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WNBA players should have equal pay to their male counter parts 

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WNBA players should have equal pay to their male counter parts 

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By Lillian Ziff
Do you have a favorite NBA star? You most likely do if you like basketball. Do you know how much your star is paid? Let’s say you really like LeBron James. Every year LeBron gets 39.22 million dollars. You know who gets even more? Stephen Curry, who averages 40 million bucks a year. Basically the average NBA player according to Fox Business gets about roughly seven million a year. The lowest current NBA salary for some random benchwarmer who has 0 years of experience according to Hoops Rumors gets 898,310 dollars a year. This is the part that is truly unfair, The website Statista states that the highest paid WNBA super star (Liz Cambage) gets 500,000 dollars a year. A WNBA SUPERSTAR GETS LESS THAN A BENCH WARMER* WITH NO EXPERIENCE! Do you want to know why? If so keep reading.

We can increase the amount of money the WNBA receives by going to the games. NOT MANY PEOPLE GO TO THE GAMES THOUGH!!! The truth is a lot of businesses fund teams in the WNBA but people just don't really go to the games. Though the amount of viewers for the WNBA has gone up by 63% on ESPN according to Queen Ballers Club according to Fox Business, each NBA game has an average of 1.2 million viewers, while WNBA games have less than half that amount, resulting in a significant revenue gap. Though the amount of WNBA viewers has gone up by 63% when you compare it to the NBA it seems pathetic. 19.32 percent of the NBA’s income comes from ticket sales and they make 24 million dollars from TV and over 1 billion a year for merchandise sales.  They also get about 8 billion dollars in revenue when the WNBA only makes 60 million. You can actually get pretty good deals going to WNBA games. According to google the average NBA ticket cost nearly one hundred dollars while the average WNBA ticket costs not even half the price and can go as low as even 8 dollars! Fun fact: NBA players make 40 times more than WNBA players! Also when Kobe Bryant played he made 2.5 times more money than the entire WNBA salaries combined!:|

Women work just as hard as men and it's not fair to neglect their diligent work. The WNBA season usually lasts from the 24th of May - October 10th or sometime around that 4-5 months. Short. Each team plays around 35 games in a season. Meanwhile the NBA season according to a website named Quora the NBA season is eight months long and each team plays about 82 games!! So first of all the mens season is a lot longer than the womens. Second, each NBA team has approximately 3 games per week which they practice the whole day. Also on non game days they have 120 minute practices. WNBA players tend to practice in most of their free time but in the off season play overseas in different countries and they are paid more overseas than they do in The United States!! In China women average 600,000 dollars while men average from 2 million to the lowest of 350,000!! Countries such as China and other countries in Europe treat women more fairly than we do in America. Fun fact: NBA players fly on private jets where they have personal trainers, caterers, physical therapists, and they  can relax and they have the whole place to themselves. WNBA players on the other hand fly commercials where they are packed in a plane with a lot of other people. They have to be pretty quiet and do you think it possible to have a physical therapist with you on a commercial plane giving you physical therapy? I didn't think so.

Everyone deserves to be equal. Though many people may say this is not sexist it really is. Equal pay may have changed in other fields but in professional sports (Specifically basketball) it hasn't really. First of all it's unfair and that's a fact. Second, people don't really realize it. Many people are blind to the fact of what women still have to go through today. Again it's unfair and unhuman like. People should not be paid less or judged because of the gender we are born with. Do you think we can control what gender we are born with? No.

Thank you for reading my essay. I hope you realize what women have to go through. So yes women in basketball deserve to get paid more and it is unfair and unjust that they get 40 times less than their male counterparts. Thank you.

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By Baxton Ling

Did you know that lately there have been a lot of mass shootings in the U.S.. Last year there have been 611 mass shootings in the U.S. ALONE! So, to help our country we should round up all the guns in the United States.

The first reason why people should hand in guns as part of a buyback program is that there are too many illegal guns. Illegal guns aren't registered. Without registering your gun, the police can’t identify the gun in the crime. At any moment, that person could hurt someone with a gun which we don’t want to happen. Also, we have very weak gun trafficking laws which is not good. For example, if New York city has very weak laws then we would have a lot more mass shootings.

