NYLC Episode 7: The Holocaust Museum

On Saturday everyone got the chance to visit a museum of his or her choice. I chose to go to the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust Museum was an eye-opener. Seeing the shoe and the pictures of the piles of hair makes one realize how much people went into these death camps. The pictures, diagrams and objects made the reality of the pain and suffering come alive. I was amazed how much Hitler lied and convinced everyone to follow him, despite being wrong and murderous. I liked seeing the reflection room. It was quiet and it let it all sink in. The room had many verses from the Pentateuch, which appear in our Old Testament. It made you realize how much these people were persecuted for their faith. Would I be willing to do the same? I’m one of those people who has to read everything in the museum, so I took awhile. When I started to run out of time, I had to quickly go through it and wasn’t able to take the time to slowly read everything and take it in.

NYLC Episode 6: Model Congress

Our longest simulation took the whole week. It was the Model Congress. A bill was presented called “Keeping America Safe Bill.” It pretty dealt with how to deal with criminals, from murderers on death row, to sex offenders to illegal drug dealers and users. The convention of 400 was split up into 9 caucuses and 3 committees of 2 two different political parties. The whole convention didn’t work together until the end. The beginning we were split up into caucuses and committees. The committees were then furthen split up by parties. Caucuses were write an amendment to the bill according to their beliefs, which were all given in the simulation book. The Committees would look over the amendments and decide if they wanted to support the amendment.

I was in the Education Committee. My political party was the Democrats. I chose the job of specialist. A Specialist’s job was to review a caucus and persuade those in the committee to either approve or disapprove of the amendment. I chose to look over Caucus A. Caucus A wanted to make an amendment getting rid of the death penalty. Once again, Candice was my partner because she shared the same views. Our job was to ask first go and see how Caucus A was amended the bill. Once we collected the amendment, we wrote questions to ask the Caucus representatives to answer. Since we were for the Bill, we gave them easy and positive questions. On Friday was the committee hearing. Two representatives from every caucus came to the education committee hearing. When their designated time came, they would approach the microphone and present their amendment and why it should be passed. Then the specialists in the committee from each party would get the chance to ask questions. If the party were for the amendment, the question would be positive and easy, siding with the caucus. If the party was against the amendment, the questions would be hard, attacking the caucus. While Candice and I were well prepared for the committee hearing, our caucus was not. We gave them easy questions and they struggled to answer them. When attacked by the Republic party, they were demolished. It was not good. When it came time for voting for the amendments, our amendment tied. When there is a tie, it does not pass. We were upset.

Saturday was the general hearing. All the caucuses and committees got together to vote on the amendment and the final bill. The general session was to begin with discussion over to un-amended bill, but the House Speaker skipped that and went straight to the amendment discussion. That was a big mistake and it was ignored. During the amendment debate, the clerk of the house would read the amendment and present how it did in the committee. In real Congress, if an amendment was killed in committee, it would make general session. But for the NYLC, the rule was changed and all amendments made it so that all caucuses would be a part of the general session and to make sure not all the bills were killed. Then there would be 2 one-minute speeches. One speech would be for the amendment, the other would be against them amendment. This was decided by party. After the speeches were complete, the amendment was voted on. This time, the amendment’s fate was official. If the amendment passed, it would be added to the bill. If the amendment was voted against, it would die there. Once again, the Caucus A amendment did not make. All the other amendments did. Once that was decided, there would a debate on whether to pass the bill as it is with the current amendments attached. Sixteen people got a chance, eight from each party. People from each party both were for and against the bill. Most of deciding came from what amendments were added. The time for voting came. The vote revealed that the bill passed, but it was close.

This was a fun simulation. It was a little tiring though because it was spread out through the whole week. I was a little upset that my amendment didn’t make it both time. I wished that instead of being on a committee I had been part of a caucus. I think it may have been more fun to defend a position than just convince people in my party to vote in favor of the law. If I was in a caucus, I would have wanted to be in Caucus K. Caucus K’s amendment was to support faith-based drug rehabilitation.

Another Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving break began at Wednesday, November 23 at 11:50 AM. We had a half day of school on that Wednesday. Our van driver illegally treated us to McDonalds for lunch. The rest of the afternoon I did homework, and for a good reason. At 5:45 PM I had dinner of a roast beef hoagie. I finished it at 6 PM and thus began my annual 22-hour pre-thanksgiving fast. It would be 24 hours, but my parents make me eat dinner. I do this every year for two main reason. The first and foremost reason is so that when the big Thanksgiving meal comes, I understand how thankful I am that the Lord provides food for me. The second reason is so that I can eat more of the big meal. At night we had Thanksgiving Eve service. It was a combination of two congregations: Frederick and Perkiomenville (both Mennonite churches).

