My Junior Gold Banquet Speech

The White Bear Lake hockey seniors were all honored at the annual White Bear Lake Area Hockey Association Junior Gold Banquet earlier this month at the Dellwood Hills Country Club. Every senior is given a Bear trophy and has a chance to say a few words about their hockey career and give thanks to the people that helped them succeed.

I took more than a few words in my speech and, as explained below in the speech itself, I started writing it two years before my senior year. It was emotional to write and very emotional to share.

The main message in the speech is to not quit if you don’t make the high school team, that there is hockey that is fun, challenging, and rewarding in the Metro Hockey League.

I have decided to share my speech with the public with the hope that perhaps it keeps maybe one or two more kids in hockey after bantams. I made some minor changes to the text to make it easier to read in a non-speaking environment. 

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  • Zach Shoutout93X Half-Assed Morning Show

I asked a nice young lady to prom on Tuesday morning, and I sent a text to the 93X Half-Assed Morning Show asking them to wish me luck and they obliged! It worked too as she did say yes!

PLEASE NOTE:

I do not consider my prom date “some broad”. The show commonly calls women that and I used it tongue-in-cheek. She is an awesome person and I am very happy and excited to go with her to prom!

Stop spreading false rumors.

I can’t take it anymore. It is ridiculous, ignorant, and people do it ALL THE TIME!

STOP SHARING PHOTOS WITH TEXT ON THEM! 99% OF THEM SPREAD FALSE INFORMATION AND JUST BECAUSE IT SOUNDS TRUE IT MOST LIKELY ISN’T.

Okay I am done shouting for now, but I need you to know that if you have ever shared a photo or text post with false information, you are a liar. Yes, your intentions were not to spread false information, but rather than doing a quick Google search to verify it’s factual accuracy, you just hit the share button. You should be ashamed and I don’t care how old you are and how well you can use a computer.

You are unfortunately not alone. In fact there are so many ignorant liars like you in the world that a website exists to correct your vitriol. It’s called Snopes.com and it is a website you should visit before sharing anything, like that post about how Pepsi removed “Under God” from it’s cans to not offend anybody. 

In fact, why don’t you practice that now! Go to Google.com and in the search box type in (or copy and paste) “Pepsi removes under god” in the box. Now click on the first link that comes up and read about how ignorant the lying friend that shared that information is.

There are literally thousands of Snopes articles proving wrong (or right) nearly every sensationalist claim out there.

Many of these false claims actually started more than 10 years ago, when the email forwarding era started and are now just recycled through Facebook today. Snopes was actually created in 1995 to fight these idiotic urban legends both in email and on other forms of internet communication. All of this is nothing new, and it is sad that people continue to spread these false rumors.

I should note that there are real claims out there that are true. For example, there is an image being shared around about Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. It was calling attention to him and the fact that he doesn’t get the nationwide attention he deserves. PLEASE KEEP SHARING STORIES LIKE THIS! This was a completely true story, and all you have to do is Google his name to find out it is true.

If you feel that looking up the factual accuracy of everything you share on Facebook sounds too tedious, than why are you sharing all of those things anyway? You tend to only share things that you feel passionate about, so why is searching for information about something that you feel is worth sharing so hard? The worst that can happen is that you learn about that cause it was talking about or how Facebook ISN’T AND WON’T EVER CHARGE IT’S USERS TO USE IT.

As Abraham Lincoln was famously quoted, “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.” I think it is about time we start ending the spread of rumors, urban legends, and other false information that fills Facebook walls with lies, lies, and more lies.

Thank you for reading. I made this post publicly available so feel free to share it if you agree with my sentiments.

Sincerely,

Zach Halverson

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  • Boys Hockey Youth MontageZach Halverson

A montage I threw together about the youth of the White Bear Lake varsity team.

Here’s a film production school project I did about my addiction to Diet Coke.

SHARE, RT, or DIE

Sick and tired of people sharing stuff that says “Share if you…” This isn’t email, folks.

I want to see pictures and videos of you, your friends and family. I want to laugh at your jokes. I want to like your check-in at that restaurant that I love to go to all the time. I want to click on the link and read the interesting news article that you share.

I DON’T want to see a picture that tells me I’m a terrorist if I don’t share and keep scrolling. I DON’T want to read that if I don’t share I obviously don’t have a heart. I haven’t shared one picture like that in my life so if they are all true I must be a terrible person who is clearly going to hell.

All I’m asking for is a little discretion. Go ahead and share that cancer awareness picture, but let’s ignore that “you hate your Grandmother if you don’t share” post.

We are intelligent human beings who all know that what those pictures say aren’t true. Let’s show some intelligence and rationality and end this nonsense that is cluttering up everyone’s wall.

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