Six seniors met with Trojan Talk after school on Jan. 23 to give their opinions on current issues. Representing various cultural, racial and religious backgrounds, the students showcase the diversity that is Lincoln High School.
Is Lincoln a diverse school?
ANGELA: Yes … when you walk down the hallway there are white people, black people, Asians, Hispanics … everybody hangs out with everybody, too. They’re very open.
CARA: (shakes head) I don’t think race is the issue as much as academic progress: the little math kids and us theatre kids by ourselves. … It really has nothing to do with race. We’re all very open with each other’s races.
KEVIN: I don’t know if that’s racism, but people just hang out with people that are familiar to them. It’s kind of a subconscious thing.
Do you believe in God or gods or none at all?
KAFUI: If there wasn’t some higher being that created everything, everybody wanted to believe that we all came from a primordial soup thing and evolved and became monkeys or some (junk) like that, it’s fine with me. But I believe I was created by someone called God.
HENRY: I’m actually agnostic. I don’t know if there is a God that exists or not. I’m completely unsure on that. But I don’t think you should smash evolution like that. ... It’s just the way some people think. It’s in their mind because they’re analytical people and they just see things like that. ...
KEVIN: I believe in God. But I believe that God created science. And God created the process through which evolution and science occur. Therefore, there is no differentiation between God and science.
CARA: I am pretty much on the atheist side. I was hard-core Christian, but then I sat down and said, “Wait a minute.” Nothing good happens when I pray. Nothing good happens to me. It all stays the same. I kinda figured no one is really listening to me. Maybe someone created us. Maybe someone created the universe. I don’t really know.
Abortion — Period.
HENRY: Dude, chicks can do whatever they want. Dude, it’s a woman’s choice. ... I completely believe in a person’s responsibility in themselves. They should get to say what they want to do with that child. Well, that and the person who … uh, helped (all laugh).
KEVIN: Uh, I have a comment. Personally, I believe that a woman should have a right (to do) what is dependent on her body, but, let me be the devil’s advocate for a minute, who draws the line between an abortion and a child killing?
ANGELA: I am completely against it. You made the choice to have sex. ... Every person has a purpose, and I think when you take someone’s life away, even if it is at the very beginning stage, you may have ended something amazing that was supposed to happen. ... It’s not their fault.
Do you feel as if the school is a safe environment for everyone — nationality, gender, economic class, sexual orientation?
HENRY: We have a trade-off between our safety and our own freedom. So if we want no knives, we’re going to have to have more metal detectors.
ANNA: That’s just going to make people want to do it even more though.
KAFUI: It’s going to be like a challenge for people. “Well, if I put a knife in my shoe — .” It’ll be like a game, seeing how much stuff they can get into the school.
ANNA: It doesn’t really cross people’s minds to bring something like that until you say, “Well, I guess people are bringing knives and guns to school,” so it’s just going to make people think about it more.
Underage drinking
KAFUI: I don’t think it’s a smart idea giving us an actual age limit saying at this age you can drink but the day before it’s illegal. That’s just stupid. I mean, if you’re going to drink, you’re going to drink whether you’re 75 or 17.
ANGELA: If you’re old enough to vote on the drinking topic, then you should be able to partake! My sister’s 20. She gets so (ticked) off when she goes to the ballot and she sees stuff about which alcohol should be banned. She thinks, “I don’t even get to partake! Why should I have to vote on this?”
ANNA: Alcohol prohibition. If they look at statistics and see that when the alcohol prohibition thing came out more people drank whenever it was illegal because they couldn’t do it. Everybody likes to be a rebel. Then when they took it away, it lowered.
CARA: Punishment doesn’t keep you away from it. It actually just makes you want to do it more.
HENRY: What else is the government supposed to do? Are they just supposed to allow everything?