FOUR
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The Emery
The official student newspaper of
Huron High School
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Staff
Andrew Alson
Gena Harris
Jack Harrison
Kara Kozma
Jack Kroll
Karley Misek
Sydney Neeb
Samantha Ruud
Alyssa Salamin
Cierra Slater
Shannon Stocking
Anna Weigel
Ian Wilson
George White
Adviser: Sara-Beth Badalamente
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The Emery
Staff Policy
The Emery, a newspaper produced
for and by the students of Huron High
School, will provide the student body with
information pertinent to events, activities
and issues that affect HHS students.
Letters to the editor are encouraged by
The Emery’s staff. Letters may pertain to
an article written or simply act as a form
of student expression. All letters must
be deemed publishable by the Editorial
Board including the adviser. They should
be 200 words or less but may be edited
for content of length. All letters to the
Editor must be signed. To send a letter to
the Editor students may drop them in the
publications room (room 4203)
Five hundred
Staff Editorial thousand: a number
many people would
expect to be seen
at an important event, a parade, an election
day or perhaps an inauguration. The truth is
different however. Those half a million people
did not attend President Donald Trump’s
inauguration, but rather the women’s march
in D.C. the day after. Our country is entering
into an era of strife in which many would
argue that our rights to protest and petition
the government have become more important
than ever, and they’re not wrong.
The current president has enacted many
executive orders that have inflamed tensions
around the nation, including the immigration
ban, passing actions to continue the Dakota
Access Pipeline, and also the beginning
of the Mexican border wall. This has
Conservative Corner
Do cabinet picks tell the real story?
Jack Harrison | STAFF WRITER Make it easier for third party candidates to be
Our politicians are
constantly proposing and
implementing public policy.
Legislation and executive
actions are regularly being
carried out. Treaties and
agreements are signed.
Policies are abolished as new
ones are being crafted.
These are all measures taken by the U.S.
government in an attempt to improve the
economy and the lives of citizens. However,
we all know it is nearly impossible for all
citizens to benefit from a law or regulation.
So, we must ask ourselves: do the people
we elect really have our backs? Am I one
of the citizens they consider when making
decisions?
When people campaign for office, they run
off a platform- their stances on the issues.
And with this platform comes many promises
they hope will help them get elected as they
try to demonstrate their ability to bring
desired change.
But there’s one problem; it is nearly
impossible to fulfill such promises because of
obstacles they cannot always control, but the
influence they are susceptible to.
An example of an uncontrollable factor is
when there are dissenting opinions to the
point where no agreement can be reached. If
the opinion is only supported by the minority
party in Congress, this can prevent the
passage of a policy. This can be changed if
people are willing, but it is very difficult to do
by just one candidate.
There are outside influences bombarding that take money away from public schools
candidates including pressure from their own
party or as well as pressure from the opposing
party leaders. Also, special interest lobbying
can cause an office holder to change their
stance along with only taking actions that
gain positive media coverage. Though they do
have control over how much influence others
have, it is a difficult balance.
The issue here is politicians in general have
to focus on getting re-elected and to do that,
they must maintain donors and incumbent
sponsorships. That being said, many office
holders focus on this more so than their
messages. Something for you to think about
opinion
disenfranchised many groups of people
across the nation and has had an overall
negative global reaction causing many people
worldwide to denounce these actions taken
by the current administration. Although these
acts have been passed by our president we
must remember that his government officials,
however bad they seem, are people too. We
must use our First Amendment to show this
current government what we feel about these
acts, we must protest, we must petition them,
but we have to do it right.
The various protests that have been happening
nationwide within the last two years have
had many of them spark into full scale riots,
whether it was due to police reaction to the
protest, outside antagonizers or it may have
just started out that way. These protests have
gained notoriety but the cause the people were
trying to bring to light were forgotten in the
is how this could be changed? Term limits?
elected?