Every year we go to Connecticut (where both sides of my extended family live) for Thanksgiving weekend. It use to be Thursday to Monday, but since most of my father’s side died, and there is no longer really a reason to hang around longer, it is now Thursday to Saturday. We left Thursday morning at 10:30 AM. I wanted to leave 9 AM so we get there in time to watch the whole 1 PM football game, but that was unsuccessful. This was the first time we went up in our new car, a 2002 Toyota Camry. I was worried I would be squished and uncomfortable (we use to go up in a minivan, and I would take up a whole row), but to my surprise I had enough room to be comfortable, although I had less room than before.

The car ride up is the same distance and time as the car ride back. One-way is three hours, so a round-trip wound be six hours. Yes, a total of six hours in the car (altough it was on two separte days). Usually one would do homework (like my sister did), but like I said, I made sure all my homework was done. So what did I do? Quizzing of course! I worked on my quizzing questions. I am running out of time (see end of post) and needed to get them done. In the duration of the car time, I got done 8 verses and 52 questions. So as of now, I have 18 of 55 verses in Luke 2 done. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I just hope I get it done in time.

We arrived at 2 PM because of a bit of holiday traffic. Immeadiately I ran to the game. I only missed the first quarter and half of the second, so it wasn’t too bad. But Atlanta was already up 17-0 with 100+ yards rushing, so I thought I missed a lot. I was happy that I got to watch the rest of the game, plus the second game. My uncle arrived an hour later. I greeted him with, “Hey, it’s my favorite uncle, Uncle Rob!” His reply, “Alright, what is it that you want for Christmas, tens and twenties?” [An allusion from A Charlie Brown Christmas, when Sally asks Santa for tens and twenties, reffering to cash]. Yeah, that’s what it came down to, something for Christmas. Since for my birthday, my parents got my tickets for Spamalot, tickets to an Eagles game, and sent me to the NYLC, my birthday present money ran over to my Christmas money, so I am getting nothing for Christmas. It comes down to what Uncle Rob gets me.

Well dinner was suppose to be at 4 PM, but Mom made it 5 PM. When she went to turn off her tea, she accidently turned off the over. So the dinner had another hour to cook. For dinner we had potatoes, yams, spinach, green beans, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, and for the main dish….TURDUNCAN!!!…well, minus the duck part. My grandmother decided that a whole turkey was too much money and work, so she decided to make turkey breast and chicken legs. I broke my fast by eating a whole serving of everything, than after finishing that, having a second serving of everything again! Then desert came and I ate two slices of both pumpkin and apple pie. The night finished off by watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (why can I relate to that kid so many times?!), Survivor and the Apprentice.

Friday morning and afternoon was pretty boring. I had a serving of all Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch (totally three servings for both Thursday and Friday). I went on to finish the Spinach, yams, and mashed potatoes. My family finished the pumpkin. Yeah, pretty much just sat around, read comics, watched TV. My grandparents have like 100 movie channels, so I went from watching one movie to the next.

Friday night was the Holcomb side (my father’s side) of the reunion. We see them less than the Pagano side (my mother’s side). They came from distant parts of the New England to meet us all together. I got an even rarer appearance of my second cousin, first removed two year old cousin Shiela (I just call her cousin for short). We hardly see her, so it appears like she grows up so fast. On top of that, she can’t remember who anyone in my family is. I asked her to say my name, and she gave a blank stare of confusion. Her mother (my first cousin) showed her a picture of Yoda and she asked, “Who’s that?!” Loudly Shiela shrieked, “YODA!!!!” Yes, my baby cousin knows Yoda better me or anyone else in my family. We had pizza for dinner. I had 3 pepperoni slices and two cans of Coke (and after eating all those leftovers, I feel like a fat pig). That was followed our traditional game of Trivial Pursuit. That’s always fun. We had two games, and my team won both of them.

Saturday, we got up late, stopped by my grandparent’s house to say goodbye, then left for home. On the way we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. I had the ULTIMATE COLOSSAL BURGER!!! Mmmm, 3 lbs of beef…I ate the whole thing. I’m interested to see how much weight I’ve gained over the vacation.

After this post, I’m gonna go back to telling you about the NYLC. I still have so much I want to tell you about it!!

(Unofficial) Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2006:
1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day

Another Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving break began at Wednesday, November 23 at 11:50 AM. We had a half day of school on that Wednesday. Our van driver illegally treated us to McDonalds for lunch. The rest of the afternoon I did homework, and for a good reason. At 5:45 PM I had dinner of a roast beef hoagie. I finished it at 6 PM and thus began my annual 22-hour pre-thanksgiving fast. It would be 24 hours, but my parents make me eat dinner. I do this every year for two main reason. The first and foremost reason is so that when the big Thanksgiving meal comes, I understand how thankful I am that the Lord provides food for me. The second reason is so that I can eat more of the big meal. At night we had Thanksgiving Eve service. It was a combination of two congregations: Frederick and Perkiomenville (both Mennonite churches).

