Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Not Unable:
Pages 4 & 5
www.indykids.org a free paper for free kids Issue #26 • SE PTEMBER /OCT OBER 2010
Oily
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
disaster
LUCKY TURTLE: A biologist found
this Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle cov-
ered in oil and brought him to the
Louisiana Department of Wildlife
and Fisheries Research Lab. After
oil samples were taken from the
turtle’s body, he was moved to an
aquarium that cleans and helps
rescued animals heal. Rescuers
named this turtle “Lucky.”
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The Aftermath
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of the World’s
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O
n April 20, an explosion at an oil and gas well of the oil company BP OIL COMPANY POWER
(formerly British Petroleum) caused millions of gallons of oil to pour
BP is one of six major oil companies in the world that has a large influence
into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The leak was finally stopped
in politics in the United States. The company and its employees have
Brian Epstein, International Bird Rescue Research Center
three months later, but then the oil spread and came to the water surface.
given over $3.5 million to political candidates, including President Obama.
The oil pollutes the water and makes the air above it difficult to breathe.
BP has also violated many safety standards in order to cut costs. “In just
BP and the U.S. government worked to clean up the spill by using
the last few years, BP has paid $485 million in fines and settlements to
barriers to prevent the spread of oil. They also burned the oil, used
the U.S. government for environmental crimes,” said Tyson Slocum of
chemicals to break up the oil and skimmed off the oil and separated it
Public Citizen in a Democracy Now! interview.
from the water. The problem is that most of these solutions cause more
pollution and damage to the environment.
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nation&world
Alana
Meet…
Gaza-Bound Aid Boats Attacked fighting for their bullets at the people on board. They
from Hawaii right to exist as a also said they found weapons aboard,
Name: Alana Fetuolemoana nation. Israel, with which later proved to be table knives
Kihoi-Richardson the support of the for eating.
Age: 10 United States, has There have been protests in the
Hometown: Pearl City
created a blockade United States against the attack
keeping ships from on the aid boat and against the
Languages spoken: English
bringing supplies Israeli occupation in general. Even
Family: Mom, dad, aunties, uncles,
to Gaza. more protests are taking place in
cousins and grandparents
Suhair Karam/IRIN
G
What would you like kids in the
aza, which is located in Pal- soldiers onto the ships to stop them. products made in Israel), divesting
continental United States to know
about life in Hawaii?
estine off the eastern coast of More than ten activists were killed, (telling companies not to give money
Here in Hawaii, we dance hula, where the Mediterranean Sea, has including a teenager, and the rest to Israel), and simply protesting
you wave your hands to tell a story. been under occupation by Israel. The were detained in prison. The Israeli (telling other people what is going on).
conflict started about 43 years ago government said that the soldiers
when Israel occupied the territory. who attacked the ships were hit with Pedro Lahoz Wolfe, age 10, is a
The Palestinian people have been metal poles and chairs. So they fired student in New York City.
Hawaii at a Glance
Anti-Islam Attacks Sweep the Country in support of the community center,
By CHIRAG BHATT
Location: The Pacific Ocean saying “the owners have a right
M
Population: About 1.3 million osques to be constructed to use the building as a house of
People: Asian 38.8%, Caucasian 30.2%, in the United States have worship, and the government has no
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander lately been the subject of right whatsoever to deny that right.”
9.2%, Hispanic 9.0%, African American controversy. A mosque is a place Mosques that are planned to
3.2%, Other 9.6% of worship for a person of the be built in California, Kentucky,
Official State Languages: English Islamic faith. Wisconsin and Tennessee have
and Hawaiian This spring, plans for an Islamic also faced opposition from citizens,
History: It is believed that the first people community center in New York City including Christian ministers and
in Hawaii came from other Polynesian near the site of the September 11, political candidates. In August a
islands over 1,000 years ago. In 1893, the 2001 attacks made news headlines. mosque in Madera, California, was
U.S. military overthrew the last Hawaiian
The new Islamic community center vandalized with signs that read “No
monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani. In 1959, the
U.S. government took over the Hawaiian
would be similar to a YMCA with a Temple for the God of terrorism at
Islands completely, making it the gym and pool and a Muslim prayer Ground Zero.”
country’s 50th state the same year. space. The proposed center is not at There have also been rallies in
the “Ground Zero” site of the attack. support of mosques. One supporter
Learn a little Nor is it a mosque. However, people of the Islamic community center is
who don’t like the project have called Talat Hamdani, who lost her son,
HAWAIIAN
David Shankbone
What is IndyKids? HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED? THANK YOU to the following donors for supporting IndyKids!
