Federal Holiday or Free Day Off?

As you might know veterans day is happening soon but school is still in session for a lot of schools including New Trier. Veterans day is a federal holiday celebrated to remember veterans of the military. Since it is a federal holiday some people might argue that we should get the school day off as well. Many students and teachers argue that they have relatives that are actively serving or had served in the past, and this day should be used to respect their service to our country. Other students and teachers argue that the day is not usually used to celebrate the holiday and is only used for a day off in school. Veterans day is one of two federal holidays we don't get off at school, the other being Columbus day. While I don't believe that we should get Columbus day off since Columbus did some terrible things to native Americans, there is nothing harmful about celebrating the people who are serving to protect our country every day. Veterans day should be taught to younger kids to mean something instead of a free day off of school. In school on veterans day we should spend time learning about what veterans do for our country so that kids gain a better understanding of the holiday and actually celebrate it instead of sleeping in until noon. Do you think that it is a good idea to get school off on veterans day? Should schools do a better job at educating us on veterans day?

Current events

Just recently three women in North Carolina were accused of running a fight club in an assisted living center. The employees of the center would encourage the elderly residents to fight each other. They would take advantage of people with Dementia who would not remember what they did. This was not only dangerous but also very wrong of the employees. According to the NCAL, more than half of the residents of assisted living facilities are over 85 years of age, meaning that they could easily break a bone or die if one of them was to land a blow. The worst part is that this was going on for months. the first evidence was found in July when the three employees were fired and there was no lawsuit until now. This shows a big problem with our healthcare system that allowed these people to get jobs to assist elderly people who were not compassionate and did not care for the people at all. Most of these people are here because they either don't have any relatives or any that are willing to take care of them. For some of these people the only people that they can trust are their caretakers and to have them turn on you and encourage you to fight someone is a huge betrayal of their trust. Do you think that we have a problem with our healthcare or is this just a special case?

Family History

My mom chose the name max because when she was a middle school writing teacher one of her favorite students was named max. A lot of potential names for me were turned down because of my moms job as a teacher. She didn’t want me to be named Michael or Andrew because she had two annoying students who had those names. When choosing my middle name my parents wanted a name that would include both families in the name. They settled on James because my grandpa’s middle name on my moms side was James and my dad’s brothers name is Jim.
My last name comes from my dads dad who was from England. My dads grandparents all came from different places to get to America. His grandparents were from England, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany and they all came to America. They all came sometime around the early 1900’s. My family ended up in Chicago after my parents met each other at Indiana university and after college my dad got a job in Chicago. My parents got engaged and moved down to Chicago. Both of my parents lived in Indiana almost their entire lives.