Every year we go to Connecticut (where both sides of my extended family live) for Thanksgiving weekend. It use to be Thursday to Monday, but since most of my father’s side died, and there is no longer really a reason to hang around longer, it is now Thursday to Saturday. We left Thursday morning at 10:30 AM. I wanted to leave 9 AM so we get there in time to watch the whole 1 PM football game, but that was unsuccessful. This was the first time we went up in our new car, a 2002 Toyota Camry. I was worried I would be squished and uncomfortable (we use to go up in a minivan, and I would take up a whole row), but to my surprise I had enough room to be comfortable, although I had less room than before.

The car ride up is the same distance and time as the car ride back. One-way is three hours, so a round-trip wound be six hours. Yes, a total of six hours in the car (altough it was on two separte days). Usually one would do homework (like my sister did), but like I said, I made sure all my homework was done. So what did I do? Quizzing of course! I worked on my quizzing questions. I am running out of time (see end of post) and needed to get them done. In the duration of the car time, I got done 8 verses and 52 questions. So as of now, I have 18 of 55 verses in Luke 2 done. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I just hope I get it done in time.

We arrived at 2 PM because of a bit of holiday traffic. Immeadiately I ran to the game. I only missed the first quarter and half of the second, so it wasn’t too bad. But Atlanta was already up 17-0 with 100+ yards rushing, so I thought I missed a lot. I was happy that I got to watch the rest of the game, plus the second game. My uncle arrived an hour later. I greeted him with, “Hey, it’s my favorite uncle, Uncle Rob!” His reply, “Alright, what is it that you want for Christmas, tens and twenties?” [An allusion from A Charlie Brown Christmas, when Sally asks Santa for tens and twenties, reffering to cash]. Yeah, that’s what it came down to, something for Christmas. Since for my birthday, my parents got my tickets for Spamalot, tickets to an Eagles game, and sent me to the NYLC, my birthday present money ran over to my Christmas money, so I am getting nothing for Christmas. It comes down to what Uncle Rob gets me.

Well dinner was suppose to be at 4 PM, but Mom made it 5 PM. When she went to turn off her tea, she accidently turned off the over. So the dinner had another hour to cook. For dinner we had potatoes, yams, spinach, green beans, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, and for the main dish….TURDUNCAN!!!…well, minus the duck part. My grandmother decided that a whole turkey was too much money and work, so she decided to make turkey breast and chicken legs. I broke my fast by eating a whole serving of everything, than after finishing that, having a second serving of everything again! Then desert came and I ate two slices of both pumpkin and apple pie. The night finished off by watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (why can I relate to that kid so many times?!), Survivor and the Apprentice.

Friday morning and afternoon was pretty boring. I had a serving of all Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch (totally three servings for both Thursday and Friday). I went on to finish the Spinach, yams, and mashed potatoes. My family finished the pumpkin. Yeah, pretty much just sat around, read comics, watched TV. My grandparents have like 100 movie channels, so I went from watching one movie to the next.

Friday night was the Holcomb side (my father’s side) of the reunion. We see them less than the Pagano side (my mother’s side). They came from distant parts of the New England to meet us all together. I got an even rarer appearance of my second cousin, first removed two year old cousin Shiela (I just call her cousin for short). We hardly see her, so it appears like she grows up so fast. On top of that, she can’t remember who anyone in my family is. I asked her to say my name, and she gave a blank stare of confusion. Her mother  (my first cousin) showed her a picture of Yoda and she asked, “Who’s that?!” Loudly Shiela shrieked, “YODA!!!!” Yes, my baby cousin knows Yoda better me or anyone else in my family.  We had pizza for dinner. I had 3 pepperoni slices and two cans of Coke (and after eating all those leftovers, I feel like a fat pig). That was followed our traditional game of Trivial Pursuit. That’s always fun. We had two games, and my team won both of them.

Saturday, we got up late, stopped by my grandparent’s house to say goodbye, then left for home. On the way we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. I had the ULTIMATE COLOSSAL BURGER!!! Mmmm, 3 lbs of beef…I ate the whole thing. I’m interested to see how much weight I’ve gained over the vacation.

After this post, I’m gonna go back to telling you about the NYLC. I still have so much I want to tell you about it!!

(Unofficial) Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2006:
1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day

Let me take a break from telling you all the great things about the NYLC and let’s about why I have been busy for the past week

My business actually started with preparing for my hectic weekend. From today, have 8 days in a row with less than 5 1/2 hours of sleep. It all thanx to homework and after school activities.

