Jarvis JargOnline 2001 - 2002: Editorials

(What's so Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding
By Kate Ranachan

Mixed Race
By Tema Smith

Reading Between the Lines
By Raki Singh

(What's so Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding
By Kate Ranachan

The events since September 11th constantly remind me of an article written by a Uruguyan writer named Eduardo Galeano.

He wrote, "In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people that get killed." I can't help but think that Galeano may be right.

This should come as no surprise considering that the struggle of Good against Evil has been taking lives for centuries.

The Crusades were fought on the premise that Muslims were bad and Christians were good. In the 1972 Munich Massacre, Jewish Olympic athletes were killed by Palestinians terrorists in the fight between good and evil.

Even here in Canada we are not immune. During the Second World War we put the Japanese in camps because they were considered to be evil.

The terms good and evil are thrown around without knowing what they mean. They are just words that are used to justify any conflict.

How else can we explain why someone can be good one minute and bad the next? Was Osama Bin Laden not considered good when he fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970's and 80's?

Prior to the terrorist attacks, September 11th was already a historic day. It was on this day in 1973 that a military coup backed by the United States overthrew the democratically elected socialist government in Chile.

These battles were all fought by different people in different parts of the world, but they all have one thing in common: the loss of innocent lives, the torture of innocent people, loss of dignity for a nation.

Recently while watching a documentary about what happened in Chile, I was struck by how these victims of torture spoke about dignity, the dignity they have found in surviving.

They can hold their heads up high because they have survived whereas as those who tortured them must hang their heads in shame. None talked about revenge.

They didn't see things in terms of good and evil. They were able to see a middle ground--compassion and forgiveness.

As long as we see every issue as black and white or good vs. evil, it will be harder to find peace anywhere. But I guess this is why forgiveness and compassion are harder to come by than vengeance and retribution.

It is much harder to try and understand your enemy than it is to shoot him.

My only hope is that soon the world will see more clearly. That after all the bloodshed we have seen in the past century and even in this new one, the world will learn that answering violence with violence is no solution at all; it only leaves more people dead. Or as one person spray-painted on a wall near the World Trade Center, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

Reading Between the Lines By Raki Singh Reading period was introduced this year to Jarvis. Silent reading is not new program as it has been already implemented in other schools in Toronto like Bloor Collegiate and Essex Middle School. It was started at Jarvis after results on a questionnaire from the Grade Ten Literacy Test indicated that a lot of younger students don't read at all or read less than half an hour a week. The purpose of the program is to encourage literacy, a skill that is required for university and the work place. But what does Jarvis think about the program? The articles the Jargon received from students (mostly seniors) at the beginning of the year were highly negative. The initial reaction from these articles seemed to say that they felt they were being forced to read. However, this wasn't an accurate representation of the whole school. Recently, a survey was distributed to the department heads and they were asked to give it to their different grades. The survey sampled more then 10% of Jarvis's population. The response was generally positive. There was roughly a ratio 3 to 1 in favor of the reading period. The comments were interesting; many students pointed out that the time was appreciated as they could study notes for tests or catch up on English class reading. Students also seemed to enjoy the peace and quiet the program offered. There were other comments as well; many students pointed out that people used the time for sleeping or that teachers used the time to teach longer into the period. Students also complained about not being allowed to go to the bathroom. So what is going to be the fate of reading period and literacy? For one, there are going to be discussions to move the reading period to the morning instead of the afternoon. Secondly, a committee has been formed to assess the literacy results and work on new programs. This committee has teachers from many different subject areas, including math and science to encourage literacy across the school. Also, the recent Jarvis Reading Program Questionnaire may hold the key to many of the changes that could occur to the reading program. But ultimately, only time will tell if reading period will be a success. Mixed Race By Tema Smith For all my life I've been called a "white girl." It's a label that I have lived with for all of the eighteen years I've spent in the world. I guess it comes along with my light skin. However, it rings false; or at least it does to me. I, like many others in the world, fit into the "biracial" category. That's right, the "other" on the census form and other applications and surveys. The invisible minority. People look at me and automatically assume that I have a white father and a white mother. But that's not my family. Sure, my mother is Caucasian, but my father is African-American. Black. Not white. When I tell them this, I am usually questioned. "Are you sure? Maybe he's not your real dad." Sometimes I am even corrected. "You're not black. You're white." People stare at me with doubt flashing through their eyes. "If your dad is black, how come your skin is so white?" they ask. I don't know how to answer that because I honestly don't know. I don't understand how genetics work. What I do understand is that I am sick of people defining my race by what they see and hesitating to believe me when I tell them my background. My race. It is not only skin colour that people base their assumptions on when it comes to race. It's also attitude, intelligence, and even taste. How many times have we heard someone referring to hiphop as "Black" music, and sometimes even accusing a white rapper of having an "identity crisis?" Called that guy sitting at the back of the class with his Fubu sweater and big headphones "ghetto"? Decided that the person with the highest mark in that calculus class is Asian? And that the highest mark in English went to someone white? A racial identity has often been predefined, and those who question or deviate from it are labeled as posers, outcasts, or disrespectful to their 'people.' It is disturbing that it has come to a point where a person feels uncomfortable sharing his or her background with people for fear that he or she will be questioned. It frightens me that people assume automatically that skin colour is race and that attitude, intelligence, and taste should fit the stereotype of a person of that faction. To this day, every time I hear someone refer to me as a "white girl," I remember a day in the second grade when two of my other mixed-race 'friends' (who had the skin colour to prove it) cornered me in the schoolyard as my father walked away, taunting me. "You're white! You're white!" they chanted. I ran out to the street and after my father, crying. He sat me down, upset that people had already started to doubt my racial background at the tender age of seven, and said what was to become my mantra. "It's not what they think you are that counts. It's who you are."