The Witches' Brew
Fall 2020
The Witches' Brew is Also a Podcast!
by Jeremy Kilburn
The Witches’ Brew is introducing a new form of news with a podcast! Each episode, we’ll read students' articles in the most recent issue of the newspaper and examine each one. Each article will include an interesting dialogue between head editors Bruce Gregg and Molly Morse-Belcher, and writer Jeremy Kilburn. This podcast will bring you all the information you need about our school community along with some fun commentary. We hope you’ll tune in!
The New Fall
by Molly Morse-Belcher
This year has brought a lot of changes with it. Although we have returned to the school building, many things are different. There are no football games for students to participate in or watch. The pep rally can’t occur, and dancing with our friends at homecoming is no longer an option. Even Halloween has to change in the wake of COVID. Greenwich students, and the community in general, find themselves nostalgic for past years, and it is hard to not get lost in that feeling.
The positive side is that things have eased since March, and students and teachers are able to return to school, even if the format has changed. However, many of us still worry. One sick student can alter our fall even more by causing Greenwich to have to completely return to online learning. Keeping to COVID guidelines is even more important now, as we have something big to lose. This thought can cloud the ability of both teachers and students to appreciate the fall and all the fun activities that come with it. Despite our new COVID-based restrictions, there are still many activities that are COVID safe to do during the fall.
Hudson Crossing Park, located on Lock 5 Island in Schuylerville, offers many fall activities, such as haunted history talks and a jack-o-lantern trail walk on October 30th. Of course, walking the trails and enjoying the beautiful foliage is always a great way to experience the season. The Salvation Army held a weekend of drive-in movies during the week of October 9th at the Washington County Fairground. Many businesses based in Greenwich, such as Wicked Wicks, host safe events on the weekends.
Businesses in Saratoga have been hosting Zoom meetings when it is safer to not gather in person. Northshire Bookstore has readings and Q&As with many authors, including popular ones like Neil Gaiman. Caffe Lena, a concert venue, has created a way for artists to have an online audience.
Even groups within the school have been working towards creating a COVID safe fall and winter for everyone. The FFA has even found a way to make the holiday favorite, Breakfast with Santa, a socially distanced celebration with plans to create goodie bags with crafts as well as a signed picture of Santa for kids. This event is something many in the community look forward to, and because of the creativity of Greenwich students and staff, it can still happen.
Although this year has changed our fall drastically, we have all still found a way to work through it. We can identify with each other’s feelings and worries, and become kinder because of that. Our local and school community have created events that can still be put on safely despite all the restrictions. Change is always hard, but together we have found a way to make the new fall brighter.
For more information on places hosting socially distanced events, check out these websites:
Climate Clock
by Bruce Gregg
The massive digital clock looking over Union Square, New York, had been displaying a 24-hour clock for over twenty years, but recently the clock displayed a different, more daunting number.
Unannounced on September 19th, the clock suddenly displayed “7:103:15:40:07,” the remaining time before the detrimental effects of climate change become irreversible. The new display on the clock is an installation piece by artists Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd, meant to emphasize the critical time period we have to save the Earth from climate destruction.
According to the New York Times, over the past 40 years the average temperature in the Arctic has increased by 2.3 degrees Celsius, warming at almost twice the rate of the global average. Humans are slowly becoming the most prominent cause of global warming, due to our burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and air pollution releasing tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Although these gases are naturally-occuring, humans have created a dangerously overabundant amount of these gases, leading to an unnatural changing of our climate.
If humans were to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and reach a net amount of zero carbon dioxide emissions, we might still have a chance at Earth’s recovery.
Reaching a net amount of zero would require a viable alternative to the burning of fossil fuels like solar or hydroelectric energy production, a drastic reduction in deforestation, and a decreased use of fertilizers containing nitrogen.
On a smaller scale, the decreased use of plastics, advocating for better energy policies, and spreading awareness of these issues all contribute to correcting the effects of climate change. Everybody can do their part.