On Friday at 6 PM, I left for a leadership retreat. I went with some other Christopher Dock senators, as well as chapel committee. The theme was “Fanning the Flame.” The whole focus was fueling our spiritual lives through spiritual discipline. There were youth from all different youth groups there. I even saw Merv Stolfuz there (MERV!) It wasn’t too much of a leadership retreat, in both the term leadership and in the term retreat. It wasn’t too much about leadership. While it did help us grow spiritually, it talked more about spiritual growth then  leadership. It wasn’t really a retreat. Our teachers still piled on their normal amount of weeked homework, which is more than normal week homework. So I had to spend a lot of time doing that. The biggest assignment was that I had to finish my independant book, The Color Purple. 3 hours and 83 pages later, the book was finished, and in enough time. Since it usually would only take me 1 1/2 hours to read 83 pages, I think I may have fallen asleep for two hours when reading it. It was goof otherwords. My favorite part was during the praise and worship on Saturday. The guitarrist broke a string in the middle of the song and he yelled at the the top of his lungs, “OH CRAP!!” He apologized for ruining the moment. He had us Kumbaiya (sp?) with one verse being “Strings are braking, Lord…” In the middle of that, another string broke. He said that was the first time that happened. It was funny.

I got home from the leadership retreat at 3 PM, enough time to see the Eagles lose . I began my last homework assignment, writing a six-page report on my NYLC trip. Ugh, only my school would not believe the NYLC isn’t educational enough and I need to make it educational enough by writing a paper. I only got 2 pages through it.

After dinner I went to ApologetiX concert. It was a youth group event, but only Derk and I went, along with the Hendricks and Mrs. Zona. It was rocking!!! There was technical difficulties in the beginning. They whole right side of the stage stopped working. The ApologetiX improvised by putting on a “talent show”. Things got working quicking and the rocking continued on! Of course, I went down and moshed. I sung along with everyone of their songs. They didn’t do my favorite song of Back Intact, but did do my second favorite, Look Yourself. Karl remembered me from 11 months ago (I was the only fan in Boyertown, so they named my area of fans the Graham club), so he had me look at the camera. My picture is all over the website, most important, on the home page. After the concert, I got my program signed my everyone on the concert. This was my fifth ApologetiX and they get better every time.

When I got home, I went to finish my paper. I was up until midnight.

I got up Monday morning at 5:30 in the morning. Why? I had play practice for Thanksgiving Chapel Skit. The Skit was to be performed in 4 hours and hardly anyone had their lines memorized. It was hectic. Nonetheless, 4 hours later, everyone lines were taken care of. Well, everyone except Jimmy. Jim forget his lines, but he was so comical most people overlooked it. My role in the play was a Puritan leader. I went around accusing characters of being witches. In one whole scene, we did the Witch scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was funny. I loved my part.

In Senate, I made a bill that mix up the lunch tables in the cafeteria. This idea was to break up the horrible cliques so people got to know each other. Since I made the bill, my job was host. I first had to set up extra tables because I kinda miscounted tables .
Then I had to put numbers on the table. My next job was to make sure students entering the cafeteria found their right table and SAT at their right table (and didn’t mix it up on their own, if you know what I mean). Then for the second half of lunch I handed out ice cream to participants. After I finished that, I finally got my chance to eat. But by the time I did, my table was empty! So I went to another table, to mix it up.

Tuesday morning I had to go to senate at 7 AM, so I had to wake up at 5:30 again. At the Senate meeting we talked about Mix It Up Day. All the teachers liked how it worked out and were glad I got it under way. I got mega brownie points. The students said they heard just as much good as bad and said maybe possibly do it again, but this time mix up outside the grades as well. But in the lunch room, the tables were back to normal. When I got on the bus, the kids wouldn’t talk to me. They were upset that I wasn’t on the bus for the past week and that I didn’t give them ice cream (I was only suppose to give ice cream to juniors). Oh well, it’s not that they matter. I never liked talking to them anyway. They were rude, mean, and insulting to my faith.

Today was a half day. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t get any new homework. I finished all my homework, so I am working on quizzing the whole vacation. Peace out until later!

^Me rocking out at the ApologetiX concert!!^

NYLC Episode 5: Testing the Constition – A Supreme Court Simulation

The second simulation that we performed was called “Testing the Constitution.” This simulation is meant to show us how the Supreme Court works. The case we did was Hamdi vs. Rumsfeld.

Yaser Esam Hamdi was a U.S. born citizen who lived childhood in the United States. In 2000, he went to Afghanistan. He became a dual citizen for both U.S. and Afghanistan. He remained in Afghanistan through 9/11 and through the War in Afghanistar. According to his father, he was doing social services. According to the government, he was training for the Taliban’s army. Hamdi was captured by the Northern Alliance, and handed over as an “enemy combatant.” He was then sent to Guantanamo Bay in the U.S. and detained without charges, procedings, a trial, or access to a lawyer. Hamdi’s father followed this by filing a writ habeas corpus so there would be a hearing on why Hamdi was detained. In response, the district court orders Hamdi to a lawyer and a hearing. The Circuit Court appeals and asked for dismissal of the case. They also provide the Declaration of Michael Mobbs, which “proves” that he was working for the Taliban army, against the United States. The appeal is victorius; the decision is based on The Declaration of Michael Mobbs. No habeus corpus, no further questions. But there are. The district court says that the information was insuffient and vague, and says a decision cannot be based on this alone. They ask for a camera review. The government appeals. The Court of Appeals argues that Hamdi was captured in enemy territory, was an enemy combatant and that’s why he was detained. He didn’t get a trial because under president’s war powers, he doesn’t get full due process because he is an enemy combantant during war times. We he got was enough. The habeus corpus is appealed. Hamdi takes it all the way to the Supreme Court.