We know that a "roundup" or gun buyback program can be successful. We know it could work because it worked in Australia when they made a program that had people who own illegal guns hand them in. 99.9% of those incidents that happened don't happen anymore. If it worked in Australia, then we can make it work in America. In New York City, they made a program called Cash For Guns Program for you to hand in an illegal gun and you’ll receive 200 dollars paid back to you. This program is useful but it’s only in New York City and there should be more programs like this in other states.  Also, ninety percent of the guns found at crime scenes in New York City were originally bought out of state and brought to the city illegally. According to Everytown research.com, people can also make 3D printed guns that can shoot one bullet. Which are as dangerous as real guns.

The third reason why people should hand in their guns to all local police departments is because it's not safe for you and yourself to have a gun at your own home. The gun could be loaded, it could backfire on you or someone in your family get shot accidentally. Guns are very dangerous and accidents could happen. Basically if you are not professionally trained to handle a gun, you should not own one. Not only you need to be trained on how to handle a gun safely, you need to have your emotions in checked at all times. No one should have possesion of a gun when they are mad or gone crazy.

In conclusion, we  should round up all the guns in the U.S. in order to eliminate gun violence and keep everyone safe in our country.

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Farmers Should Start Feeding Their Cows Red Seaweed

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Farmers Should Start Feeding Their Cows Red Seaweed

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By Fiona Inamoto

Do you know about all of the harm being done to our earth?  Our oceans are filled with mounds of trash so large that they form islands. Animals die from air pollution. Gas can cause hurricanes and tsunamis that crush people’s homes and even lives. There’s a tiny thing that can be done that will make a huge change. Believe it or not, cow farts are a big part of climate change. Putting a stop to that could be a large and easy way to help the environment. Farmers should start feeding their cows seaweed. Feeding them this will actually help the earth more than you realize.

Cows are the largest source of agricultural greenhouse gases. Their gas produces methane, a type of gas that is bad for the environment. In one year, a single cow can let out more than 200 pounds of gas. When that methane leaks into the air, it takes in the sun's heat, warming the atmosphere. Methane from cows doesn’t live quite as long as carbon dioxide but it’s 28 times more powerful in warming our earth. If we don't do something soon, climate change can affect everyone's health with diseases, bad air quality, etc.

Farmers can help solve this problem. According to Let's Talk Science, scientists believe that the red seaweed can stop a type of enzyme and help cows produce less methane. If only 10% of farmers start putting a tiny amount of a type of seaweed called asparagopsis taxiformis (red seaweed) into their cows diets, it’ll reduce the gas they let out by 86%. Using this seaweed would be like taking 100 million cars completely out of the world. Additionally, it’s inexpensive to buy.

The website Greener Grazing states that putting asparagopsis taxiformis into a cow’s diet is healthy for the cows, as well as making them burp less. An article on Newsela.com shows how the cows also don’t mind the taste of this seaweed. They were eating it right out of the water on a beach near the farm. Asparagopsis, while being inexpensive, isn’t the most common thing to buy. We should start trying to make it easier to get.

This seaweed lives mostly near the coast of the western Mediterranian. You can buy it at different sites and stores, such as Petco. Petco sells small amounts that would be for just a couple of cows, but there are also sellers that do it for a larger amount. We have to start switching a few percent of a cow’s diet with asparagopsis, as well as making it easier to get. If you know someone that’s a farmer or someone who owns cows, tell them to start feeding the seaweed to the cows and about what it would do.

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Children should be encouraged to play a sport

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Children should be encouraged to play a sport

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Written by: Camilla Lyubarov

Have you ever considered playing or signing your child up for a team sport? Playing a sport can help you in different ways, both physically and mentally. It’s healthy for you, it’s a good way for making friends, and you learn the importance of sportsmanship. All of them are important roles for having a more healthy and joyful life.

Playing a  sport is healthy for your body and you get a lot of exercise. It enhances and promotes the development of motor skills, bones and muscles, cognitive and social skills. While playing a sport, your body burns calories, and you get a good appetite which causes you to grow faster.  According to the Aspen Institute Project Play, “Regular physical activity benefits health in many ways, including helping build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints; helping control weight and reduce fat.”

