond me. If we want this country to get back to its prime we need to take baby steps. One fix at a time; one goal per day. Attempting to go the easy way out will almost always end in failure. Reforming our laws is the way to start. By disabling the Pledge we would just be one step closer to the image of the country we were supposed to be and farther and farther away from the monster we are becoming.

So, I just want encourage you to consider skipping the Pledge of Allegiance the next time your are in school. You are legally allowed to sit out during the Pledge and I want you to do so. The fastest way to make a point is a public, tangible expression of opinion.

Save our country. Skip the Pledge.

Have a good one.

-Julius Parishy

When I was younger I always believed that growing up would be a great experience. I was eager to become an adult, to explore the perfect world seen in all the movies and T.V. shows I had seen. I wanted to go to work, to make money, to get started on life as early as I possibly could. Little did I know that when you are twelve-years-old you do not know know everything in the entire world. 

I’ve had the dream of finishing high school with a 4.0 GPA and going on to a fancy, expensive university for a very long time. I’ve always wanted to go on to do better things than the the rest of family, which mostly consists of factory workers and and other small-time jobs. When I was very young I aspired to be a fireman, just like any seven-year-old boy should. After that I wanted to be a writer, then a teacher, and finally a lawyer. My most recent venture into Careerland has been game development, a choice I’ve stuck with for the past three or so years. I like playing games and I like making them even more.

The be a successful game programmer there are a vast amount of topics one must fully understand. They range from problem solving to calculus and from logic to wizardry. Typically, these attributes are the result of a major in Computer Science. So recently I’ve been rummaging through propaganda from various no-name colleges and universities and googling several others. On this voyage I am to an amazing realization that I was completely unaware of until now: getting an education sucks.

Now, let’s clarify. Education itself is a wonderful thing. Knowledge is power and it is important that one soaks in every drop of information he or she is exposed to. There is no point in life if you don’t take advantage of everything this world has to offer. Without knowledge and experience, our lives would be meaningless.

Of course, that’s why colleges and universities exist: to educate the future generations of the world. And I think that as the first schools were created they honored this intent. However, at this point in time I feel that their current motives are much less pure.

So here are list of things that the process of getting an education has showed me.

• Schools only care about money — In this world money controls everything. The rich are the powerful and the rich are never fair. Schools look for candidates that will make them the most money. The schools who cater to the rich will only ever cater to the rich. Schools like MIT and Harvard charge insane amount of money for a “better” education. If education is so important, why make a better learning environment available only to the people that can afford it, rather than the people who deserve it? Surely enough, the phrase “you get what you pay for” comes to mind in situations like this. But how can you put a price on knowledge? How can education be sacrificed to our material value systems? How can a dollar be traded for facts?
• The government only cares about money — As an underage citizen my purpose can be summed up very easily: learn enough to be able to pay your taxes in order to protect the country’s income. It doesn’t matter what I learn, what major I proceed with, or what title I carry. If I am not making any money, I am worthless to the government, and essentially the world.
• Schools are superficial — My guidance councilor has stressed on multiple occasions that I need extracurricular activities. She thinks that I should join a sports team or a club. She has even tried to list a bunch of them that she thought I would like. The list was long, but a few of my favorites were: computer club, writing club, football, or DECA. First off, I don’t like playing organized sports, for various reasons. Second, school clubs are a joke. Clubs exist to appease colleges’ and universities’ requirement for the oh so important extracurricular activities. I’ve flirted with the idea of joining a club several times. However, my final verdict remains unchanged. Clubs are made for superficial people who want have the club on their resume for a superficial school to look at. The way I see it, if I don’t like something and it doesn’t appeal to me then the sole fact that a school will like it is not enough for me to join a club I have no interest in.
• Standardized tests suck — The idea that a single aptitude test is enough to determine the fate of someone’s academic career is preposterous. This world is comprised of so many different, unique people that it is pure insanity to think that a single test is enough to decide if someone should be accepted into a school. Some people aren’t very good test takers and judging there potential based on a score on a test could be detrimental to their future. If a single test is enough to disqualify me as a candidate to my preferred school than maybe that school isn’t for me. Standards are great things, they allow a single way for similar things to be represented, analyzed, and interpreted. Unfortunately, the human mind is not a data protocol and shouldn’t be treated as such.

I’m sure as my search continues I will run into even more issues with my future that I can scrutinize, but I guess that only time will tell.

-Julius Parishy