Love for One Day in the Calendar Year? By Stephanie LaFreniere

Doodle drawn by Stephanie LaFreniere

What’s the first thing that comes to your head when you think of Valentine’s Day?  You probably think of love. In fact, that’s probably what most people think of – love. You’re not wrong; actually, you couldn’t be any more right. Valentine’s Day is all about love, but not in the right ways, and certainly not for the right reasons. 

Like any holiday, Valentine’s Day is a huge money maker. One billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged every year, according to nationalstationaryshow.com and the Greeting Card Association. That's 1,000,000,000. This makes Valentine's Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas. 

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

"For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when
every bird cometh there to choose his mate."
Picture and Poem courtesy of Wikipedia

Valentine’s Day wasn’t always about celebrating love, or making money. A long time ago the day commemorated the death of a Christian martyr named Saint Valentine (there may have been more than one St. Valentine, but that's another story). It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that Valentine’s Day started to become associated with love. In France and England, it was thought that February 14th was the beginning of birds’ mating season. This helped to influence the idea that Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. The earliest association of Valentine’s Day with love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. He wrote the poem to honor the first anniversary of King Richard || of England and Anne Of Bohemia’s engagement. 

The major flaw in Valentine’s Day, other than the corruptive influence of money, is love. If love is the main “theme” of Valentine’s Day, wouldn’t that make the whole holiday a sham? Or worse, wouldn't that make the concept of love a sham?

Don’t get me wrong, love is great --  wonderful, in fact, but for some reason we like to pretend that it rises to the forefront of our collective conscience on Valentine’s Day. You don’t see a lot of people going out of their way to buy chocolates or flowers for their significant other on any other day of the year, or going on many fancy dress-up dates. Why should Valentine’s Day be any different than any other day of the year? Why should this one day be celebrated for love? Shouldn’t we celebrate love all the time? Having love celebrated only one day of the year makes people not appreciate the idea of love as much, or the idea of showing love. It creates pressure to give gifts to your special someone. The pressure would cease to exist if  showing real love and affection weren't so “out of the ordinary” on a daily basis. Why isolate “love” and its fancy trappings to one day?

Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be necessary to remind you to express your love and appreciation for someone. There are 365 days in a year (366 in a leap year) where someone can show their admiration for people whom they care about.  Valentine’s Day is only one of them, but it's the only one with one billion cards to show “affection.”


Check out another great Valentines day story!

Zombies. Presidential Candidates. Same Thing. By Matthew Principe

Most high school kids don't care about politics. This includes those who actually know a few things and those who don't. Those who do care about politics desperately need comic relief.

So I'm asking all of you – those who care, those who don't, and those who think our leaders and candidates will end the world in 2012 before the zombies do – to pay attention to this guy:

His name is Vermin Supreme. He is becoming quite popular this year (if you have not heard of Mr. Supreme, check him out on the link we have provided). He has run for president before, but every year he continues to increase in popularity.

In Mr. Supreme's words, he is a “tyrant, a friendly fascist, someone you should trust.”  Sounds crazy, right? Maybe, but this is not Supreme’s “first rodeo.” Heck, no, he has political experience! According to Wikipedia, in 2004, he received 149 votes in the Washington, D.C. presidential primary. In the 2008 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, he received 41 votes. In 2012, Vermin Supreme received 833 votes in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary. Is he catching on? 

Who would vote for this guy? What is this world coming to? Former PRHS student Dillon Douglass gave this some thought before saying that Vermin Supreme's metaphors on teeth made him look quite stupid. “And he wears a boot on his head,” Dillon said. “I question that.”  (Dillon is clearly overqualified to editorialize on politics for Fox or MSNBC). 

Don't worry, I think Supreme's candidacy is a big intentional joke; I don’t think he will actually go though with a legitimate campaign. I mean, nobody has time to think of that many teeth puns when they have to run the country or play politics with the big boys and girls. 

I think it’s funny. Today, politics are very serious. We do live in serious times, but we need more humor and relaxation now. I think that’s just what Supreme brings to this election. 

Most students I talk to don't want to discuss politics. If I press them and ask what they would look for in a leader, the most common answer is “intelligence.” But who knows whether Vermin Supreme is or more or less intelligent than Barrack Obama, Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich?

In no way am I supporting him and giving him my vote, but, if the world is going end this year due to a zombie apocalypse (you don't hear Romney, Gingrich or Obama talking about this, do you?) then we need something in our lives to make life just a little easier. So let’s sit back, wear a boot, brush our teeth, and wait for a zombie apocalypse.