Lance 2010

Check out the latest issue of Worcester Academy’s literary review. We feature short stories, poetry, and artwork by upper school students, faculty, and staff.

1. Emma B. ’15, “ In Defense of Hedgehogs” by Pam Ayers
2. Jamie S. ’14, “ Gunga Din” by Rudyard Kipling
3. Cristina B. ‘15, “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
4. Rowen P. ’15, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe
5. Michael S. ’14, “ Revolution Is Coming” by Lady Gaga

Click here for the UStream link and be sure to bookmark it for tomorrow’s performance.

]]> http://wamash.com/2010/04/mrs-baldwins-booktalks-spring/feed/ 0 http://wamash.com/2010/04/the-health-care-reform-bill-good-or-bad/ http://wamash.com/2010/04/the-health-care-reform-bill-good-or-bad/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:32:55 +0000 ChristinaCerv http://wamash.com/?p=3657 The Health Care Reform Bill. Is it good or bad? When I first heard about this new bill I knew nothing about it, at first it didn’t dawn on me at all. I didn’t think it really affected me but it does. When I got into school everyone was talking about it and I suddenly knew what it was. I know that I don’t know everything about it but I do have my opinion. I think this bill is bad to an extent. I really don’t think it is right that the government is taking over health care and making everyone have it. There are so many holes in the bill that I believe it isn’t going to be successful. Since health care is now running off the government, it shows that it is rubbing on the constitution the wrong way. It is taking the states rights away. And I believe the government should have had a solid base of money for this to run instead of passing it and having a solid base of money behind it. Also I don’t believe that people who work hard to keep their families healthy and out of poverty have to pay for people who are in it. The people in poverty should work hard and try to get themselves out and end up getting their own healthy care, because to me health care is somewhat of a luxury/ reassurance. I know that this bill had a good intension that they want the poor to get health care and sty healthy but I don’t believe that tax payers should pay it for them. Now that the wealthy has to pay for others health care it may cause more people to go into debt and struggle to survive since there is no base of money for this bill. They are now saying that because of this health care reform bill that 1/3 of doctors are going to quit their practice. That is very unfortunate and will be bad for this bill. Finally, if the economy goes down, the government can raise the prices of taxes for this bill, which can get more people in debt as well. By reading this you can tell that I don’t know everything about it and that my thoughts are jumbled but I think the health care bill is bad. But everyone has his or her own opinion.

Picture author: erin m

I personally am against the Health Care Reform Bill for several reasons. To begin, Health Care used to be an incentive that would motivate people to find a job in order to obtain a “good deal” with Health Care through their employer. This bill passed by President Obama will eliminate this role causing a variety of effects. First, to state the obvious, the wealthier individual will now have higher taxes thrusted upon them in order to compensate for the individual that could not afford Health Care. Now this gets interesting because the particular individual that obtains free Health Care can decide not to work since a major incentive for working has been eliminated. Second, a large population of immigrants will decide to become citizens of the United States for the wrong reason. It will not be to succeed in life and work hard but to rather have something given to you for free. To me this seems completely unethical and as Mr. Glenn Beck says “an idea that our country was not built upon.” However Mr. Beck makes another intriguing point that suggests that this bill is merely a battle within a grander scheme of things, which can be summed up as “the fundamental transformation and restoration of this country.” Although I am only a senior in high school that still has much more to learn, I just know that this bill cannot have a positive affect on the big picture since reality does not include a population solely characterized by individuals that want to succeed in their lives. While I agree that Health Care is a necessity, I also strongly believe that anything for free will eventually lose its value.

Photo Credit: erin m

How do you remember 19 bones and 4 joints in 7th grade? Through Music! Have a listen.

Bones Song by Susie Shepardson

Mrs. Anderson’s 7th Grade Science Class

Union Hill, to the east of the Canal, was in the 1830s a barren outcropping with the Indian name Sagatabscot. The length of the Algonquin name was not appealing, but the land owners must have felt that the land had potential. They had a vision of developing the hill into a neighborhood of fine residences which would be quite profitable. But in order make the neighborhood more appealing to potential home buyers, they gave it the name Union Hill.

Union Hill in the 1830s

To attract homeowners, the surveyor A. Jacques was hired to design the neighborhood and A Map of Union Hill, Worcester, Mass was published in August, 1836. The map depicts a planned neighborhood with 60-foot-wide avenues. Following the patriotic theme of the Union Hill name, each of the streets was named for presidents of the United States. Washington and Adams streets are the longest and first avenues as each starts from Water Street at the canal and runs up the hill and at the crest they turn south. Continuing the sequence are Jefferson and Madison streets, which are parallel to the first streets. At right angles to the north/south streets, the later presidents form the grid in an east/west direction, with the names Monroe, Quincy, and Jackson streets.

Original Union Hill design-Courtesy American Antiquarian Society

The focal point of the neighborhood was to be a park at the center of the grid. It was not only at the top of the hill, but it had a commanding view of the town and canal below. At 400 feet along each of its four sides, the Square was 160,000 square feet or three and two-thirds acres. Since this was to be the most desirable section of the neighborhood, the largest house lots were designed to face the square. Each had 100 feet of frontage and at 200 feet in depth – a half acre parcel — big enough to build a large mansion facing the square. These must have been conceived to be the most expensive lots as they not only faced the park, but also had views of the town and canal below. In contrast, the house lots at the foot of Union Hill were much smaller, with 60 feet of frontage and 120 feet in depth, so they were about one-third the size of the lots at the top of the hill.

