Ya know what’s so great about sport? It transcends politics and hatred. We have a World Cup go off with few incidents (Turkey and South Korea linked arms and bowed to the crowd together after their match yesterday). The US and Iran, political enemies, played a soccer match in ‘98 without problems. But here’s the best story: Israeli Amir Hadad and Pakistani Aisamul Qureshi are playing doubles together at Wimbledon, and have made it thru to the third round. Despite this, the Pakistani government is outraged. Don’t they realize they no matter how much they hate the country’s politics, there are still decent people there? Who cares about Palestine when you’re playing tennis? Sheesh louise.The World Cup reminds me some of Harry Potter (and not only because of the Quidditch World Cup). For instance, they’re giving out the “Golden Boot” to the best player. I can see some guy like Dumbledore coming onto the field to give Ronaldo the trophy while Miroslav Klose tightens his upper lip. Now, you might be saying, Kev, what do you know about Harry Potter? I ended up reading the 2nd and 3rd books in the last couple days and I’m starting on the fourth one now. They’re damn good! I highly recommend them - first of all, you can read at least 100 pages an hour cuz of the way it’s written, so they fly by. Second, the characters are really well developed. Basically, it rocks in every way. Go buy them!

So while I hate to talk about the courts again this time, the Supreme Court actually did make an egregiously bad decision the other day that affects people our age. They said that, in a 5-4 decision, drug testing of random students is allowed by schools. Have they heard of the Fourth Amendment or does that not matter anymore? “The right of the people to be secure in their persons…against unreasonable searches and seizures…shall not be violated but upon probable cause.” It’s clear as day - they can’t search you or arrest you without a reason. And by nature, a random drug test is not a reason. This whole thing came up because of an Oregon school, too, I believe.

The majority opinion said that the school has “an important interest in preventing drug use.” They do. But they are not police. They are there to educate. Testing athletes for steroids - fine. Testing drama kids for pot - why? Are they less able to act if they get high on the weekends? I’d say that drug testing at work is just as bad. For one, urine tests don’t notice alcohol, cocaine or steroids. Two, wouldn’t it be easier to look at performance records to see bad performance than looking at what an employee does off the clock? Quite frankly, what you do off the clock or outside of school is your own business - not theirs. For the same reason that I don’t check racial boxes on forms, I would never submit to an unnecessary drug test. Protect your privacy. (And I’ve never done a drug in my life - it’s the principle that matters!)

As an aside, I saw an article yesterday that 9.4 percent of teenagers have done cocaine and that 4.8% have in the last 30 days. What the hell? I’d be amazed if that were true. One in ten? I’ve never heard of a single teenager hitting the lines, but then again, maybe I run with the wrong crowd. Or maybe the right crowd, as the case may be.

And since I’m on a clip about the courts, I did a little more research about the Pledge of Allegiance flap. I still stand by my conviction that it was the right decision. Here’s some more info: The mentions of God in Congress and the Supreme Court were also added during Eisenhower, along with “In God We Trust”. Mentions to God on money did exist on some coins from the Civil War until Teddy Roosevelt, but he (a very religious man) felt the use of God on money was sacrilige. I wonder what he’d think about the use of God to garner votes (ahem). Herbert Hoover, well-known as a model conservative leader, wouldn’t say “swear” at his inaguration (he used the alternative “affirm”) because of swear’s religious connotations. These guys understand what I understand - religion is for yourself, not for others. In fact, I would argue that if you really followed the Bible, Matthew 22:17-22:20 and Luke 20:21-20:25 clearly state that money should not be interlinked with God. “Give to Caeser what is Caeser’s and to God what is God’s.” I’m glad my future BU teacher Mr. Brudnoy has put the whole pledge scuffle into context.

Here’s my new Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States
to protect its freedom, its liberties and the pursuit of happiness
a shining beacon, e plubirus unum

Here’s why: The word “allegiance” comes from the word “liege”, which was a peasant that served a king or feudal lord. Sorta undemocratic, huh? If anything, our leaders should be pledging allegiance to us. So it’s gone. We’re pledging now to a Constitution, which has meaning, instead of a flag, which is a hollow symbol. The whole “liberty and justice” is changed into the second line of my new pledge. I added “a shining beacon” to echo the common sentiment in American history that we are a “shining beacon on a hill” - that is, an example to the world in everything we do. Finally, I put in the Motto of the United States. It’s not “In God We Trust” - it’s “E Plubirus Unum”, which is Latin for “One Nation out of many parts.” We are many states, many beliefs, many backgrounds forming a seamless quilt from many threads. It replaces the “Indivisible”, “Under God” and “Republic” parts of the old one. Better, huh? I would proudly say this pledge if it were at school.Hey, I got a job? Tight. It’s wac - I have to serve crazy old people at Churchill Estates. But a job’s a job, right? I find out if the arcade will hire me next week. Please hire me, arcade!

Was Rachel Carson a fake? My high school has (I guess it’s “had” now - that seems weird, huh?) an Environmental Studies school called the Rachel Carson center and I saw a thing about her life. She truly did a lot to get chemicals banned that were killing many raptor species (like bald eagles). However, it turns out a lot of her science was bad. She claimed humans were dying of DDT, which the National Institute of Health and most researchers say is not true. DDT also had the little effect of killing mosquitos, and it’s nonuse since Carson has allowed malaria to come back to many areas, killing literally millions a year. Perhaps next Spring will be Silent only cuz all the people are dying of mosquito-borne diseases.

So the SAT is changing for 2005. Bad idea, I say. They changed it cuz the whiny Cal system wanted a test to test actual knowledge, not simply “aptitude” or reasoning. So the SAT axed analogies, quantitative reasoning and added an essay. Does Cal realize that they could simply make applicants take the SAT 2 writing and it’d be the same thing as the new SAT? For me personally, it wouldn’t have mattered - I did wicked good on the SAT 2 Writing (I woulda had at least 2340/2400 under the new scoring), but I still like the old SAT. Quantitative Reasoning is a skill, not something from a curiculum. Knowing how to decipher meaning from words you don’t know is a skill. This stuff is important. Essays are too easily subject to the whims of the grader and are also subject to biases. For instance, a family that immigrated from Mexico might answer a question about history different from Joe Q from Brooklyn. I thought they wanted to get rid of biases. It’s wac, in an ycase.

Ok, world cup time. Go Brazil!