The simulation book had us well prepared. We were given amendments, like the fifth and fourteenth amendment. We were shown previous legislation. We were also given previous Supreme Court cases. All this provided information could help either the Petitioner or Respondant. Each side took advantage of this.

I chose to be the Petitioner’s Attorney based on my beliefs that a person’s rights should not be sacrificed in war times. Like I said before, Candice was my partner in this simulation because of the shared belief. The goal in our case was to prove that Hamdi, as an American citizen, deserved full due process. We tried to prove our points by arguing that all U.S. citizens have the right to had council, due process is guanteed to to any citizen detained whatever the situation is, and that the nation’s interest should never outweight the citizen’s interest. We also said that “enemy combatant” is not a recognized term (like prisoner of war) and therefore he gets should not be treated like one or worse than one, which he was.

The Respondant’s Attorneys defended Rumsfeld. In our case, there were Maxim and Joe. They argued that Hamdi, as a enemy combatant has already enough due process and deserves no more. Hamdi also has no power due to the president’s war powers.

After each of us argued our case, the judges would ask questions. The judges were the rest of the peers in my group. They were paired up. There were nine pairs. Each pair got to ask questions for two minutes. We would answer them to the best of our knowledge. After the judges examination was done, we were allowed to cross examiner each other. Once done, the attorneys left the room and had to wait for a decision. The pairs delegated among each other whose favor to choose. A few minutes later the attorneys were allowed to enter the room. One by one, the judges revealed who they voted in favor. THE RESULTS: Petitoner for Hamdi: 5; Respondant for Rumsfeld: 4. It was close. In the beginning we were sure we were going to win, in the middle we became skeptical, by the end we were relived to know we were won. We were happy who won.

Once the case was over, our advisor, Shelly Dolf, told us what really happened in the real case. Just like our mock case, Hamdi won, but by much more: 8-1. 4 justices for Hamdi believed that the president’s war powers was not a “blank check” that he could arrest anybody he feels like without a charge or trial. 2 justice votes for Hamdi said they agreed a bit with the respondants, but more with the petitioner. They said that since thre was no law passed by Congress allowed the president to detain “enemy combantants” despite the law that allowed detainment of POW. 2 judges voted for Hamdi said that it was dissenting, but nonetheless, there was nothing against the Petitioners. Those are the 8 votes for Hamdi. There was only one vote against Hamdi, that awas by Justice Thomas. He argued that it is a time of war, Hamdi was an enemy combatant, which is equivilant to a POW and that because of that, Hamdi has no right to habeas corpus, a lawyer, and a trial. The president has the right to detain Hamdi.

What happened to Hamdi after that? After Hamdi was given the right to a fair trial, the government dropped the case and let Hamdi go. After he was released from detainment, he went to Saudia Arabia and withdrew his U.S. citizenship. Further reports did reveal that Hamdi was in fact training with the Taliban, and would be considered a terrorist. Yes, we let a terrorist go. One of the kids in my group (who played a judge) said, “You convinced to let a terrorist go free?!” I replied, “Hey, he was an American terrorist. That totally changes everything.”  Whether that is true or not, I don’t know.

I really enjoyed doing this simulation. Defending my opinion was tons of fun, especially when I could back it up with good information. Candice was a good partner and always could help me when I did not know the answer. She also sacrificed free social time with me so we could work on the case together. I think I would have more fun if I could do a district court like in Law & Order. The only dissapointing part was realizing I let a terrorist go free.

NYLC Episode 4: Partner Candice Dublin

Some of the activities we did at the NYLC required partners. Now usually at school I hate dread when the teachers let us get into partners. I’m usually the last one who gets picked, and it is by someone who needs a partner. But the NYLC was different. I had no partner problems. The partner I constantly was with was Candice Dublin. Candice was a 17 year old girl from Texas. She was my partner for Model Congress and Testing the Constitution (I talk more about those later), she sat with me on the bus rides and was my “date” (and I do use that term very loosely) at the dinner dance. I think she was my partner a lot becuz we share like ideas, despite me being Christian and her being atheist. A few days ago, I wrote her a letter with several last thoughts I wanted to tell her. I have posted a slightly edited version, just taking out the bit more personal stuff, but leaving the most important:

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Dear Candice,

 

There were some things I wanted to tell you on the last day of the convention. But I didn’t have enough time and I’m not the best at expressing when speaking. I wanted the time to be able to sit down, sort and write out my thoughts. I took the time to do this through this e-mail. I want to apologize for the long time it took to compose this e-mail. Once I came home, my teachers endlessly burdened me with missed work. I finally finished and sent this e-mail the same time I began seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

I want to thank you for respect my opinions, my beliefs and my faith. While there was a lot of ideas that we agreed on, there were just about the same amount of ideas we disagreed on. I don’t know what has shaped your views, I know my views have been shaped by the Mennonite Christian view I have been raised up in the recent 6 years. Despite not agreeing on my ideas, you did understand and respect where I was coming from. Thank you. I also want to thank you for clearing up my ideas about non-Christians. I, for the most part, have gotten along the best with Protestant Christians. I have had Mennonites my age hear my ideas and give me no respect for them. But seeing that you, as well as others at the NYLC, could disagree with my opinions, but still accept them, totally changed my view. From now on, I will try to have a neutral view when I first meet non-Christians. The best way I could think to describe you was “the most unchristian mennonite I met.” Mennonite has some unique ideas according to traditional American (anti-death penalty, anti-war, etc.) and you seemed to agree with them. But you have no faith in God. Like I said, there are other Christians, both catholic &protestant, that don’t even agree with Mennonite views. But a non-Christian believed in such. Once again, things like this will change my views on how to view non-Christians. I sparked my curiosity why this is so. Maybe the Mennonite ideas are just common sense (at least to you and me)… I remember you saying you were interested in Peace Corps. To me, Peace Corps is just a secular missions trip. I encourage you to try a mission trip. It’ll most likely be like the Peace Corps, but have a bit of a Christ emphasis. It’ll give you a piece of the Christian faith.

 

I’ll be honest with you. I have set up my life to be “Christian-friendly.” I usually don’t leave my house unless I am going to church, to my christian school, or bible quizzing. All my extra-cirricular activities, both in and out of school, have a Christian emphasis. I have shut out of my life anything that is non-Christian or puts me in a pressure place to be/do something non-Christian. And guess what…..I like it that way. Going to NYLC was a big step out of my comfort zone for me. By Sunday I was really missing my Christ-centered environment and couldn’t wait to get back in it.

 

I thank you for understanding my position at the dinner dance. My beliefs in the Mennonite tradition say not to dance. But I do fully believe in everything they say. My Mennonite school is against dance because they believe (every “=>”means “leads to”): dancing => sex => adultry => sin => sinful death => hell. If you get rid of the first two, my belief is the same. We differ in the fact that I believe only certain dancing is “adultrious” and seducing, while my school has stereotyped ALL dancing to be seductful. They don’t allow even square dancing, nor line dancing, and have just recently allowed interpretative dance (after heavy inspection from the school board). The best example of this would be last talent show our school. A girl from my bus and her guy friend did a Latino dance. If you seen this kind of dancing, it can get very close and touchy. This angered many of the Mennonites in my school. They called it “sex on stage” (LOL), and she got heck from them.  Remember Dean and the “Spice Boys”? If Dean, who is a senior at my school, would have done this at our school, he most likely would have been suspended for a week. It just shows you how nuts their “theology” can get. Like I said, my view of dancing differs. I am a little more liberal on what dancing can be allowed. I think interpret dance, line dancing, and square dancing should automatically be accepted, no questions asked. All culture dancing, like latino dancing, should be allowed. It’s just the way the culture is and not allowing it is destroying the idea of diversity. The only dance I do not approve of is pole dancing and belly dancing. I am a strong believer in the famous “6-inches rule” and do not like the dancing which two people are rammed into each other. That “dancing” could be better described as “grinding.” What I mostly saw at the dinner dance was “grinding” and I didn’t approve of it. That’s why I was mostly inactive at the dance.

 