Playing a sport is also interactive, and you make friends. Practicing and playing together helps you grow bonds with other kids over time. Also, it’s fun to play with someone familiar when playing a sport. You feel confident with them, and ready for anything your trainer prepared you for. Even if you play a sport like tennis, where usually it’s one on one, you can still practice with a team, and not just have a coach to consult with. According to liveabout.com, “You get to know one another and you play off each other's strengths. Also, sports brings out a variety of people, so you'll share a common point of interest. You don't need to worry about making small talk in order to bond because the play you're involved in will help you do that.”

Overtime, you play, win a lot, and lose a lot in sports. It teaches you the importance of sportsmanship. Health Direct says, “Being a good loser takes maturity and practice. Losing teaches children to bounce back from disappointment, cope with unpleasant experiences and is an important part of becoming resilient.” Sometimes, when not knowing sportsmanship, you can get really stressed thinking, “Oh gosh, I have to win this game otherwise my life will be ruined.” You learn that playing a sport isn’t all black and white, win or lose, but more of a learning experience.

Overall, playing at least one sport is an important part of child development. Also, a bonus to sports is that there is a whole variety of them spanning from gymnastics to football, ice hockey, basketball, etc. All of them focus on different skill sets and you can choose the right one for you.

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By Molly Lamb

Self-love. What is it? In short, self-love is being ok and accepting of who you are. To elaborate, self-love is an appreciation of oneself and not constantly trying to mold or perfect it. Some people may be saying self-love is taboo or selfish, but it’s not! Self-love is necessary and not at all selfish, so you should start loving yourself too because it can harm you physically and mentally if you don’t. Lack of self-love can also be a spark to the kindling of suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Finally, loving yourself is also a key component in loving others.

In order to understand the need for self love, you need to first understand the self-esteem theory. The self-esteem theory is about how we have evolved to experience social inclusion and avoidance emotionally. According to verywellmind.com, “People who struggle with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) often find themselves struggling with low self-esteem.” This theory shows the bridge between our perception of what people think of us and what we think of ourselves.

Most people today suffer from a lack of self-love or GAD. it is hurting them both mentally and physically. Not loving yourself can lead to many physical ailments such as a shorter life span, irritable bowel syndrome, and eating disorders. Lack of self love can also cause mental ailments such as anxiety, depression, and anorexia.Quite a scary but needed piece of information is that not loving yourself can lead to suicidal thoughts and tenances. Most suicides root in not feeling like you’re good enough or doing good enough which often means the person can’t love themselves. Now that you see that not loving yourself can lead to terrible things you need to know that it’s not so hopeless. When dealing with these types of things there are the roads of action and help, These three options are medication, meditation, and therapy. Some of the options work better than others, though you should choose whatever course you believe would be best for you.

Finally, loving  yourself can help you love others and accept that others love you back. Loving yourself can help promote a community where other people love themselves and each other. A loving community can help lower crime rates because in a loving community it’s easier and less embarrassing to ask for help. All in all it’s really important to love yourself because if you don’t bad things can happen to you and people you love. Remember that and know that it’s ok to love yourself so start now.

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HYBRID VEHICLES SHOULD BE BANNED (sorry people this is the truth. If people say hybrid cars are good for the environment its LIES.)

By Alex Pardo

Hybrids vehicles have claimed to be a climate change preventer. Wrong. Hybrids are just causing climate change. Hybrids for years have been claimed to be awesome for the environment. They are faster and use both electricity and regular gas. However, hybrid vehicles should be banned because they are causing climate change and making the world polluted. Hybrids should be banned because they are using regular gas, electricity, killing animals, and destroying the earth.

Hybrids use regular gas and electricity, and the electricity is killing animals. The electricity is bad for the earth because the fumes are toxic.'The fumes are toxic and if animals except dogs and cats breathe it in. It doesn’t take long for the fumes to get to an animal’s heart and lungs, which poisons an animal. If that wasn’t bad enough, with covid it's worse. Some animals are almost extinct because they are receiving the virus and dying.