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2 September/October 2010
Where in the
World
All the places listed below are
? 3
9
newsbriefs
Native Americans’
Visas Denied
M
Egg companies
ore than ten million people the Indus River, an area that is here since the floods. We lost our
recalled over 550
are in need of humanitarian the heart of agriculture and food children, our livestock. We could million chicken eggs in the state of
aid in Pakistan as a result production in Pakistan. hardly save ourselves. We have to Iowa in August. The eggs contained
of the worst monsoon floods in the Agriculture is the main source of tell the government, and it’s the the bacteria salmonella that affected
country’s history. Beginning in late income for 70 percent of Pakistan’s responsibility of the government to 1,470 people throughout the United
July, an unusually heavy amount of population. According to the do whatever is possible.” States. The bacteria spread because of
filthy conditions on the factory farms.
rain began to fall on parts of central Pakistani Minister of Food and MONSOON: seasonal wind and
and northern Pakistan. The heavy Agriculture, at least 20 percent of the rains, especially in Southern Asia
Victory for Gay
Marriage
Secret Military Papers Released Go California!
Documents Show Frightening Reality of the Afghanistan War
By AMANDA VENDER California
T
has recently
What the papers show:
he website overturned
WikiLeaks has • U.S. soldiers and allies have Proposition
released over 76,000 killed hundreds of civilians 8, a vote in
secret documents about (people not in the military) which people
U.S. military actions in including children in Afghanistan; decided
to ban gay
Afghanistan from 2004 • There is a secret U.S.-led military marriage in the state. The judge
to 2010. The documents squad that hunts down people to in the case decided that the ban
paint a bad picture of the kill them without a trial; was unconstitutional. He said that
U.S. war in Afghanistan. the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
• The neighboring country,
WikiLeaks will not say Constitution guarantees equal
Pakistan, which receives money
how it got the papers, from the United States, has a spy
protection for all citizens under the
but they must have come U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael L. Casteel law, including gay people. However,
agency that plans attacks on U.S.
from a whistleblower the role of good journalism to take gay marriage is still banned in
troops. California until passed through
inside the U.S. military who wanted on powerful abusers,” he told the
other courts in the state.
people to know what is going on in Guardian. “It will show the true
Afghanistan. nature of this war and then the public Whistleblower: a person
WikiLeaks shared the documents from Afghanistan and other nations who has information about Jobless Youth
with three major newspapers, The can see what’s really going on and wrongdoing, usually by a The unemployment
X
New York Times, the Guardian of take steps to address the problems.” government or corporation, rate for youth ages 16
The U.S. military is angry about and lets the world know to 24 went up to 19.1
London and the German Der Spiegel,
about it percent in July, 2010.
and each newspaper released its own the release of the papers. National This is the highest
report on these documents on July 25. Security Advisor Gen. James Jones July rate on record,
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian said they “could put the lives of To learn why there is a war in according to the
Assange, explained why WikiLeaks Americans and our partners at risk, Afghanistan, visit: www.indykids.org U.S. Bureau of Labor
published the documents. “It is and threaten our national security.” Statistics.
3
Map answers: A-4; B-7; C-1; D-5; E-8; F-6; G-3; H-9; I-2
September/October 2010
• About one in five people in the United States have disabilities.
That’s almost 50 million people. [Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
• About one in 200 people in the United States use wheelchairs. ANDREA, age eight, is from Moline, Michi-
gan. She has Down syndrome, a condition she
was born with. She loves to play games with
people. Her very favorite things are animals
and babies. It was hard for Andrea to learn to
talk, but now she can read and write. Some-
Have you ever thought that some of the words you use
times it takes her a while to understand, but
might hurt other people’s feelings? To find out if words
with patience, Andrea can do a lot of things.
might be hurtful, ask yourself if you would want someone
to call you these names.
