In spite of what some of my writings may suggest, I am, by nature, a positive person. It's the greatest of my many failings. Proof of this exists in the fact that in spite of the infinite number of times the school system has screwed me over since junior kindergarten, in spite of the ambiguity of the school planner designed to give the staff totalitarian power under the guise of definite rules, in spite of the blatant conflicts between required behavior in school and fundamental human rights, in spite of the startling revelations of my conversation with Kennedy and Fitch, in spite of all the propaganda that spills forth from the office everyday, and in spite of the deliberate, methodic attacks against anyone who illustrates even the slightest glimmer of free thought, in spite of all these things I thought the best of our school.

I believed that the Eagle Spirit was censored and banned out of ignorance and bigotry against any ideas that did not stem directly from the school. I believed that Mr. Kennedy threatened to expel me for my article merely because he was personally affronted by it. I believed that the office was instructed not to give Roslyn anything she wanted because Mr. Fitch had some sort of personal vendetta against her. I believed that the Remembrance Day announcments were merely made in bad taste. On the whole I thought that the situation in NLSS resulted from ignorance and hypocrisy.

At times I have thought otherwise, thought that there was some sinister motive behind their madness. But these thoughts have always given way to the more pleasant vision I described above. I was not until recently that the darker vision of reality was undeniably confirmed.

The Remembrance Day assembly disgusted me from the very beginning. Its glorification and vindication of war made it as invalid as the announcments that preceded it. It was not until nearly the end of the ceremonies that I recognized the true purpose of the assembly. With the call to sing 'O' Canada' the words "Two Minutes Hate" sprang unbidden to my mind. It suddenly became quite clear that the assembly had not been done in bad taste. Its mutilation of the past was not a mistake, it was deliberate. The entire thing was choreographed to evoke desired emotions within the audience, to force upon us its presentation of the past.

As if to confirm the dark suspicions the assembly had created, Kennedy took a deliberate shot at the tattered remnants of The Eagle Spirit. I learned today of a plan to donate one dollar per student to help people in third world countries to cope with natural disasters. Eagle Spirit's charity of choice last year was supporting a child in the third world. And despite outright hostility from SAC, the theft of one of our fund raisers and the constant interference and humialiation of the main office, we did our best to support it.

In the end it was all for naught, as the money we raised was stolen and donated to the Sunshine Foundation, SAC's charity of choice, in the name of Eagle Spirit, but somehow without the consent of any Eagle Spirit member.  That was bad enough in and of itself, but to now turn around and support the third world without any involvement from the deceased school paper is an action I thought beneath even our school. It can be viewed as nothing less than a slap in the face and yet another illustration of the infinite power trip of teachers and school officials.

My positive nature compels me to state that the following may not apply to all teachers (I only have concrete proof of the beliefs of Fitch and Kennedy). But the current state of affairs suggests at least their compliance if not their co-operation.

It is quite likely that I will again come to accept the innocent view that ignorance and not malice is the root of our problems at NLSS. I therefore wish to state, in this moment of cynical clarity, that the powers that be of NLSS seek only to further their own not-so-secret mandate of turning every graduating student in a drone whose thoughts, feelings and character all fall within specific categories. To further this end they utilize the tools of ambiguous law, censorship and propaganda. They deliberately alienate anyone that does not conform to their ideas and actively discourage any ideas that in anyway conflict with their own. Ignorance can no longer be an excuse for these atrocities. They are not even committed to further some twisted concept of what they believe to be the good of the students. The well being of the students is not even a consideration. Their ultimate goal is the perpetuation of their own power. It is merely the act of exercising and cultivating power that motivates the controllers of this school. This is the greatest form of tyranny and its practice is blatantly obvious in our school if we only have the will to look for it.