The electricity is the other bad part. I know it saves the earth and what not whatever it is made from coal and oil which is worse and it was so use regular cars or check  what the energy is made of so use regular cars. It also pollutes the air so we should change to regular cars or walk more or get an electric car that runs on electricity that's not coal or oil. They also make birch cherry oak and maple trees rotten. We need trees to survive. According to the national cars department “hybrid cars do, in fact, require more energy to produce than conventional cars, emitting more greenhouse gases and burning more fossil fuels during the manufacturing process and while driving.”

Hybrids harm the environment and they kill. This is very bad, this will be bad for the earth 's food chain. This will cause a collapse in the eco system and humans are stubur so we will not survive. Humans need animals to survive and humans might not adapt to change because iits strange and new.

Hybrid electricity is also made of nuclear gas and electricity so we need this to stop if this continues the world's water supply will go dry and polluted the air will be as well and we will all die so we sound stop using these terrible cars will cause all humans to slowly choke to death and that will be bad. Thi won't happen if the the government bans hybrid cars then what will happen is we ca stop climate change by using regular electric cars that don’t use coal and oil and nuclear chemicals in the regular electric car according to some of the scientist who study hybrids “A study has found that plugin hybrids actually emit 2.5 times as much carbon dioxide than regular cars and as test claimed.”

In all, hybrids are bad because they use regular gas which harms the earth. Also, hybrids use coal and oil for electricity, destroying the earth even more. Hybrids kill animals and ruin the food chain. Hybrids should be banned. Check if the car that you want to buy runs on electricity that will help the earth. You should also check to see how the energy is made. We should be helping the earth because it helps other animals and humans survive. Thus, a hybrid ban will save the environment and save humans.(a hybrid ban will happen it 4-9 years let's make it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

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We Should Have More Lenient Immigration Laws

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We Should Have More Lenient Immigration Laws

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Have you ever said "My life is horrible?" It's probably because you lost your video games, got laughed at in school, or even dropped your phone and broke it for the fourteenth time. People say "My life is horrible" for other more important reasons. Some of them might be losing a job, growing up in an orphanage, or even being born without a limb. When these things happen there is usually someone who comforts you and helps you get through it. There is another thing that makes people say "My life is horrible." There are people whose country is unsafe or unfair so they need to immigrate to a more safer country, in this case America.  Just how someone usually helps you when you say "My life is horrible," we need to help people immigrating into this country by making more lenient immigration laws.

If we implement more lenient immigration laws we can help our country. One way in which this will help our country is that it would increase our money for the government. In 2020 everyone had to pay $9,675 for federal taxes. The more people in the country the more people paying taxes and the government will have more money. Another way that making more lenient immigration laws is that it will help our reputation because people will think of America as a country that helps people in need. When more people emigrate into our country more work will be done. Everyone says that if more immigrants come,  people's jobs will be stolen but we can just create more jobs. There is never too much work that can be done. We have illegal immigrants coming to our country. If people know that the laws will let them come here legally they will do that. Decrease the amount of weapons sneaked across the border.

Another reason that we should have more lenient immigration laws is that people can't find safe lives in their country and we need to help them. According to google more than 27 million people fled their country in 2018 and most of the people who made it got separated from their family or lost the little amount of possessions they could bring with them. We need to help people. This will also give people safer, more comfortable lives. These people all left their countries because they weren't safe. This is often because of war, poverty, or unfair conditions. If we let them into America they will be safer.

If we let more people immigrate to America because we have more immigration laws we can do it safely. If we show people our laws are more lenient, people won't sneak in. According to the Department of Homeland Security there were above 500,000 people detected sneaking into the U.S.'s southern border in 2018 and those are only the people who were detected. If we make the immigration laws more lenient we can lower the number of people sneaking in. We can do a background check to make sure the people immigrating are criminals. According to google %90 of background checks come out with the correct results. With legal immigration, people would have a harder time sneaking weapons across the border too.

So next time you have to say "My life is horrible" think about the immigrants who are probably saying something very similar. Be the person that helps out by making the immigration laws more lenient. Doing this will help our country, give people safer and more comfortable lives, and we can do this in a safe way.

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Why people should not go to prison and instead go to a mental health hospital

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Why people should not go to prison and instead go to a mental health hospital

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Do you think that prison helps people? What does it do to help people? Prison is  dangerous and flawed. Whether someone is in jail for 10 years or 25 years it will make it harder to find a job. The problem is that the people who go to prison are normally mentally ill and have no idea what they did.