I apologize for the way I was during the dance. You may have noticed that during the dance I was a little down. It wasn’t because I wasn’t dancing. Trust me, I have no regret not dancing and I am proud that I was able to resist temptation and hold strong to my religious beliefs. I was down because I noticed that for most of the time I was alone and by myself. This brought back horrible memories from being at school. A hard truth I had to learn through my experience at a Mennonite High school was that while the school is run under Mennonite rules & ideas, and the teachers and faculty may be Christian, but it does not mean the students there are. Many students have Christian parents who force them to go to a Christian school. Still others have non-Christian parents who pay TONS of money and so their children can go to a private school (that’s a whole different rant which I will spare you from). Either way, the student would rather be in a public school and in wordly society. These students, despite going to a Christian school, bring these worldly ideas into a Christian environment. Christian environment + wordly ways = dangerous mix. One of these worldly ideas is the idea of forming tight cliques. My school has fell victim to the clique system, and in the process has put me on the lowest rung. I am not popular at my school and have no friends there. In short, I’m a loner. But while at the NYLC, all that was put behind me and everyone began with a neutral view of me. As the week progressed, people got to know me and they accepted me. I gained many friends there. I almost forgot about my social turmoil at school. When sitting alone at the dance on Saturday night, I realized that I had to go from being a well-liked student with many friends to an unpopular loner, who sits by himself in class and at lunch. Of course I got depressed. There was a part of me that really didn’t want to leave the NYLC. It was a conflict of interest on my mental/emotional side. One side of me was ready to leave to return to its comfort zone, the Christian-friendly community. The other side of didn’t want to leave and wanted to stay where I was socially accepted. I was divided. I sometimes wanted to try to combine both ideas: return to the Christian environment and bring my new friends with me. I realized that I had to return to the “Land of the Leftovers” (the nickname I gave the lowest on the popularity scale), but decided to always remember that I was accepted at the NYLC, despite religious differences, and that my unacceptance at school is not my fault (since I was liked at NYLC) but is the fault of my school’s student body.

 

I thank you for not rubbing your social life back at home into my face while at the confrence. At school, I am usual assigned a seat in between two popular friends and I hear everything that going on in their lives, most of it I don’t want to hear. Of course, hearing this doesn’t make me feel any better. I feel left out and unapprieciated. I am most thankful especially that you did not rub your relationship status in my face. That has to be the worse. I believe that there is more to life beyond dating. I don’t know if you have a boyfriend or not, but I personally believe that with or without a boyfriend, you would have still been the same Candice.

 

Thank you for being my partner for both Model Congress and Testing the Constitution. You said that you hope that I wouldn’t get sick of you being my partner. I never did, I enjoyed it every minute of it. It was easier doing the simulations because we had the same beliefs and we both believed in what we were representing. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner. This includes sitting with me on the bus. Usually with bus seats, I begin sitting with myself, then end up sitting next to whoever still needs a seat. This time was different. I was amazed that you actually wanted to sit next to me. This rearely happens. And it was always fun sitting next to you. (MULLET BUS: BUSINESS IN THE FRONT, PARTY IN THE BACK!!) You continued to amaze me when you wanted to be at the same table as me at the dinner dance. Like I said, I am ususally treated as a loner at my school. When the teacher has us get into our own partners, once everyone pretty much has a partner, it usually ends to be, “All right, who wants to be with Graham?” and whoever is left over gets “drafted” into being my partner. But for you to voluntarily choose to be with me, for a loner like me, it was mind-boggling.

 

I thank you again for hanging out with me most of the time. I liked hanging out with you because I liked who you were. I liked that we both agreed on many common ideas. We agreed on both being against war, against the death penalty, against criminal tracking, etc. I liked that when we did disagree (like on faith-based drug programs), you at least respected my beliefs. I liked that you had the most open musical tastes of anyone I know. That was cool. I liked that you appreciated me for who I was. I liked the way that you had glitter on your eyes, it made you look beautiful. I thought you were great.

 

Thank you for making me feel important for at least six days.

 

Respectfully,

Graham

 

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This letter mostly consists of open feelings and relfections on the past week. I also had a few other things added, like a rant on dancing, complaining about my school, and articulating theological ideas. While this letter was directed towards Candice, I believe that others reading this may be able to get a message out of this letter that applies to themselves. I’m gonna finished this post with a few pics of us together, but first I want to say, “Candice…YOU ROCKED MY SOX!!” (and I don’t say that often, hardly ever)

 

 

 

 

 

NYLC Episode 3: Monuments and Memorials

Of course, what’s the point of being in Washington, D.C. if you don’t get the change to see all the wonderful buildings and artwork there? Luckily NYLC felt the same way. We were given two hours to look at all these wonderful works. I saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR memorial, the World War 2 Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. I was only able to see the Washington Monument from a distance. We weren’t allowed to go in. Everything else I got full access. I ran out of time, and only got brief time to look at the Korean War Memorial, and not take pictures.

It was cool looking at the memorials and monuments. Most of the monuments had quotes said by the dedicated people, so I learned a lot of new quotes. My favorite was from the FDR memorial. FDR said, “I have seen war…I HATE WAR.” I learned cool new facts too. FDR asked for a memorial no bigger than his desk…his memorial ended up extending over 7 acres. Rumor has it that on the back of Lincoln’s head on the Lincoln Memorial there a profile of Robert E. Lee. It was hard to see anything with the scaffolding around his head. Some kids saw it, some didn’t (like me). In the Jefferson Memorial, Thomas Jefferson is posed as he was when addressing Continential Congress. He is also facing the White House. He is doing this to check up on the president. Jefferson was a man of domestic policy over foreign policy and state power over federal power. I found it ironic that there was a veil over the door where Jefferson would look out of (for renovating reasons). Now that the veil was over Jefferson, the prez was doing all foreign policies.