Although Earth is approaching the point where there is no turning back and the effects become irreversible, there is still limited time left. Union Square’s “climate clock” shocked many as the time displayed was so short. Our society has been killing the Earth for decades, but only recently started to truly acknowledge the issue.
Photo Credit:
The Metronome, a famous art installation in Union Square that used to display the time of day, has been repurposed into a "Climate Clock" for Climate Week NYC. Zack Winestine
https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-clock-nyc-2020-2647728828.html
Unnamed by Jen Barbur
The Supreme Court Seat
by Lola Davidson
Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg passed away on September 18, 2020, leaving behind a seat on the Supreme Court. President Donald Trump has since nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett was also appointed by the president to serve in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Senate hearings took place the week of October 11th and the Senate is likely to vote on October 26th.
The nomination and hearings are exceptionally controversial because the presidential election has already begun and there is a push from both sides of the aisle to allow the people to vote and choose who selects the next Justice. If Judge Barrett is confirmed, then she is expected to play a crucial role in attempting to overturn legislation such as the Affordable Care Act and Roe vs. Wade, giving women the right to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. Affordable healthcare and women’s rights to health care are traditionally more liberal agendas, which sparked the question of whether or not Vice President Biden would pack the court upon victory if Judge Barrett is confirmed. It has been a discussion in the debates and the town hall that recently took place.
The issue was polarized further when the fact that Amy Coney Barrett has close affiliations with and held the position of “handmaid” in the religious group the People of Praise was reported. According to the Washington Post, “Barrett lived with the People of Praise’s influential co-founder Kevin Ranaghan and his wife, Dorothy, who helped establish the group’s male-dominated hierarchy and views of gender roles”. Numerous members of the People of Praise have come forward with their experiences. One woman stated that “she was instructed by elders not to “emasculate” her peers by getting the better of them in conversation.”
Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns in Barrett’s ability to separate her religious beliefs from her interpretation of the Constitution. She is a self-proclaimed originalist and textualist, “meaning that she interprets the law strictly according to its text without considering the larger goals of the legislators who wrote it (The Hill, Katie Scofield)”. Many Americans view this philosophy as practical because Justices are appointed to interpret and apply the law, not create it. Others argue that this philosophy sets the country back and that society is supposed to interpret the Constitution differently with time.
For more information on the process of confirming a Supreme Court Justice, the background on Amy Coney Barrett, and the view/expectations of lawmakers and political analysts you should check out NPR’s podcast Consider This:
Big Library Read via SORA!
We all have access to the Big Read: Reverie by Ryan La Sala, via our SORA accounts! Click HERE to learn more about the book and the program!
The Struggle with Depression & Anxiety
by Kylie Young
The struggle with depression and anxiety has only increased in teens each generation. So many teens have or are struggling with both, and it is not easy. The feeling of being lost and giving up, being so tired constantly that you can’t even get out of bed, the fear of walking up to someone and being rejected, or the fear of being out of place and alone in a room full of people are things teenagers fight against every day. Every generation has experienced all of that, but Generation Z seems to struggle much more than earlier generations.
With all the advancements in this generation compared to earlier generations, mass shootings have increased. In 2018 there were 94 incidents alone. With so many teens today struggling, a big question would be: what are older generations misunderstanding about what these teens are dealing with?
Older generations see our generation as a bunch of kids with our heads stuck in a screen. Of course, the truth is teens today are stuck in our screens, but for different reasons. Our screens are a way of escaping reality and escaping the anxiety and stress filling our brains. Many teens have grown up surrounded with expectations and the stress of those very expectations are what teens are trying to escape from.
The New York Times wrote a paper titled “What Do Older Generations Misunderstand About Teenagers Today”(3). The paper is a great way for teens to engage. At the end of the article, it asks students to answer questions and allow people to understand what may be going on in the head of a Gen Z teenager. The comments themselves give you insight into how teenagers process everything that is going on with their mental health and the impact of screens.
