Student provides a lesson in history

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Philip Xie’s alarming study about nuclear weapons couldn’t be more timely as far as that goes, what with the recent war in Iraq and the nuclear standoff with North Korea.

The Agoura High School student created a Website called "Nuclear Addiction" and the project was chosen to represent Los Angeles County in the California History Day contest today in Pasadena.

History Day is a statewide program sponsored by the California Department of Education and the Constitutional Rights Foundation, in conjunction with National History Day. The theme of this year’s contest is "Rights and Responsibilities in History."

Students were allowed to create posters, papers, multi-media documentaries and Websites relating to the annual theme.

Philip, only a sophomore, won first place in the individual Website category for the L.A. County senior division, which includes grades nine through 12.

"Almost every aspect of nuclear weapons can be discussed with relation to rights and responsibilities," said Philip, who posted the project on his own Website, www.geocities.com/techboy x.

"I talked about the rights of having nuclear weapons and using them and the great responsibility of doing so," said the 16-year-old. "North Korea and the development of nuclear weapons kind of caught my interest and I wanted to find out more."

Philip’s Website contains informational links to the Cold War and World War II, the time when the nuclear era began. Another page describes the different types of nuclear weapons that have been manufactured. The Website also includes a full-page bibliography listing all the resources that he used in his research.

He said the project took more than 100 hours to complete.

Philip points out that even today Russia and the United States have more than 10,000 nuclear weapons each. It’s only a third of what the two super powers possessed during the Cold War, but the weapons still have the ability to destroy the world many times over.

"Can the U.S. and the world free itself from its suicidal course, or is it too deeply addicted?" Philip asks. "The possibility of a nuclear weapon-free future is not a fantasy, but an attainable goal," he says.

Philip was born in Shanghai, China and came to the United States with his parents when he was 3. The Xie (pronounced "She") family lived in San Francisco until 1997 when they moved to Calabasas.

Philip is a mostly "A" student who also runs the 200 meters and the 400 meters on the AHS track team. He enjoys playing the trombone and last year performed in the school band.

He said he taught himself the Internet HTML language by reading books and gaining hands-on experience.

"I think I want to go to college and major in electrical engineering and see what kind of job opportunities there are from there," he said.

His award-winning Web page is a good start.

"We are pretty proud of this accomplishment," said Philip’s mother.

While attending A.E. Wright Middle School, Philip received a History Day honorable mention.