 At age 85, Ruth Bader Ginsberg recently had an accident that left her with three broken ribs. She was briefly hospitalized. During her brief stay at the hospital Ginsberg did not take the days she was there off. She was keen that her doctors would leave as soon as they finished their work on her so she could get her own work done. Ginsberg is an associate justice of the supreme court of the United States of America, and the oldest of them, too. Many people learned about this amazing judge by watching the 2018 documentary, RGB. Ginsberg has survived not only broken a total of 5 ribs, but also beaten cancer not once, but two times.
Ginsberg, born Joan Ruth Bader, was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 15, 1933. Ginsberg was appointed by the 42nd president, Bill Clinton, on August 10th, 1993. Ginsberg's parents were both Russian immigrants, causing Ginsberg to be questioned as a child about where she was from. Ginsberg has said that her mom was one of her biggest encouragers growing up, sadly shortly after Ginsberg graduated from high school her mother died. Ginsberg told CNN that her mother was, "unusual for her time because she stressed the great importance of independence." Ginsberg also said that in her mother's short life she taught her the importance of persisting and to keep trying even if not at first successful. Ginsberg said that how her mother raised her had a great impact on how she works and even how she raised her children and grandchildren. In Ginsberg's 13 years as an associate justice of the supreme court, she has managed to do many amazing things for women's rights. Right from the start, she was making history, having gone to Harvard, Columbia, and Cornell University. When Ginsberg was appointed, she was the second female to ever be a part of the supreme court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. One out of many amazing feats Ginsberg has accomplished was being a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and also was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsels. Ginsberg has been in these following six cases as well as many others. She was in Duren v. Missouri (1978), Califano v. Goldfarb (1976), Edwards v. Healy (1974), Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1974), Kahn v. Shevin (1973), and Frontiero v. Richardson (1972). Ginsberg says that she will continue her work until she is not able. Story by Stella Coffey Source: CNN  On October 29th a student was shot and killed by a classmate around 9:00 am. Authorities say it was a fight and then the student was shot at 10:30, police said the student died. Around 9:15 the lockdown was lifted and student’s parents were allowed to pick up their kids. Authorities say the shooting was an isolated incident since there was only 1 death. The school is 12 miles southeast of Charlotte, according to WLOS. The Charlotte Observer says it started with just a school fight and students just thought it as a normal fight and people were crowding around, when the kid who was being bullied pulled out a pistol and people turned and ran the other way as teachers pulled students into classrooms. The suspect, Jatwan Cuffie, turned himself into the school's resource office without a fight. Since this is very recent there is not much information.
30 people have died during school shootings this year; there have been 58 school shootings (a school shooting is defined as whenever a firearm is fired on the school campus). This just proves the amounts of school violence that is in our country. Who knows how many full lockdowns and fights there has been this year. It's just sad how much violence happens in our schools. A school is a safe place for me, but every time I hear that a school shooting has happened or I see or hear about a fight, it just feels less safe at that moment. When I see kids bullying other kids or picking on other kids it makes me worry about both of those kids, it pains me to see kids cussing each other out or fighting because I know that people in society do not act like that so kids should not either. There is a statistic that half of the world's teenagers (13-15-year-olds) report that there is a peer to peer violence, like bullying and fighting. This is a real problem. But it seems not many people are trying to stop it even though it is a really bad problem. I think gun control would be a good thing to stop school shootings. When I say gun control I do not mean like no guns for civilians I mean make it harder to buy a gun with more background checks and better age limits and besides, you can not take legal guns from someone because the second amendment says we have the right to bear arms. Except, in my opinion, some guns that are legal should not be legal. Such as the AR-15 that was used in the Stoneman Douglas shooting in February 2018. The Stoneman Douglas high school students should be role models for us because after that they spoke up so much to prevent school violence. In the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, it was a slaughter, the FBI says he planned it for months and had been obsessed with murders and mass shootings. In Sandy Hook's case, it was due to poor background checks of who was buying the guns, even though the shooters mom bought the guns (AR-15, 2 other pistols). He