Retard: When you say this, it sounds like you think that
a person can’t learn and can’t get better at something.
Cripple: When people use this word, they aren’t looking past
the disability to the person with feelings who might have DONALD, age ten, lives in Los Angeles,
trouble moving. California. He has dyslexia, which is when
Dumb: No one likes to be called “stupid.” “Dumb” can sound the brain does not read things correctly.
like “stupid.” Try saying “someone who can’t talk” or “unable Sometimes words or numbers get flipped,
to speak” instead. and it makes reading and writing difficult.
culture&activism
Baseball Fans Take a Swing at
Senai
The United Nations reports that
nearly 900 million people do not
have access to clean water. Those in
Anti-Immigration Law
the Sub-Saharan Africa and Pacific
By ZAZIL DAVIS-VAZQUEZ SB-1070, many people want Bud
A
regions have the least access to clean round the country, protest- Selig to choose another location.
water. Last July, 122 countries, exclud- ers are rallying against Previous boycotts have
ing the United States, supported the the Arizona state senate occurred against countries and
United Nations in declaring that ac- bill SB-1070. This bill forces im- states in the midst of political
cess to clean water is a human right. controversies. For example, South
migrants who are not citizens and
who are over age 14 to carry their Africa was not allowed to take part
U.S. Senate Brings identification papers at all times. in the Olympics from 1964 to 1992
Nutrition To School The law also gives police officers because of its apartheid govern-
Lunch the right to pull over anyone they ment, a system that legalized the
think might be an illegal immi- separation of people based on race.
The U.S. Senate
just passed the grant. This means the police can Many MLB players have spo-
“Healthy Hun- stop people based on the way they ken against this law, saying that it
ger-Free Kids look. Any immigrant not carrying is unfair and wrong. In an inter-
Act of 2010.” papers can be arrested and sent to view with the Miami Herald, Augie
If signed into law, this bill means that
jail for up to 20 days the first time Ojeda of the Arizona Diamond-
an additional $4.5 billion over the next backs said, “If I leave the park
ten years will go to federal nutrition
this happens.
People are also joining protests after a game and I get stopped,
programs for children, such as the
National School Lunch and Breakfast to persuade the Major League am I supposed to have papers on
Program. It will also be the first time in Baseball (MLB) commissioner, me? I don’t think that’s fair.”
30 years that funding to this program Bud Selig, to boycott Arizona for Zazil Davis-Vazquez, age 16,
has been increased. the All-Star Game in 2011. The is a student in Queens, New York.
All-Star game is a baseball tour-
Getting Wild with the
LEO GARCIA
nament held in the middle of the
baseball season. Phoenix, the BOYCOTT: to stop doing business with or to
Great White Shark capital of Arizona, plans to host the stop buying something from a place because
you want them to change what they’re doing
game in 2011. However, because of
A
with each other. They’re skilled
compromise between the nizing the need for better living but of the animals’ overall
hunters, but not mindless. conditions for chickens. According well-being. President of the
Humane Society of the
Myth: The world would be a better United States and Ohio to The New York Times, by 2015, Vegetarian Society of Georgia,
place without sharks. egg farmers has led to a ban that caging hens will be illegal in Cali- Jill Howard-Church, points out
prohibits the building of new fornia. Later this year, California that “if reforming farming prac-
Fact: Great whites are important
for environmental balance. If they factory farms that keep hens will also prohibit the sale of eggs tices gets U.S. hens out of cages
stopped eating seals and other in cages. Instead, new farms that come from farms that use […] the sky will not fall, Ameri-
animals, those animals would grow will need to house chickens in caging methods. The Humane can families won’t go bankrupt,
in number to where they’d nearly buildings without cages. These Society reports that 95 percent and billions of birds will have at
wipe out smaller species. Yet facilities usually have two to of egg-producing chickens are least some relief.”
humans have killed so many great three times more room per bird now crammed into small cages. Similar laws are being consid-
whites that they’re now on the than cages, which hold eight to The United Egg Producers ered in other states and for other
endangered list.
ten chickens in a space the size report that if all eggs came from farm animals such as cows raised
For more on the great white shark of a filing cabinet drawer. Fac- un-caged hens, the price of eggs for veal and female pigs.
and what you can do to help, go tory egg farms produce millions would go up 25 percent. Animal Maya Davis, age 13, is a student
to www.indykids.org. of eggs a day. supporters argue that the issue in Queens, New York.