Year by year, the number of reported cases of depression and anxiety has mostly increased. The struggle with mental health in teenagers of Gen Z is real. So many wrestle with feelings and thoughts of acting or looking a certain way because of what society has told them. The struggle is real and has to be eased. We have lost too many people who were young because of depression leading to suicide. Depression and anxiety walk hand and hand while they fight a war in your head everyday. Don’t allow all the thoughts from the war in your head get to you.
(If you ever need anyone to talk to there is a crisis text line you can contact. All you have to do is follow the steps within https://www.crisistextline.org/. You can talk to someone to just vent without actually talking to someone in person or on the phone if that is uncomfortable.)
(1)https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2019/03/18/mental-health
(2) https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/gen-z
Image (below) Credit:
(%’s of problems stressors cause on ages 13-17 in the U.S)
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/02/27/generation-z-is-stressed-depressed-and-exam-obsessedGreenwich-Based Student Organization Addresses Uighur Genocide
by Lauren Chuhta
Genocide- it’s a word most people relegate to history books, and that is why those in our midst get overlooked. However, a group of self-organized, Greenwich-based students are not only opening their minds to look past this misconception, but are taking action against it. You can assist these efforts.
Over one million Uighurs and members of other Turkic minorities are estimated to have been ensnared in China’s “reeducation programs,” since 2017. Estimates such as these are difficult to obtain; access to the “schools” are extremely limited, and the few outside reporters who are admitted recount eerily staged conditions and an on-edge manner in the “students,” who are of every age and gender.
We do know for certain some of the ways these Uighurs are exploited. While we were having our bonfires and fireworks this past July, the U.S. intercepted a 13-ton shipment of cosmetic products made of human hair being exported from the region of these reeducation programs. This disturbing find prompted further investigation, and it was discovered that the CCP, or Chinese Communist Party, is in the midst of undertaking a campaign to forcibly sterilize 80 percent of Uighur women who are able to bear children; Uighur birthrates have already plummeted 84% (from 2015-2018) in China’s two major Uighur districts (Quinn). And in 2019, the China Tribunal (a NGO based in London) reported to the UN Human Rights Council that the CCP was forcibly harvesting organs from Uighurs and other Turkic minorities to enlarge their organ bank (Martin). China denied this claim, but they had also denied that their “re-education camps” even existed until aerial footage of these buildings reached the global press (Quinn).
Check your shoes. Check your sweatpants, your shirt, your backpack. Companies ranging from Adidas to Tommy Hilfiger to L.L. Bean have been linked to the forced labor of Uighur Muslims (Press Release)- are you unknowingly contributing? You can find the full list of companies here.
It’s something out of a horror film, and it’s easiest to just turn around, pretend you don’t know that it’s happening, and pretend you can’t do anything about it. However, a group of Greenwich-based students are picking up the challenge of denying these impulses, and in turn are making it easier for others like you to do the same.
Communicating virtually, we have put together an informational Instagram page (@wecanhelptheuighurs) and are in the midst of designing an apparel sale that will launch this November 4th. Funds will be donated to the Uighur Human Rights Project and be put towards researching the details of the genocide as well as providing aid to Uighur refugees.
The Uighurs targeted in this genocide have natural-born rights, no different than the students and staff here at Greenwich Jr/Sr High School. We are privileged to live in conditions that enable us to act against this inhumanity rather than be subject to it. You can support the cause for Uighur liberation via this local student organization by…
Following @wecanhelptheuighurs or another informational social media page for petitions, boycotts, and other ways to take action against the genocide.
Supporting our apparel sale! At the moment, our design team is working hard to make that a reality, but this November 4th, our online store will be ready to go! You will be able to find its link in the bio of @wecanhelptheuighurs on Instagram, or you can email Lauren Chuhta (22lchuhta@greenwichcsd.org) and let her know that you are interested in receiving the link when it is available.
Spreading the word. Do what you can to be the voice the Uighurs need, advocate their cause and inform others of this crisis. It can be as simple as bringing it up with friends and family or sharing information about it on social media.
It takes more than the UN to end a genocide and save the Uighurs. It takes the people. It takes the spare thought to bring up this crisis with others, the spare minute of your day to read and learn about it, the spare second to reshare a source of valuable information or a petition on social media. It takes you having your next favorite sweatshirt advocate the Uighur cause rather than advertise a brand that exploits it. It takes you.