used an assault weapon to massacre the 1st-grade classroom. If the AR-15 was illegal it would not have been nearly as bad in both shootings. My second idea to stop school violence is that we need to change as students. We need to stop getting into fights and arguments and start realizing that although we may have a difference we are all humans and we all want to live a good life. If we all think of how we can make another's personal life just a little bit happier. Because let's think about this get you an argument with someone or your bullying some or being bullied would it be better to make the person angrier or happier. The Charlotte shooting was because of bullying. The bully was the one who was shot at the end of the day. It's just terrible that the bully gets to the person's head so much that the person shot him, it is just terrible. Think if the bully had just stopped the day before he might not be dead. This leaves me to another point, the person who shot the bully should have had thicker skin and just stepped away and told the bully I do not care what you say to me it does not hurt. See if we all changed or we did not let people bother us we would be happier and better people. Nate Durham from 6th grade thinks that there needs to better disciplinary systems in schools. Joe Hooten, a 6th-grade student, thinks we should have more drills. I especially agree with Joe's idea because we have had 3 full lockdowns and no drills. I know AMS has a lot of cameras, so this is not much of an issue for us but some schools might need more cameras like in their parking lots or other common places like cafeterias, sports fields like our track and hallways. These ideas fit under the topic of better security. During the recent lockdown on November 6, 2018, a 7th grade parent called the school and they did not pick up. this, of course, worries many parents that the school is not giving information to the public, which is reasonable. Do you think that during a lockdown a school administrator is going to tell every parent that calls a reason why we are in lockdown? No. Their job is to keep us safe. All the situations of our 3 lockdowns to prove the threat is not true. I understand that we do not know that much about the recent lockdowns. I would like the schools to tell the public. I also understand that if the threat is made by someone under 18 they can not release their name, so due to that the school is not allowed to tell us that much. During the lockdown I saw from Mr. Hickman's room, I saw police letting cars out of the car line and then they blocked the car line. Later more police arrived. I saw one with a huge assault rifle. Many people saw an officer with one. We have to remember we are safe at school. we have devoted teachers here to keep us safe. Overall school violence is a huge problem. I hope at AMS we stop the little that there is in our school. There is way too much school violence in our world today, I think we can stop it if try. My goal to be nicer to people who are mean or rude to me I challenge all of you to do the same. Story by Garrison Hunt  A tragedy occurred in Pittsburg on Saturday, October 27th, and killed 11 people attending the Tree Of Life synagogue and injured several police officers. Shots started firing at around 10 a.m during a baby naming ceremony. The suspect is now in custody. Those killed were Irving Younger, Melvin Wax, Rose Mallinger, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Jerry Rabinowite, Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein, Cecil Rosenthal, and David Rosenthal. Officials are now investigating the deadly attack on the Jewish community, according to CNN.
The alleged shooter is 46 year old Robert Bowers. Police are saying that Bowers acted alone, with a total of 3 handguns and 1 rifle recovered from the crime scene. He faces 44 federal charges for the murder of 11 worshippers in Squirrel Hill, some of which are punishable by the death penalty. Bowers has a history of making Anti-Semitic posts on social media platform, Gab. His last post was made minutes before the first reports of the shooting. "I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered," Bowers posted. "Screw your optics, I'm going in." Many across the nation are sharing their empathy for the tragic incident. "The museum reminds all Americans of the dangers of unchecked hatred and anti-Semitism which must be confronted wherever they appear and calls on all Americans to actively work to promote social solidarity and respect the dignity of all individuals," the US Holocaust Memorial Museum said in a statement. In the wake of the shooting, many have started raising money and materials for the victims of the shooting. The NHL team, Pittsburgh Penguins, started a donation page and a blood drive to support the community. If you would like to donate to a verified GoFundMe that has been created to help the victims, click here. Story by Erin Chen Image from CNN.  History. It is something that we as Americans like to think we have gone so far from. I would like to believe that too, but in my day to day life I realize more and more things happening that we think we have “left in the past.” I think that by writing this I can inform and educate on how we need to change as a city, state, country, and world.
