In response to Andrew B. (May 26 Backtalk): First off, thanks much, Andy. Hearing that there are people who can figure out how big a disease superficiality is inspires me. Yes, superficiality IS a disease. People are always saying, “Go your own way,” or “Be your own person,” but then they go out and show you the exact opposite of what they said. Those people who spend all that time just wanting to be like someone else need to wake up. I know that has been said by plenty of people. Don’t bother looking up to those popular people in school, not until you find them on your own. If you’re just going there for the “coolness,” then what is it worth? Unless there is something really worth getting from those people, like knowledge, or a new viewpoint, then there is no point in them. Because when you do get “in,” then you have to abide by their rules and those rules are so often rules of ignorance, prejudice and tyranny.
Andrew, people like you are the ones I hang out with. Honestly, my closest friend is just like you and me. I’m a “freak” down to the very center of my brain.
Josh H.-G., 15 Crystal Lake
Senseless slaughter
I think it’s very sad what that boy in Oregon did (May 26 Tough News). And recently, two boys in Arkansas killed their classmates. I can’t understand why they did it. But they did and we have to live with the fact that there are a few less students at that school. A lot of schools, including mine, can’t afford metal detectors.
Don’t you think that when this happens at schools, (school officials) should be able to afford them? Our schools will just have to learn the hard way, I guess. I no longer feel safe in my school. I am so naive. It took two shootings for me to realize that it could happen at my school.
At my school, some kids have already been expelled for beating a black student with a belt. What is the next step? I don’t want the next step to come to my school or any school or another life to be taken by a kid with no idea in his or her mind of what will happen after that gun goes off.
F., 12
Take action
This is in response to all these student killings. Imagine if you lost your temper and had a gun with you. What would happen? I bet you would shoot someone. When I lose my temper my best friend might lie dead instead of my worst enemy. I know that children killing each other has been going on for a long time. I just learned the government is trying to make it against the law to burn the flag. Why don’t they stop guns instead?
What about all those young kids who find Dad’s gun and shoot each other? It was not their fault. It was the father’s. Life is hard for those kids. Imagine being my age and being charged as an adult. We hear stories like these and don’t think about it. Let’s get off our butts and do something.
Harriet S., 11 Highland Park
Cartoon violence real
I would like to know why no one has made this connection yet. When “Beavis & Butt-head” lit things on fire there was a rash of fires started by young boys across the country. That was all over the news and the creators of the cartoon made a wise choice and stopped the burning. Now we have “South Park” where there is constant killing in the schoolyard. I may be wrong, but I think there is a connection between the growing popularity of this violent cartoon and the sudden rise in mass murders in the schoolyard. I don’t remember kids doing this kind of thing before. Psychologists tell us that young people do not have a clear sense of reality. If that is true, “South Park” is not the kind of show young people should be watching. I look at the news reports and I feel like I’m seeing a real “South Park,” where seemingly harmless characters blow away their classmates.
Anonymous
Hyped to death
In response to Dane H. (May 26 Backtalk), the last “Seinfeld” was a good episode. It could have been better, but it was not their worst episode. The problem was that the media had made such a big hype about it that everyone was expecting a super, fantastic, wonderful show. I’m sure that if the media hadn’t made such a big deal out of it, people could have just sat back and enjoyed it without expecting any more than the usual “Seinfeld” comedy about nothing. Another thing that made our expectations soar was that NBC showed the greatest clips before the last “Seinfeld,” when they could have and should have shown them after.
Anonymous
Newsprint abuse?
As we all know, many trees are being cut down for paper. Many animals are being endangered because of this issue. We need the Chicago Tribune to stop making papers every day. There are not as many rain forests because you make (so many) papers a day. Many people just read the paper and toss it in the trash. And the news comes on TV just about every hour a day saying the same thing the newspaper says.
I suggest people stop wasting trees and start watching the news on TV. That will help save our rain forests.
Ratrina B. Chicago
Editor’s note: The Tribune uses recycled newsprint in every paper we print. An average 40 percent of our newspapers are made from recycled newsprint. You can do your part, too, by recycling old papers.)
Belonging nowhere
To the author of “Inside Looking Out” (May 5 Backtalk), there is a girl in my grade who is a major snob. We try to be nice to her but she’s constantly sucking up to the 8th graders. But they treat most of the 7th graders like garbage, so we ignore her, and she gets mad and goes and cries to the 8th graders, who then get on our case. Then she goes around calling a group of people “the clique.”
It’s a vicious cycle the popular kids get blamed for. I’m not one of the most popular kids, but I know how things work.
Pam D., 13 Brookfield
Godzilla’s no meanie
I’d like to comment on the new Godzilla (May 19 Cover). I’m a fan of the old Godzilla movies. A lot of you are probably saying, “Yeah, well, the other ones didn’t have good special effects.” So? Does it have to be all good special effects? What about Godzilla? Godzilla is supposed to be good. There were only three movies out of 20 (before this one was made) where he was bad. My personal opinion is that this new age of Godzilla isn’t what it is supposed to be.
Maddie O.
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