By: Alex Martinez Martinez

Why is summer the best season? There’s many reasons why summer is the best season. The warm weather is great to go outdoors, longer days, and you can enjoy a lot of things. It’s nice to get a refreshing cold drink or an ice cream to cool you off in the summer heat. You get to do a lot of things like go swimming, have a BBQ, play sports, go for a walk, and a lot more fun outdoor activities.

Another thing that’s great about summer is that there’s no school, you get to spend more time with your family, and hang out with friends in those 3 months of summer.

I personally really like summer because I get to do the one thing I love to do the most which is play soccer. I also go biking with friends every once in awhile and it’s really fun because I get to be with my friends and bond a little more with them outside of school. The views of places we find are amazing, the picture above is something I took during summer.

Something I really like is that towards the end of summer is when the soccer season starts and I get to watch all my favorite teams play and win.

The State Fair is another fun place to go, you get to go on a bunch of rides, eat all sorts of food and it is just a great place to go with your friends or family over the summer.

Similar to the State Fair, Valley Fair is also another cool and fun place to go with all sorts of rides and carnival games. Valley Fair has an aquatic park too so if it ever gets too hot you can always take a dip in the pool to cool yourself off during the summer heat.

So, you see, there’re many reasons why summer is the best season: from the 3 month summer break to all the outdoor activities. None of these things can be done or enjoyed as much as they are enjoyed in summer. During winter it gets too cold to eat cold snacks such as ice cream and popsicles. Same with drinks, it’s too cold to drink anything cold or with ice in it. After winter, in spring, it gets too muddy to go biking, play soccer, go on a walk and more. During fall, the temperature starts getting weird and random with random days of heat, cold and rain. These are the many reasons why summer is the best season.

By: Aliana Baumgardner-Romo

Throughout the year we experience different seasons of the weather. Each one has its ups and downs and a variety of things about them, although fall can easily be called the best.

Fall is the best season because the weather is just right, not too cold and not too hot. It has a crisp morning air and breeze which is just perfect to wear a sweater. It’s a good break after the long summer and the sun, to cool down. It’s also the period before winter, which becomes drastic and long after a while. The leaves begin to change colors where the trees display different shades of red, orange and yellow. It’s one of the prettiest things about fall and it’s perfect to be outside during this time.

One of the most special things about fall is to be able to enjoy some activities. Some of the most popular activities are hiking, apple picking, going to a local pumpkin patch or fall festival and corn maze. These activities are especially fun during the fall because you can get together with family and friends. Nothing is better than going to a pumpkin patch and coming home to carve the pumpkins.

Pumpkin is also centered a lot around fall. Pumpkin scented candles and pumpkin decorations are used all throughout fall. Many coffee shops release their fall menus, one of the most well known is the Starbucks pumpkin drinks. Usatoday.com says “The smells that are in a pumpkin spice latte are in lots of other things that are associated with this time of year very strongly — with positive memories like family Thanksgiving, or rustling fall leaves and going back to school.”

For students the fall also signifies the beginning of school and being able to rejoin a schedule. Along with being able to get back into the normal feel of things and regroup with friends. During the summer schedules are overturned and people become distant. Although during the fall students get back into school and parents are able to create their own schedules again. It’s a fresh start and a new school year; many people are excited to go back. Along with that fall sports and school activities make it significantly more fun. An example of this is football games and homecoming, which are some of the highlights towards going back to school.

The most major event towards fall is the holidays: Halloween and Thanksgiving. Halloween and spooky season has a huge impact on people today and the feeling it has around it is like no other. For kids, going trick or treating is a yearly highlight. Nothing beats dressing up and eating a lot of candy with friends, although there are many other things about halloween that makes it one of the funnest holidays, like haunted houses, decorations, haunted hayride, pumpkin carving, movies and much more. Overall, the spooky season has a huge impact on fall and how it’s celebrated.

On Thanksgiving it’s a perfect time to get together with family and friends to enjoy a meal. Thanksgiving allows us a day to relax and to be grateful with family.

Overall, fall is one of the funnest seasons for people and the feeling around it is like no other. Cozy weather, beautiful colors and festivities makes it extra special.

By: Mae Skold

Editor’s Note: The Plaid Line publishes editorials that contain opinions that are those of the student authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the the Plaid Line, HPSH, or its staff.

Scientology has a bigger presence in St. Paul, Minnesota than you may notice in other cities. They own a big beautiful building in downtown St. Paul that you’d never expect would have a cult behind closed doors. Through the friendly behavior and appeal of the grand building, Scientologists you may find in downtown St. Paul and in general may easily deceive you.

When entering the large building a greeter or receptionist will be there ready to welcome you and educate you on themselves and the building. The building has a nice cafe, library, work spaces, and more that add to the deceiving appeal. Though it may not seem like it, while you are talking they will gather any information about you to further try and lure you into the cult. Things like first and last names, addresses, occupations and more can just add to your trace where they will try to find you to put in further efforts to convert you.

Now why is their cult something to stay away from with all of these nice people and things? The cult uses brainwashing and criticism on its members to try and make them live their way of life. By degrading people they can convince them of needing repentance and salvation just further bringing them into the cult. The members are forbidden from using the internet, reading magazines, outside books, and more to keep them further secluded from the real world.

The Scientologists in St. Paul certainly use their big building as a luring strategy as it brings in curious people. They make sure to make people feel as though they are a part of something and have this initial sense of pure bliss before the vicious cycle of brainwashing begins. When in St. Paul make sure you admire this beautiful building from afar and spare yourself the Scientology rabbit hole.

