Dissent Through the Streets of France

President Macron and his government are considering a state of emergency. The “Yellow Vests”, the people protesting the rising gas prices and taxes on polluting forms of transport, have been staging several demonstrations in the past three weeks and click here for the full article on CNN.
           The deeper issue France is experiencing with its civilians is the large dividing gap between the metropolitan elite and the rural poor. These growing tensions are because of Macron and the policies he has introduced as the new president of France. He won the election back in 2017 through a run-off because no candidate won a majority vote in the first round. The run-off was held between the top two candidates; Macron just had to win a majority against Marine Le Pen. As the acting President of France, Macron is fighting the dissenters, “Yellow Jackets”, with a chemical that is illegal in war.
           These protests are taking place in the streets of Paris, France. The citizens of Paris are lashing out against the rise of prices and taxes. More than 400 people were arrested and there were 133 people injured on Saturday. However, as the protests continue, the number of participants is decreasing. The first weekend had 113,000 participants, the second weekend had 53,000, and this past weekend had 36,000. Similar to what’s happened in the past days at the American-Mexican Border, the French government also released tear gas to disperse the protestors. Tear gas causes severe eye and respiratory pain, skin irritation, bleeding, and even blindness according to the Washington Post. In addition, this chemical weapon is illegal in war, but legal in domestic violence control. How does this make sense? This painful agent is illegal to use on nations we are at war with, so why is it okay to use as a way to control our own nation's rioting civilians? Is it fair for the unhappy french people to be suppressed or should their government try and fix the issue at hand?

A Drug Most Americans Take Every Morning

Why do we drink coffee? Many high schoolers drink it to stay attentive in the mornings for classes, or it aids in keeping them awake to finish important assignments due the next day. Furthermore, coffee is everywhere. It’s in stores, easily made at home, or offered at schools. Because of the easy accessibility, teenagers are more likely to drink it because of the helpful effects to stay awake. Surprisingly with coffees easy access and acceptance as a normality to drink in society, caffeine is considered a drug.

Caffeine has many other drug-like effects such as a rise in anxiety. It has more than just an increase of anxiety on the brain, but also causes a lack in sleep. This threatens the ability for the drinker of the caffeine functionality throughout the day or the next day depending on when it was drunk. In addition, the drug dehydrates the cells of whoever drank the caffeinated beverage. These effects make high school increasingly more difficult as its challenging to begin with.

Many people falsely disagree about the importance of sleep and how it can affect a students performance in school. A lack of sleep causes a student to drink caffeine that leads to a quick boost of energy, but then a dramatic decrease in ability to pay attention in later classes. Sleep also contributes to growth and brain development. A high schoolers brain undergoes “synaptic pruning” throughout their childhood whenever the student falls asleep. If they get less sleep, this occurs less often. It’s important for this process to occur in the brain because it increases the efficiency of neuronal transmissions. These neurons are responsible for receiving and transmitting information that gets sent throughout the body. Caffeine decreases this process and overall causes more harmful effects than good. Even with these facts, do you think teens are gonna stop consuming caffeine? What do you believe is the leading cause in youth drinking coffee and why? Click here for more information about what caffeine is and its other effects on the rest of a persons body.

Expelled

           India Landry, an African American student at Windfern High School in Texas got expelled from her school for simply not doing one thing- standing up and reciting the pledge. India was 17 when she first chose not to stand up with the rest of her classmates. Her teacher immediately sent her to the principals office. Principal Martha Strother told India "Well, you're kicked outta here" and the school has been in a legal battle with India and her mom ever since.
            She silently sat in her seat following Colin Kaepernicks example of kneeling. Kaepernick is a football player who knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality on African Americans. He actively exercised his freedom of protest in front of all of america. 
            India is fighting for her right to freedom of speech, but Texas politicians say she's crossing the line when she refuses to stand and pledge to her country. Twenty three other states have similar rules regarding students in public schools required to recite the pledge. If you want to read more about this topic click here for more. However, does the state have the right to force students to say the pledge? Does this cross the line for freedom of speech?