Reacting to Recount

Students in CORE Charter School recently viewed the movie Recount. Please comment and react to the movie. I would like to start a conversation about the events surrounding the 2000 election. What exactly happened in Florida?

Lio's Article

October 21, 2008

Post~Crescent

Teenagers question police profiling in park

Article's Page

I would like to respond to the Oct. 2 editorial, "Neenah park rules seem unnecessary."

I'm one the Goth kids who goes to the beloved Doty Park in Neenah. Not long ago, when my friends and I were hanging out, talking to old friends and just being teenagers, we were called to the side by one of Neenah's finest, who told us that we needed a permit to hang out in a public park.

My friends and I took a stand by trying to enforce our own civil rights and told the cop that he was stereotyping.

Now considered a counterculture to the community, society's vexation on us kids led us to a place where we wouldn't be judged, where we could be among friends and help each other deal with the aspects of our lives that society would rather ignore.

I also want to thank all the friends who stood by my side. Together, we will show that this permit is just another result of people thinking we're intimidating because we wear black, and we are fighting against what society thinks of us.

They don't know who we are and what we stand for, which is why we get accused of the vandalism and profanity just because of our appearance.

Now, I'm not saying that we are all perfect angels who don't have records for past social misconduct, but we know who we are and we have respect for this place that the citizens are trying to deprive us from.

Doty Park is a sanctuary for kids to go to escape the worries of this world, a haven from parents who tell us we will never amount to anything, from parents who hit us with fists and verbal attacks and from the society that made us who we are today.

Emilio A. Romenesko, age 17, Appleton

WLUK

About two Sundays ago I woke up around 12:30. I noticed that I totally just missed thirty minutes of the Green Bay Packer game. So knowing it's always on channel 12 (WLUK) I ran down my stairs and flipped on the channel. All I got was a foolish little kiddie show that my little cousin who's three years old would watch. Nope, the Packers aren't on TV anymore. I get to watch the Colts on ESPN, and some other NFL team on a little bit later, but not my Green Bay Packers who play in Green Bay thirty minutes away. So Time Waner Cable has banned WLUK where the big Fox 11 News was and where thousands would watch the Green Bay Packers play. I was confused on why I wasn't able to watch the Packers like I used to for the many previous years. So heres an article from the Post Crescent on this problem. Read it and tell me what you think..

WLUK gone from Time Warner Cable

WLUK TV is not on Time Warner Cable this morning, and viewing of Sunday’s Green Bay Packers game on the cable system is in question.

The station’s parent company, LIN TV, and Time Warner corporate officials did not come to an agreement for retransmission consent by the deadline of midnight Thursday.

So the channel is blocked for about 150,000 Time Warner customers throughout northeastern Wisconsin.
A Time Warner statement on the screen where WLUK normally airs says, “By refusing us an extension, LIN TV pulled WLUK from Time Warner Cable.”

Negotiations continued past 11 p.m. and Time Warner asked for a 24-hour extension, said William Harke, spokesman for Time Warner in this region. LIN did not agree, and the station was pulled, Harke said.

In a statement on WLUK’s Web site today, vice president and general manager Jay Zollar said it has tried for several months to reach an agreement.
“We are disappointed in the outcome of our negotiations with Time Warner, especially since we have successfully reached deals with every major cable, satellite and telecommunications company who recognize our fair market value,” Zollar said. “We will continue to negotiate with Time Warner. Unfortunately, we do not know if, or when, we will reach an agreement.”It’s estimated that 2.7 million Time Warner subscribers receive one of LIN stations.

Time Warner’s Web site today offered this in a letter to customers from Time Warner Cable Wisconsin president Jack Herbert: “We have been negotiating in good faith, but the decision to remove WLUK from our channel line-up was made by LIN TV and WLUK, not by Time Warner Cable.

We asked WLUK FOX 11 for an extension of our agreement allowing us to keep this channel on your lineup. They said ‘No.’”Other options for viewing WLUK include over the air with an antenna or via the Dish Network, DirecTV or AT&T in certain areas.Time Warner is offering free antennas and A/B switches so customers may watch WLUK programming over the air. The equipment will be available at Time Warner’s payment service centers in Green Bay, Appleton and Oshkosh.“We’ll have a lot of people at our stores passing out antennas and giving away instructions on how to install the antennas and some instructions on our Wisconsin On Demand station as well,” Harke said.

The apparent center of the dispute is the compensation that LIN is asking for Time Warner to air its stations’ programming.Besides the Packers, scheduled to appear on Fox eight more times this season, Time Warner customers also would miss shows like “The Simpsons” and baseball’s National League Championship Series and two World Series games.

THANK YOU

I would like to thank all of the students and parents who attended the 2nd Annual CORE Charter Pancake Dinner. The students did a wonderful job of demonstrating their progress to their parents. I would also like to thank Mrs. Van Hout for all of the hard work that she did to make the dinner possible. The groceries, supplies, and griddles, made the cooking and camaraderie possible.

Post Crescent Article

One of my classmates in Core Charter School Kimberly relates to this article from The Post Crescent issued October 2nd 2008. This is very interesting and close to home. So if you can read it and state your opinion, that woud be awesome.

Neenah Park Rules Seem Unnecessary

As many as 40 to 60 Goth teens apparently have been congregating on the weekends in Neenah's Doty Park, alarming city officials to the point that they've enacted a series of new rules to discourage them from hanging out there.

Now, any group of 15 or more people must obtain a permit to gather in all Neenah parks after 8 p.m.; park users may not smoke within 100 feet of any park building, athletic field or playground; and anyone cited for violating park rules or city ordinances in parks twice within a year will be evicted from city parks for an additional year. Also, a chaperone 21 years or older is required for every 10 minors.

The rules came on the heels of complaints about the Goths, who typically dress in black clothing and don black hair and dramatic makeup.
Some residents complained about the kids' use of profanity, underage smoking, littering, property damage and intimidating other park users.

Though Neenah Mayor George Scherck said that these kids aren't being singled out for their appearance and the new rules equally apply to any large group, even "senior citizens dressed in pink," we wonder if the city would have been so quick to act if large groups of, say, preppy kids, were hanging out in the park.

Sure, it's understandable that so many teens, especially if they're dressed all in black, might seem intimidating to an unsuspecting mother taking her toddler to swing at the park.
However, it's the behavior that city and park officials should be concerned about — and what they should be able to address with ordinances already on the books, such as underage smoking or vandalism.

If these kids — or any park-goers — are breaking the rules, by all means, ticket them. But to step up police patrols just for the sheer volume of teens who are hanging out together seems like a $1,000 remedy for a 10-cent problem.

We wonder if police will enforce the new rules on everyone. Will family reunions, for instance, need to secure a permit before having a picnic in the park?

Or is Neenah just looking for a way to clear its parks of one group whose problem may lie in perception only?

What do you think of this?