By: Jasmine Williams

According to ‘Rolling Stone,’ the NAACP had issued a travel advisory warning Black Americans who were thinking about going to Florida. The NAACP has said, “[Florida is] openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” This is surprising because of how many people actually would or would have gone to Florida.

About 34.6 million domestic people went to Florida from January 1st to March 31st for vacation. The NAACP had stated, “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”

Ron DeSantis, the Florida Republican governor, is against diversity and inclusion. In 2022, he signed a bill that executed a ban on race topics being taught in schools. AP African American studies are inaccessible to students because he thinks it’s a political agenda. DeSantis said, “[T]he country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.”

DeSantis had tried to cover up the truth of discrimination of Black Americans now and in the past. DeSantis neglects Black Americans struggles and their history, showing how inconsiderate he is about Black people. Since they would ban AP African American studies, others would not be able to learn about the history behind African Americans and their struggles and be able to help them.

The president and CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, had said, “Let me be clear — failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all.”

Just before this advisory for Black Americans came, the LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, had announced an advisory to Latinos. DeSantis had put into place cruel penalties for undocumented people. It may be better to book your next flight to another place next vacation.

For more information, please go to:

● https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/21/us/naacp-florida-travel-advisory/index.html

● https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-issues-travel-advisory-florida

By: Charlie Boone

Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy’s corrupt and unfounded attacks on communism during the 40s and 50s, portraying the ideology as a vague, amorphous enemy have both directly and indirectly halted societal progress within the United States and influenced the right wing’s focus on culture war issues.

While a majority of McCarthy’s attacks were rooted in white supremacy, homophobia, and anti-semitism, many modern anti-communists lead with a different approach, depicting all socialization as tyrannical; typically citing nations with downfalls directly related to U.S. imperialism and intervention i.e. coups, sanctions, banana republics, etc. and blaming it all on the bogeyman of socialism. This depiction has done arguably the most damage, as it’s a very regular talking point to say that free healthcare and education are too radical, from both the left and the right. This is an intentional move from establishment capitalists, as well as the corporations in their pockets because, for example, if you explained to the average person that the LAPD was just given an extra $3.2 billion, as reported by the LA Times, and there are over 420,000 homeless people in the United States, and 37.9 million people live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, I think they would agree that there’s a problem.

According to the right, America is a meritocracy, and your material conditions are exclusively a product of how hard you work, rather than an amalgamation of systemic, historical, and personal circumstances. This characterization is very obviously not true, as a person born into a wealthy family will experience distinct advantages, both economically and socially, despite not working any harder than someone born into poverty or homelessness.

It’s also important to mention that in our current economic state, upward-class mobility is nearly impossible, despite the exceptions that are often highlighted to try to dismiss the problem. Obviously, hard work is important but if you looked at two people born in completely different economic situations, both working as hard as one another, their outcome is likely going to be drastically different, which again, most people would agree is a problem. With all of the barriers set up to avoid hiring people in poverty, as well as it being pretty much impossible to find a job if you are homeless, the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality simply does not work, especially in the United States where just under 900,000 Americans die in poverty, as cited by the University of Columbia in 2010, and 45,000 Americans die as a direct result of lack of access to healthcare each year according to a 2009 report by the Harvard Medical School.

The fundamental idea of capitalism is the maximization of profit for the corporation while spending the least amount of money on labor. This is important because the capitalist does not necessarily hate the worker, they simply view them as disposable, and a means to make a profit. This inevitably leads to an insane gap of wealth between the working class and the CEOs, where the workers are barely making a fraction’s worth of their labor.

My point here in explaining the exploitation and inherent inequality of capitalism is to say that without McCarthy and the general right’s demonization of communism and socialism, a much larger number of Americans would agree that the current system at the very least needs serious reform. I also believe that there would be a much larger number of prominent socialist politicians that aren’t constantly bogged down by the Democratic party without McCarthy’s direct career-ruining actions toward anyone who presented views anywhere close to anti-capitalist.

McCarthy’s accusatory and defamatory tactics have also proven to be incredibly influential in shaping the right wing’s focus on the “culture war’”. If you’re not familiar, the term culture war is used to describe a general polarization and stark divide between societal values, typically to distract voters from the fact that a majority of their frustrations are a direct result of capitalism. One of Joseph McCarthy’s commonly used tactics was to accuse his ideological enemies of not only being communists but also homosexuals, expanding the evil, amorphous fog sent out to destroy your family and attack your children.

Over time, the fog continued to grow, collecting more marginalized groups to scapegoat issues onto, as is always the case with fascism. In 2023 alone, the republican party has passed 75 anti-trans bills with 555 proposed in total, some being as egregious as making providing gender-affirming care to someone under 26 years old a felony for healthcare providers (OK SB129). Most Americans see this as ridiculous and fascistic, the same way they looked at Joseph McCarthy, but the rapid influence of far-right legislators and echo chambers continues to push culture war issues to the point of genocidal rhetoric.

Fascism is still very much alive and well in the United States, and the lack of action from the Democratic party is worrying. It’s becoming more and more apparent that many establishment Democrats would rather have a fascist in office than a progressive, and the continued push for “business as usual” neoliberal politics is going to swing that door wide open.

For more information, please visit:

• https://invisiblepeople.tv/capitalism-kills-nearly-1-million-americans-per-year/
• https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-277.html
• https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2010.300086
• https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-18/mayor-karen-bass-spending-plan-for-cops-and-homelessness-wins-council-approval
• https://translegislation.com/
• https://translegislation.com/bills/2023/OK/SB129
• https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-healthcare-medical-costs