1.Blood and Soil Blood and Soil is a concept that was constructed in the 19th century. What it means is that they would look at your blood to see where you came from and who your ancestors were. It also looks at the soil your ancestors were working on. They used that idea to make and influence you to go back to that place where your ancestors were. So basically it’s telling you to go back to your own country. Now obviously they don’t do ancestry test and blood test to determine this. And by they, I mean the racist people saying this. They assume this by looking at the color of your skin. Now that you have background knowledge you’ll be able to realize what I’m getting at. At the Charlottesville Riot, in Charlottesville VA, one of the MANY racist slurs they said was “Blood and Soil.” Like I stated earlier, this was a concept constructed in the 19th CENTURY. And the rioters went and rioted and said “Blood and Soil.” What they were implying here is telling all different people of all different ethnicities to go back to their “homeland.” The fact that people are bringing this back from the 19th CENTURY to say this to people in 2017 is heartbreaking. We want to think that we've come so far as Americans, but when we bring back horrible things like this, we can’t have gone that far. 2. Religious Persecution Religious Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of a person based on their preferred religion. An example of this was started in the 1640’s. When we look at it, religious persecution here started with Christians. This was at the hands of a small number of Jews and Romans because Romans owned a lot of the land that Christianity was spreading on, and the Romans were not ok with that. And now in our most recent American society, we are STILL prosecuting people for their religion. From the days January 27, 2017, to March 16, 2017, Donald Trump and Mike Pence put a travel ban (Executive Order 13769) on MUSLIMS, to prevent TERRORISTS from getting into America. Donald Trump stereotyped ALL MUSLIMS assuming they were all terrorist and did not let them travel to the United States. So many people couldn’t get home to their families because our president of the United States was so scared that we were going to be attacked. Because he assumed all Muslims are bad. Keep in mind this dates back to 1640 and before, and we’re doing it in 2017. 3. Sexual Harassment I am aware that sexual assault comes in many horrible shapes and forms and spans throughout history. Right now I am only going to focus on one case. The Anita Hill case. In 1991 Hill came out and accused Clarence Thomas of sexual assault. She said that he would make very vulgar and sexual remarks when they were working together. He also asked her out many, MANY times and she refused all of them. She spoke out and said she didn’t leave because “civil rights” was her ambition. So all and all she went to trial and she took the lie detector test and everything she was saying was true. But Thomas still got selected to be on the Supreme Court. 52-48 one of the most narrow margins. All of Thomas’ supporters supported and believed him. But soon after President George H.W. Bush put a law in place where harassment victims have the right to seek federal damage awards. After this rule was put into place 50% of the public's view shifted in Antia's favor. Today right now, a similar thing is happening with Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Brett Kavanaugh (Former White House Staff Secretary) was nominated for the supreme court, a nomination he was honored with. Everything was going right but then earlier in the summer Christine wrote a letter accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school. Apparently what had happened was at a “drunken high school party” where Brett exposed himself and pushed her toward his private area. There has been a lot of controversy over this case. Is she lying? Why is she coming forward now? “But Brett is such a nice guy! He would never!” A lot of people are on different sides. But a lot of people are standing with Christine. All and all, the fact that this case is happening right now, and how similar it is to Anita Hill’s is insane to me. And I’m very curious as to what will happen next. Now I know all of these are nowhere near identical. In fact, there are key differences between every one of these different pieces. But, there are obvious similarities. Like I previously stated we want to believe that we’ve come so far but truth is, we have a long way to go as Americans. We also have a lot of learning to do. So we don’t go in this deadly cycle of repeating history over and over again. Story by Tia Irby Photo Credits  Hurricane Florence, one of the biggest storms to ever hit North Carolina has left millions without power, at least 37 dead, and devastating flooding. Scheduled to hit the Carolinas on September 13, Florence was the start to the new hurricane season. Dumping gallons of rain, Florence has caused disastrous flooding. Just recently, Florence has been downgraded from a category 1 to a tropical disaster but is still expected to do some flood damage to eastern parts of North Carolina and head up North afterward.
