Daily Archives: November 5, 2020

National

2020 presidential race

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*Note: This article was written before the announcement was made over the weekend that Joe Biden had won the election. Rather than have the author rewrite the article, the Editor decided to let it be published based on the time it was written.

President Trump has already claimed victory, even though multiple states haven’t finished counting the vote, while Joe Biden is urging everyone to have patience and to continue to count all the votes.

Trump is leading in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, while Biden is leading in Georgia and Nevada; these states remain too close to call. These states will also determine who the next president will be.

President Trump has called this election “A major fraud in our nation”, even though there is no evidence of fraud in the election counting. Trump and his legal team said they will sue to stop counting and demand the state of Wisconsin to recount. Trump made it clear in a press conference that he would fight in court for his re-election claiming he had already won, even though there is no winner yet.

There is nothing in the constitution that says a winner needs to be determined on November 3. Many elections in the past took days to count, and even in some of our recent elections, the winner took days to announce. For example, our election in 2000, the president was announced on December 12, a month after the election.

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Advice/How To

What is mental health?

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By: Grabe Blumer-Lamotte

According to MentalHealth.gov their definition of mental health is, “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act.”

If you experience certain mental health problems over the course of your life, your thinking, feelings, behavior, and mood could be changed. There are many factors that can lead to mental health problems, including: biological factors such as genes, and the way your chemicals in your brain work; life experiences, like trauma and/or abuse, and finally, any past mental health problems in your family. 

Some early symptoms, according to MentalHealth.gov, can consist of, “Eating or sleeping too much or too little, pulling away from people and usual activities, having low or no energy, feeling numb or like nothing matters, feeling helpless or hopeless, smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual, feeling angry, upset, worried, or scared, yelling or fighting with family and friends often, experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships, having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head, thinking of harming yourself or others, inability to perform daily tasks.” If you have any of these early symptoms I strongly suggest talking to a trusted adult about making an appointment with your doctor to talk about them. 

Everyday people that struggle with mental health problems are often told: that they are “faking it,” “it’s just a mental thing,” “that is something you decide to have,” and many more little comments that are very degrading to the mental health community. Making those comments not only hurts the person you said it to, but it also makes the mental health community less important. You are stating that everyone that has a mental health problem is just faking it and they can just fix it right away.

If you are in need of help the numbers given below could help save a life.

  • National helpline, 800-662-HELP (4357)
  • Child abuse, (800) 422-4453
  • Suicide Prevention hotline, (800) 273-TALK (8255)
  • Rape, Sexual Assualt, Domestic Violence, and Incest helpline, (800) 656-HOPE
  • Eating Disorder helpline, (800) 931-2237
  • Planned Parenthood hotline, (800) 230-PLAN (7526)
Science/Nature

Burning wastes and its effects

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By Olivia Kendle

Many people think that it is a good idea to burn trash rather than put it in a landfill. Many parts of the country have waste incinerators to burn much of their trash. This article will look at how waste incinerators might not be the best way to handle trash.

First of all, the economics of incinerators might not be as good, because they are more expensive to run, and they are risky investments. Tip fees, which are the fees paid by the trash haulers, are more expensive than the alternative of composting and/or recycling. In one city, they discovered that recycling $18 per ton, and incineration cost $50 dollars per ton.  

Incinerators are also another form of environmental injustice. The people working and living by the incinerators are often exposed to toxic pollutants such as mercury and lead. They release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and also dangerous ash. Also, many people with low-incomes end up coming to work at incinerators.

There are 76 incinerators around the country, out of 23 states that have made incinerators legal. In many states, incinerators are classified as “renewable” energy. According to the Institute for Local Self- Reliance; “The perverse designation of incineration as ‘renewable’ subsidizes a practice that wastes energy, kills jobs, and produces toxic pollution.” By recycling and composting, etc., you are opening jobs for others, but also creating a safer and healthier environment for you and everyone else around you. 

So, as you can see, incinerators are not only hurtful to the environment but to people and creatures around it. They are more expensive than just recycling or composting and they don’t really make renewable energy. We should take another look to see if we want to use waste incinerators over other healthier ways to dispose of our trash.

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