While the planned neighborhood was never built, several elements of the design came to be and remain significant parts of the neighborhood. First and foremost, the neighborhood is still known as Union Hill. Significantly, the map defined the perimeter of Union Hill by designating its boarder at Heywood and Vernon Streets. Finally, this is the first document indicating Vernon Street.

While the alignment of streets within the neighborhood is not the same, the pattern is similar. At the top of the hill, the grid of street is a similar pattern. Moreover, like the 1836 design, the streets originating from the Water Street travel up the hill in a direction that is diagonal to the grid of streets at the top of the hill.

Perhaps most significant is the parcel that was to be Union Square because it is roughly the same area as the campus of Worcester Academy. Later maps depict a three acre parcel that was much larger than the house lots that were created around it. That three acre parcel was sold to a medical school in 1846, and in 1869 Worcester Academy purchased the property which included the building built for the medical college.

Though the plan envisioned the prosperous growth of Worcester, it did not foresee the advent of the railroad or the need for living quarters for the thousands of factory workers who within a few decades would be employed in the factories along the Canal. During the following decades, the railroad system grew tremendously and in 1875 the Union Depot was built immediately north of Union Hill. The original plans did not design an avenue all the way to the train depot which was called “Union” Station.

Original Union Hill Map - Courtesy American Antiquarian Society

There will be four groups of 8th grade students all led by Outward Bound staff and one Worcester Academy Faculty chaperone. Each chaperone will be blogging via their cell phones to the following blogs. Please follow along as the 8th grade class navigates their way through New York City this week.

• Mr. Smith’s Crew
• Ms. Hale’s Crew
• Mrs. Clark’s Crew
• Ms. Iaccarino’s Crew

In extreme cases, after a serious illness, medical bills can be so steep they will force a declaration of bankruptcy. We need to support our citizens who are in need, just as we support countries that are in need. The new health care reform bill is needed in order to lessen the weight of health care for people in our country. Currently thirty-two million people in the United States do not have health insurance, primarily because of its rising costs. It is wrong that a person who needs health insurance most, for example someone with a preexisting condition, is more than likely to be turned down by the major providers. No one asks to be sick, and when it comes in a very serious form, paying the bills is a little more complicated than just picking up a part time job to bring in some extra cash each month.

A family I know is fortunate enough to be able to pay for excellent health care. They recently switched to a new provider. Almost everything was covered in their new policy, except for the costs medication and treatment for their daughter’s leukemia. The provider refused to cover her, therefore leaving the enormous bills to the family. The solution was to sign the daughter up for her university’s health care, adding another provider, and another bill to the family’s total cost of insurance. Their bills were much higher than they would have been had she been accepted to the original coverage, and everyone can understand wanting to save some money.

I know for my family personally, our health care bills are expected to decrease with the new bill. Other families are probably in the same situation, but it is not just about saving money for those who can. Everyone should have health care. Everyone is aware of how expensive this new reform will be. If you think about all the different things our government pumps money to every day, shouldn’t saving people’s lives be at the top of the list?

After months of disagreement, confusion, protest, and more disagreement, the Health Care Reform was finally signed by President Barack Obama last Monday, promising health coverage to everyone by 2014.  I personally do not like the fact it was a partisan bill because it separates our nation’s two parties even more when they should be working together.  I also agree with the speculation of unemployed workers, mainly from the lower class, taking advantage of such a system by taking unnecessary visits to the hospital or trying less to actually find a job with coverage.  This concept already exists today with unemployed workers relying on welfare.

However, it is time for America to finally progress with the rest of the industrialized nations of the world.  The United States, up until the passing Bill, was the only industrialized country without a universal health care system.  How can the most developed nation in the world not be able to protect its own?  How can it not better its citizens back home to the level it strives for in foreign disputes?  Often considered as the “global police,” the United States takes a sense of pride in attempting to regulate peace and maintain justice around the world, but that should come after its issues at home are taken care of.  The bottom line is 30 million more Americans will now be covered, a fact hard to complain about. 

Physicals, prescriptions, different types of therapy, surgery, and others are now available to anyone who was previously denied healthcare because they were considered a risk to the insurer.  Pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure and AIDS are not the patients fault, and in most cases, these are the people who probably need medical insurance more than anyone, but with the free market of American businesses, chances of these people receiving coverage was rather unlikely.  Also, Americans will still be covered after they retire, and since insurers can’t cap your coverage anymore, racking up debt in medical costs will no longer be an issue. 

Since Health Care will be a government program, they will now be able to regulate rates similar to other insurance types such as car and home insurance.  The competition between insurers will rise with such an increased market, helping keep rates down as well.  Even with these changes, it will cost more for the future generations, but a healthier nation means more workers having longer careers, and more consumers buying products over a longer period of time, helping our economy grow. 

The main protest of the bill is related to the cost, and the decision to take more from the upper class to pay for those who cannot afford healthcare alone.  This raises a problem that has grown over time in our country.  The distribution and taxation of incomes help the rich become richer and the poor to never crawl out of the darkness of poverty.  We’re leaving the lower class behind as the middle and upper classes develop financially and increase their savings, when we should be helping out our fellow citizens.  There are cases where lower class citizens depend on this help however, instead of earning their income on their own, but with so many citizens in our country, there are always going to be loopholes in any system of such size.  Our country is weakened by such a gap in not only health status, but also economic status.  Instead of dragging the poor to keep up and letting poverty hold our nation back, bumping up the national level of health and re-establishing a higher status quo will help strengthen America against up and coming power-nations like those in Asia.  After all, you’re only as strong as your weakest link.

Photo Credit: crafty