A hurricane is formed by water and air rising in a funnel-like motion. When the wind shear is high, the hurricane tilts and the storm becomes weaker. When the wind shear is low, the hurricane keeps a strong shape and the storm worsens. Florence had a high shear but still managed to keep its shape. Florence has caused a great deal of damage, mainly flooding. Some parts of North Carolina even claimed to have thirty inches worth of flooding, and if confirmed, it could be a new state record. A resident of Kennel Beach, North Carolina, Todd Willis, said "this is just the beginning. It hasn't even gotten here yet and there's already water in the bottom parts of people's houses." Another resident of North Carolina, Annazette Riley-Cromartie said, "You just keep hearing people yelling, and you can't do anything," she said. "It's the worst feeling in the world." Story by Iris Schreiner  The terrorist attacks of September 11, set a chain reaction of events that would change our lives in the US and around the world. One of the most immediate changes is air travel which took place in US airports. Architecture changed when the international code council released new building codes suggestions to make skyscrapers safer and able to endure more. Also, Anti-Islamic violence in America jumped after the attacks.
Air travel is one of the most obvious changes after 9/11. Only 5 percent of checked bags were screened before 9/11. Shortly after 9/11, Congress federalized airport security by passing the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the Transportation Security Administration. The new TSA procedures included stricter guidelines on passengers and luggage screening. Airplanes also had major changes like secure cockpit doors and first class cabin curtains. In conclusion, air travel became a lot stricter after 9/11. Architecture changed when the international code council released new building codes suggestions to make skyscrapers safer and able to endure more, a least until everyone can evacuate. Changes include more stairways for buildings taller than about 42 stories, elevators that can be used during emergencies, higher fire resistance and impact resistant walls for elevator shafts and exit stairways. In conclusion, after 9/11 buildings became safer and are able to endure more. Half of US Muslims say they find it more difficult to live in this country since the 9/11, terrorist attacks. Violence against Muslims broke out instantly after 9/11, and have been continuing ever since. In 2001, the FBI recorded 93 anti-Muslim assaults. In conclusion, after 9/11 Muslims have found it difficult to live in the US. Overall, after 9/11 there were big changes including air travel, architecture, and anti- Islamic violence. “On that day, 2,996 people died in and around the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and on a commercial airplane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The nation’s response was swift.” (Laura Santhanam) Story by Ingrid Pehrson Works Cited Santhanam, Laura, and Larisa Epatko. “9/11 To Today: Ways We Have Changed.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 11 Sept. 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/9-11-to-today-ways-we-have-changed. Villemez, Jason. “9/11 To Now: Ways We Have Changed.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 14 Sept. 2011, www.pbs.org/newshour/world/911-to-now-ways-we-have-changed.  Hurricane Florence hitting NC Coast As you may know, many events have been rescheduled because of the hurricane. Some of these events (NC) include:
NC Pride events (Most if not all already rescheduled) Zac Brown band at PNC (Postponed) Trial By Fire at Fillmore (Cancelled) Pumpkin Fest at Sycamore Brewing (Postponed) Even though most Pride events (if not all) have already rescheduled, this may not be the case with many of the other events. Some events, such as the Trial By Fire event at Fillmore have been totally cancelled. Now (over) 22 events have been rescheduled into a 6-day window and this is just in NC. More have been rescheduled in into the next few weeks/months. NC Pride: Many people (including me) were looking forward to this and, thanks to the people who put it together people still are. It was postponed and most of the events within pride are still being held within Asheville and Charlotte. Zac Brown band at PNC: The band was going to bring a special guest, and now thanks to another great committee it's still going to happen. The special guest is Darrell Scott, who is a multi-instrumentalist, was going to play at the concert. Trial by Fire at Fillmore: Trial by fire is a band that was supposed to be at Fillmore but is cancelled now due to, you guessed it, the hurricane. Fillmore is a standing room venue only. There has not been (to my knowledge) a refund to people who bought tickets. Pumpkin Fest at Fillmore (at Sycamore Brewing): Due to the hurricane ,Pumpkin Fest has been postponed to the 30th. It is happening in Charlotte, the “Pumpking” and his family shall be there. So if you should desire join the Pumpking in his festivities. There are a lot more cases where things were sadly cancelled due to this terrible natural disaster. You can go to Charlotte Magazine (my source) for the events/ festivities being affected in mere Charlotte. As you could guess, there have most likely been more events affected, so go to my source to find out which ones in your area have been postponed. Story by Sky Robertson  USAToday.com photos On March 24, the globe marched across their towns or cities for March For Our Lives. Many Parkland students spoke out. The support shown was, according to the students of Stoneman Douglas High School, “overwhelming”. Below is a collage of images of cities around the world participating in March For Our Lives.