Walking through the war memorials got me thinking. I have always been against war. But I went to Korean War Memorial and remembered my grandfather was in the war. That also reminded me that every Holcomb has fought in every American war (this can only be proven back to the American Civil War. How was I to handle that? How could be against the thing my grandfather was for? I recognize that my family is the first one (on both sides) to take the stance again war. Jesus warned that in his name would put family members against each other. It may not please others in my family, but it pleases Jesus. I know what I am doing is right and will continue to be against.

I have several pictures from the memorials, almost too many. I couldn’t upload them all without greatly slowing down those with dial-up. I chose 2 pics. The first is on a bench between the World War 2 memorial and Vietnam Memorial. There was a good amount of ant-war graffitti in this area. The second was a cross someone left at the Vietnam Memorial. It just shows how someone else looks at soldiers at war. 

NYLC Episdoe 2: “If I Were President” Simulation

In the six days I was participating in the NYLC, we did three simulations, each one showing what each government branch was. The first simulation was called “If I Were President.” It put my group in the position of the president and the cabinet and we had to decided on a fake (but probable) futuristic situation. Here it is in short:

“The year is 2009. Iran has built a new nuclear generator. Neighboring countries are suspicious of it. Iran gets mad of their suspicion and kicks out the IAEA from their normal inspections of nuclear generators. So now the world is totally clueless of what happening behind close doors. To make things worse, the president of Iran has died. No one has taken the position. Some revolutionaries have resolved to violence to try to overthrow the fundamentalist Islamic government and put in its place a democratic republic, just like the successful one in neighboring Iraq (lol…it’s what the book said). How should the United States respond to this?”

We were given a handful of options. The first half of the options was peaceful. We either enforce trade embargos, have the U.N. assist or try negotiations. The second half was military options. We could give a full-scale invasion, attack the nuclear generator, or train black co-ops. Last but not least, there was not interferring at all. Each one was given its pros and cons.

Davis was the president, I wasn’t. I played the role of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. I was placed in a smaller group with the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Israel.  The head of the group was the secretary of state, played by Adrienne Hart from Spring City, PA. Being in this group, I knew how all foreign countries wanted to handle it. Israel wanted to attacked, with or without help. Both Russia and China would only seek peace. Great Britain was tired of war, but would if needed. According to my position, I needed to try to convince the president for peaceful resolutions. I found my part easier than everyone else because I was trying to defend a side I really wanted to defend.

After much talking within our committee, we decided that the president should first seek peaceful negotiations, going to war only as last resort. Once all the committees made a decision, we came back as a whole cabinet to discuss and debate with the other groups and to help the prez make a final decision. We presented our group’s ideas, but it didn’t fly with the rest of them. Most groups wanted to either send in black co-ops or get the United Nations help in going into war. After much debating between peace and war, the president left with Michelle, press secretary, and Maxim, secretary of Homeland Defense.

While they were meeting to make a decision, everyone else swapped roles. We went from cabinet to press. When Davis made his final decision, he would tell the press what he decided then the Press would ask questions about his decision. A few minutes later, President Davis entered the room, with right-hand man Maxim. President Davis told the Press they would go into peaceful talks with Iran since it was in the best interest of foreign neighbors. When the Q&A session ended, Davis and Maxim said, “Wait, can we now tell the whole story?” I was confused. What whole story? Davis and Maxim explained they really decided to do a secret co-op invasion. They didn’t tell the press that because that would ruin the element of surprise. That’s when we went into a debate if the right of government secrecy is more important than a citizen’s right to know what the government was doing. I felt a little cheated from the president. I thought I won when I really lossed. The president shouldn’t have lied. I learned a lot from this simulation and enjoyed it.

NYLC Episode 1: The Talent show

My trip is over. I have returned from a foreign land…Washington, D.C. Actually, I’ve been back since Sunday afternoon. Between football and school, I haven’t been able to tell you of many many adventures. There are so many as well. So for the next week, I will break it down into daily episodes (or as daily as I can get), so read previous entries if you miss one and keep comments on the right one.

On Thursday evening, we had a talent show. Scholars would sign up and show off a talent they had. Some were serious, some were funny. The funny ones consist of a dramatic reading about tuna fish and a comical song about traffic lights. There were singers & dancers. After seeing the girl dancers, many guys wanted to dance with them at the Dinner and Dance. There was also a Be-Bop, and that was cool. My favorite was the last. Dean Grenfeld, a fellow classmate from Christopher Dock, got together a bunch of guys for the show. They danced to the a remix of the Spice Girls. They decided to call themselves The Spice Boys. It was hillarious. I will never stop laughing. I have pictures of it. I posted them on my locker and now will give them to you. There is 10, so they’ll take a while to load. WARNING: THESE PICTURES MAY HURT YOUR EYES!!!!