President Donald Trump (and yes, he is
your president if you are reading this) ran on
a platform of fighting corruption and the D.C.
elitists. Trump is a businessman- someone
from the private sector and not from the
political class. Because of this, he is actually
better equipped to bring change; regardless of
whether you feel it is good or bad, as he’s not
going to engage in typical career politician
behavior. This is what many of his voters
believed and why his message resonated so
well with so many.
The President signed orders to repeal
the affordable healthcare act, taken steps to
defend the right to life, impose term limits,
cut down on regulations and withdraw from
trade agreements, all of which he campaigned
on doing. So he’s kept his word…he did what
he said he was going to do…or so I thought,
until assessing his administration selections.
Most of his administration contradicts his
message, perhaps the only time I’ll agree with
Senator Chuck Schumer in my lifetime. They
seem to represent what the President said
he was going to fight against and hopefully
eliminate. Although I feel he has some great
picks, such as Nikki Haley, Elaine Chao,
General Mattis and General Kelly, there are
many who represent the complete opposite of
Trump’s message, so let’s take a deeper look.
On the campaign trail, Trump said, “I have
been consistent in my opposition to Common
Core. Get rid of Common Core.”
However, he appoints Betsy DeVos, who
advocates Common Core, voucher programs
and stands against teacher unions.
“Who’s better off ? The kids who use
vouchers to go to the school of their choice,
or the ones who choose to stay in public
school? All of them. That’s the way it works
in a competitive system, ” Trump said in
2002.
Ummmmm…Donald, this is not the case.
It’s the complete opposite. Perhaps you
appointed DeVos because of funding ties-
and that she donated $927,600 to various
legislators.
Trump talked heavily against Wall Street
and said this in January of 2016, “I know
process. This was not the case with the most
recent Muslim ban protests and the women’s
march. Those nationwide protests were
peaceful and showed the passion of millions
of people nationwide uniting under a single
cause: stopping this administration from
reducing people’s rights. These protests were
covered worldwide and not only were they
amicable, but they were effective as less than a
week after the Muslim ban protests at airports
across the country the Trump administration
said they would allow U.S. green card holders
into the country, as they previously were not.
This shows that courteous action can sway
people, and we must use this to our advantage
within the next four years. We need to stand
up, we need to have our voices be heard, we
need to peacefully protest.
Wall Street. I know the people on Wall
Street...I’m not going to let Wall Street get
away with murder. Wall Street has caused
tremendous problems for us.”
So who does Trump appoint as Treasurer,
Steven Mnuchin who made millions off of
the bankruptcy of others and seized people’s
homes. Well you certainly do know Wall
Street, so much so you appoint one of them!
Additionally, many members of Trump’s
cabinet have business ties, making us
wonder if measures will be taken to aid
their business ties when in office. How do
we know Rex Tillerson, Andrew Puzder,
Tom Price and Scott Pruitt are not going to
promote policies to advance their ties? We
have already seen Price advance legislation to
promote investments and Pruitt work with oil
companies as attorney general in Oklahoma.
The bottom line is that none of these
appointees have real experience in their
departments. Also, although Ben Carson is
a great guy, he has no experience in housing
development. Rick Perry did great things
for Texas. However, he has no experience
managing energy and actually said he would
abolish the department in 2011.
“When I get there [The White House]
there’ll be three agencies I’ll end: commerce,
education and energy...”
Trump certainly did bring change with his
administration. I am pleased with his choice
in selecting generals, but since Trump’s the
outsider, isn’t he supposed to appoint people
with political experience-not people like
himself ? Wasn’t the idea to surround himself
with people who could guide him based on
they have learned on the job in government?
Only 47 percent of Trump’s cabinet has
government experience. In the last four
president’s cabinets, there have been over
80 members with government experience.
Furthermore, 28% of his cabinet has CEO
experience and not one person has a PhD.
This country has many qualified and
faithful politicians, but society needs to hold
our politicians accountable when they do not
stick to their word and when they engage in
improper political activity. That’s not what
government is for. Government is for the
people, and not meant for hypocrites who
undermine the people.