6 September/October 2010
your turn
Your Turn:
Should schools
serve healthier
food?
The U.S. Senate passed a bill I think that schools should I think that this is a I think that the schools I think that junk food I want to see foods
to get more healthy food into have a petition, and the good idea, but they should serve more should be allowed in like salads made with
most voted will be served should serve just international food. moderation. vegetables and fruits
schools and to limit the amount
three times a week, while maybe a little bit of Charley Shu Jade Tabor that people enjoy
of junk food served in school the others once. junk food. eating every day, and
cafeterias. These kids from the maybe corn on the
Jason Lieng Jacek Mrozek
Elmhurst branch of the Queens cob. Healthy choices
Public Library in New York tell make healthy bodies.
us what they think. Arafaf Arman
PHOTOS BY JIAWEN SHEN
Zachary Bonner:
Going the Extra Mile for Homeless Kids
By JUDI CHENG IK: How do kids become homeless?
S
ome kids like to kick a ball around. Some ZB: For many reasons. Sometimes it has to do
kids watch television. Other kids, like Zach- with situations at home, parents losing jobs,
ary Bonner, age 12, from Tampa, Florida, are and other problems. Some gay kids get kicked
raising awareness about problems that need to be out of their homes for being gay. Some kids feel
talked about. He decided to walk across the United it’s safer to live on the streets.
States in order to raise money for kids who become
homeless. Zachary has walked between 20 and 26 IK: What do you think can be done to help
miles a day since March 26, 2010. His mother and homeless kids?
brother join him on the walk, and Zachary studies
ZB: Everyone needs to work together. A lot of
through online classes. Through his walk across
people don’t know that homeless kids exist.
the country, he is hoping to help homeless kids by
People should know that kids are not homeless
talking to people he meets and collecting donations
because they want to be. They are not homeless
for the Little Red Wagon Foundation, the charity
because they don’t want to follow rules. For these
he started in 2005.
kids, things just get out of control.
Between 1.6 to 1.7 million youth under age 18
become homeless each year. IndyKids interviewed IK: What would you say to kids who want to do some-
Zach about his work to help homeless kids. thing to make positive changes in our world?
IndyKids: How did you first become aware of social ZB: Find something that you are passionate
issues like homelessness? about. Research it. Think of ways you can make
a difference.
Zach Bonner: I started doing community service at
age six. When Hurricane Charley hit Florida in For more information, and to track Zachary
2004, it missed our area by a little bit, but anoth-
GETTY IMAGES
letters
I liked the article about the Gulf messages in the books and questions
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an oil spill can kill the book, if I remember them.
TITLE: ____________________________________________________________
lives of other people, Calvin Maholick, 2nd Grade,
which made me very Mahoning Elementary School SCHOOL (if applicable): _____________________________________________
depressed. This made
I think that the Turkish ADDRESS: ________________________________________________________
me realize that if more oil
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were to go inside the Gulf CITY: _________________________________ STATE: ______ ZIP: ___________
to deny that the genocide
Coast. another explosion would PHONE: __________________________________________________________
against the Armenian people ever
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September/October 2010 7
birthday
ti n g its 200th
is celeb
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RC
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an War
L. GA
s
Spaniard ing of the Mexic CLIMATE GLOBAL HEAT OIL SPILL
inn
the beg
p e n dence. igenous
Ind e
to m ake the ind depen- DISABILITY IMMIGRANT SCHOOL
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o ment.
people
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as
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the 11 and w
on J u ly 30, 18 of
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1. For d o
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2. Wh in the s com
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4. How ere directly r 2010
?
ex ic ow S e p tembe
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pril th The article "Baseball Fans Take a Swing at Anti-Immigration
late A . 1,000 Law" (page six) explains how some people are calling for a
6 8 ,0 00 D
.
.4 C boycott of Arizona, in protest of the new immigration law.
00 B
A. 5,0 A n sw This cartoon shows an example of another type of boycott.
Cartoon by Will Ayres.
ers: 1-
B; 2-
3-A; D;
4-C
MIKE NEWTON