The inmates do not need to be considered bad guys, they can be considered people who need help which we can give them. They would be able to join society in just a couple of years. This has happened many times where mentally unstable people have gone to jail and they just got worse. But the people who did go to a mental health hospital are better now that they got the help they needed. Doctors need to sign off that a criminal is mentally stable to enter society. There are many mental health hospitals that are not filled because all the people who need help are in prison.

Prison is developing more mental illness.  The cells in the prison system are small. They are about 48 square feet, it seems pretty big but here is a better example 6 by 8 feet! Not big at all. This is a problem because this makes people go more mentally ill then before. This can be solved if people go to mental health hospitals. According to American Psychological Association “This kind of confinement creates serious psychological risks for prisoners; many of them experience panic, anxiety, rage, depression and hallucinations, especially when confined for long periods of time (some up to 25 years).” You can see this is a dangerous problem bound to get worse. There are so many arguments over this and such little amount have happened. People need to take action for the lives of others.

If we bring mentally ill prisoners to a mental health hospital, it will give the prisons more space for inmates who are not mentally unstable. Everyone complains about prison staff being overworked and prison being overcrowded this is the answer. The government can put less money into funding for prisons and more into hospitals. This can save a lot of money into prisons and then there would be more peace in the world. Being a prison guard is unhealthy itself according to Cron.com “Working in a correctional facility will change you as a person. You'll see violence and horror, interact with dangerous inmates and deal with stress on a daily basis.” The dangerous inmates are probably mentally ill people. These prison guards are overworked because there are so many inmates so if the government takes all the inmates that are sick and bring them to a hospital it is a win-win for everybody.

This prison problem is big and nothing has happened so many lives have been ruined and they do not understand what they are doing. You have seen all the facts and you should make sure that you will make a change. This prison system took so much time to build and you must rebuild it stronger and better.

By Leo Cohen

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Traveling Back into the U.S.A.    By Julian Leibowitz

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Traveling Back into the U.S.A.    By Julian Leibowitz

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Do you know anybody who can’t travel back into the U.S. right now because of COVID? Currently many people who don’t have a visa sadly can’t travel back into the U.S.A. This is breaking families apart.  Unless you want families to be torn apart and not let them be together, we need to let more people travel back into America. We should let more people travel back into the United States during COVID because the infection rate is improving and peoples rights are being taken away.

We should let more people travel back into the United States during COVID because the infection rate is improving.  According to NPR.org,  43.2% of Americans have had at least one shot for the vaccine and 29.5 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated. Also in the past couple of months the numbers of deaths from COVID and the amount of COVID cases have significantly reduced. Also, we are heading into the summer which gives us more opportunities for fresh air and social distancing.

Part of my family is actually stuck in another country and can’t come back to America.  The numbers for covid are improving so much that we can let more people come back to America and see their family. If you had family stuck in another country I'm sure you would feel the same way I do right now. Also some families that had a family member deported might have trouble making money.

The majority of people who are stuck in other countries and want to come back to the United States of America can’t come back right now because their visa needs to be renewed. But if we reopen the visa process that would let more people renew their visa so they can come back to America.  If we test people before and after they get on the plane that could be a safe way to travel.  If people  could see their family during these sad times of COVID it could really help people mentaly to be able to see their family.

Personal Story

Since I wrote this whole essay it’s only fair that I tell you reader the story about who this essay is for and about.  When I was three years old I had a babysitter named Alex. Alex was my babysitter for about two years and I loved him.  Even after he wasn’t my babysitter anymore me and my parents still saw him a couple times a year. Fast forward to march of 2020, Alex’s mom got COVID-19 and was really sick and dying. Alex who was all alone during this time came to live with us during the pandemic so he would have some people to live with during these scary times. Well when that  happened me and Alex’s relationship  during the pandemic just completely changed. We always loved each other and all but during the pandemic the relationship between me and Alex just became truly special. Basically everyday after virtual school he would take me to the park or play on my playstation together or play outside or something like that. Well in June Alex’s mom fully recovered and Alex went to Italy to see his family and now since mid december he’s been trying to get home but can’t because he needs to renew his visa. At this point I just hope to see him soon.