Op-Ed

Colleen Tanona '22 The United States was one of the first countries to adopt modern representative democracy and, as a result, set many precedents for the expectation of democracy, which is a government run by the people. This stands in contrast to a monarchy, a government run by a family. One of the main things that the United States set a precedent for was the peaceful transition of power between two different candidates, regardless of party affiliation. Essentially, this calls everybody to facilitate the transition between presidents, including parties, citizens, and the candidates themselves. This concept of a peaceful transition…

Anika Goyal '23 According to the Chinese government, the COVID-19 outbreak is now contained, but many are questioning whether this information is true or not. With the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China,, there was a significant amount of  censorship and lack of transparency regarding the virus. SARS was only reported to the World Health Organization three months after it was actually discovered. People now suspect that similar issues are happening with COVID-19. A lot of research and data regarding the pandemic and its origin is not being publicized. Recently, the Chinese government “has imposed restrictions on…

Sandy Grees '21 Earlier this month, Wisconsin held their primaries in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although Tony Evers, the Democratic governor of the state, tried to delay the election by pushing back the deadline to turn in absentee ballots, he was met with pushback from Republican lawmakers in the state, and the Supreme Court ruled that voting was still to be held at its original date. This left Wisconsin voters with a brutal decision: to exercise their constitutional right to vote or to risk contracting a deadly virus. This choice is obviously extremely difficult to make and is…

Karina Carlos '21 Right now we are all experiencing a global pandemic, one that has quite literally had an impact on everyone, in one way or another. The world is at a standstill and it’s all because of COVID-19. Everyone is in their homes, whether by choice or because of school cancellations and job closures. Either way, we all are being quarantined. The term “social distancing” gets thrown around a lot on the news, and it seems we are not listening.  Hundreds of people die every single day of coronavirus and even more are diagnosed. This is even with the…

Mira Ravi '22 “Cultural appropriation.” Everyone has their own opinion on what this phrase means because it is not properly defined, leaving people confused. I did not fully understand what it meant until a couple of days ago. A lot of nearby schools, like Menlo, have had incidents labelled as “cultural appropriation”––whether or not that is an accurate label––so it is important for people to understand exactly what it is, especially in the case of it happening at SHP. That way, it will be a lot easier to recognize instances of cultural appropriation and to address them properly. If we…

Anisha Menath '21 #MeToo is a movement against sexual assult, violence against women, and domestic abuse, has become a prevelent topic of discussion in the media in the past couple years. The movement started gaining popularity in 2017 with the allegations from Hollywood actresses such as Ashley Judd and Rose Mcgowan against Harvey Weinstein. It seems that in 2020 we have been brought back to the situation that sparked this whole movement. Weinstein is currently awaiting his second trial and has been found guilty of rape as well as sexual harrasment. While he was also found guilty for preditory behavior…

Finley Heinzen '23 Recently, more and more people have said that the media we consume causes violence. Even President Trump tweeted, “Video game violence & glorification must be stopped—it is creating monsters!” Because of the increase in shootings and hate crimes around the world, it brings up the question: Is this belief about our media even true? This question was brought up by researchers as far back as the early 1960s. Three researchers, Albert Bandura, Dorthea Ross, and Sheila A. Ross, showed kids videos of adults playing with a doll. The kids who were shown adults aggressively playing with the…

Finley Heinzen '23 We search the internet every day. It’s a process that has become so integrated in our lives, many of us probably can’t imagine what we’d do without it. On top of that, the majority of us use Google to search up whatever we need to, but we don’t stop to think about how that affects our lives. For instance, according to qrius.com, Google can track your location, even if you turn off the location tracking services. After all, it is all just part of how they run their business, but should we be worried about that? Throughout…

Finn Roblin '21 & Timothy Meneses '21 On January 3rd, Iran and the United States plunged into a period of tension that left many people unsure of how the future would unfold. This deep uncertainty soon surfaced on social media, with the hashtag “World War 3” trending on Twitter. Many people wondered how the elevation of this conflict would be felt within the Sacred Heart community. The events that came to a boil on January 3rd started with the proxy war in Iraq, where Iran and America have competed for influence since 2003. In the beginning of last fall, Iranian…

Sandy Grees '21 Earlier this month, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced their departure from the royal family. In an Instagram post on January 8th, they said, “We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen, We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America.” Since the announcement, both American and British media outlets have speculated on the cause of this sudden departure. With some calling the decision “Megxit,” the announcement…