References:
Martin, Will. “China Is Harvesting Thousands of Human Organs from Its Uighur Muslim Minority, UN Human-Rights Body Hears.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 25 Sept. 2019, www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-uighur-muslims-china-tribunal-tells-un-2019-9.
Quinn, Jimmy. “The Uyghur Genocide.” National Review, National Review, 8 Sept. 2020, www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/09/21/the-uyghur-genocide/.
“(Press Release): 180+ Orgs Demand Apparel Brands End Complicity in Uyghur Forced Labour.” Uyghur Human Rights Project, 23 July 2020, uhrp.org/press-release/press-release-180-orgs-demand-apparel-brands-end-complicity-uyghur-forced-labour.html.Photo Credit: Demonstrators take part in a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Berlin on Dec. 27, 2019, to call attention to Chinas mistreatment of members of the Uyghur community in western China. (John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images) https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/15/uighur-muslims-china-human-rights
Op/Ed: the Education System
by Bruce Gregg
The basis of our current Common Core curriculum prioritizes five subjects: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Technical Studies. The entire curriculum is based around what we know and what it all scientifically means. Currently, the system has no true subject that touches philosophical issues like why we exist, the meaning of life, and how to maximize your time while you’re alive. As of right now, the education system is only shaping people to be prepared for college, which prepares them for a career where they work five days a week, vacation once a year, and die alone.
After ranting to one of my fellow classmates about my thoughts while we ate snacks, I attempted to develop the skeleton for what I believe could gradually become the new normal in education, “SPTC: Science, Philosophy, Tools, and Culture.”
The main idea of the SPTC education system is to treat Science and Philosophy as the two highest prioritized subjects. Science, the study of the unknown, and Philosophy, the interpretation of the known. If these two subjects were prioritized over everything else, it would explain why we have meaning as an existence to children, fulfilling an existential gap in the system.
Although Science and Philosophy are the most prioritized, the system is not meant to diminish the importance of other subjects.
The “Tools” Section of the system focuses on the “tools” we use to communicate and understand science and philosophy. For example, mathematics is a tool to understand the occurrences in science. Language is a way we as humans communicate with each other and discuss philosophy. These “tool-based” subjects are less emphasized than science and philosophy, although just as important. Tools don’t have a deeper significance themselves, but without the tools, our achievements as a society in the fields of science and philosophy would never have happened, or ever progress.
The final department of the SPTC system, Culture, is an additional study of the cultural movements within our society, such as film, music, or the arts in general. These classes would turn into what we currently know as electives. These subjects are similar to the level of prioritization as the tools, as they show how we as humans perceive and analyze science and culture, and how we project our observations to each other.
SPTC would work as a credit-based curriculum. Each class would be worth a certain amount of credit in each of the four departments. For instance, History studies what we know, the past, how we have communicated with each other in the past, and what we can predict in the future. History would be worth a certain amount of credits for each of the four departments, depending on which departments the class emphasizes the most in its curriculum.
When placing Science and Philosophy at the top of the pyramid, the education system would improve drastically. School would obtain more philosophical meaning where children could understand why they exist, rather than feel existentially meaningless. We would continue to educate students on how to approach their future, as well as adapt to each students’ individual needs and interests. The SPTC system would take decades to become the new normal, as we have such a strong foundation of our current system throughout history. However, with gradual changes, progress thinking, and open mindsets, eventually we could change our system for the better.
The Witches' Brew
Bruce Gregg
Molly Morse-Belcher
Contributors
Jennifer Barbur
Lauren Chuhta
Lola Davidson
Jeremy Kilburn
Kylie Young
Advisors
Robin Bristol
Nicole Carner
Email: ncarner@greenwichcsd.org
Website: https://grwh-wswhe.narvi.opalsinfo.net/bin/home
Location: 10 Gray Avenue, Greenwich, NY, USA
Phone: (518) 692-2249