According to the official March The March For Our Lives mission statement is: “Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school. We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of an assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives.” Update: Also, on April 20th, students all across the country walked out to protest about gun laws and the Columbine High School shooting 19 years ago (4/20/1999) that killed 15 people. Story by Ryan Oast Sources:  The disagreement over education funding is definitely not a new idea. Teachers and supporting staff in Arizona are now fighting back with a walkout on Thursday, April 26th. This walkout is something never seen before in Arizona and has the potential to be the largest walkout protest in the national teacher revolt movement that began with the strikes in West Virginia. Arizona Educators United and the Arizona Education Association created a walkout vote including 57,000 teachers and other employees which resulted in 78% of them supporting the effort. Educators in Arizona are fighting for what they believe has been an insignificant state response about the nearly $1 billion in education funding cuts.
After the occurence of the West Virginia strikes, about a dozen Arizona educators created the #RedForEd movement on social media. The first demonstration of the movement was something everyone could get involved in by simply wearing red to work. The educators expressed their threat to strike at a rally on March 28th unless the state fulfilled their five demands; 20% teacher pay rises, competitive pay for support staff, restoring education funding to the 2008 levels, permanent salary structures including annual raises, and no new tax cuts until the per-pupil funding reaches the national average. However, these demands would cost the state billion of dollars to fulfill. To acquire that amount of money, it would most likely require raising taxes, which could put educators at odds with their governor and lawmakers as they have already stated they are not willing to raise those tax prices. The governor, Doug Ducey has not said much publicly about his standpoint. On the week of April 12th, he announced his proposal to give the state’s teachers the 20% pay raises they wanted by 2020; no formal budget introduction has taken place yet though. The outcome of the walkout is uncertain with the only reference being the strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma that both lasted nine days but had very different end results. The only thing that can currently be done is to wait for everything to unfold and then decide on further action. Story by Krislynn Hawkins  On November 7, 1918, a hero was born. On February 21, 2018, Billy Graham sadly passed away at the age of 99 due to natural causes.
According to Slate.com, he was nicknamed “America’s Pastor,” Billy Graham was known for his preaching. His preaching attracted thousands of people and he gained popularity quickly. He had a “Crusade” in New York in 1957, and that attracted an estimated 18,000 people each day over the course of a 90 day period. By 2018, he had done 400 crusades in over 185 countries. Graham is also the founder of Christianity Today, the most respected evangelical magazine in the US today. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including the best seller How to Be Born Again. He also launched many organizations such as Youth for Christ, and Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Graham identified an issue early in his career: racism. In 1954, he vowed to never hold a segregated get-together again. He was also known to meet with every single president starting from the Harry Truman days. He once wrote: “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. … I will have gone into the presence of God.” Billy Graham will forever be remembered as America’s Pastor. May he rest in peace, knowing that he made a huge impact on millions. Story by Ryan Oast |
