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Under the Weather?
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Written by Jasmine Toschlog, Reporter
Feeling a little blue this winter, or, for that matter, every winter? Perhaps you are more than ready for school to be over, and the teasing spring weather isn’t helping. Whatever it is that haunts you, you are definitely not alone. Think of a nice, warm summer day. What are you doing on this day? If you’re like most of the teenage population, you are probably not sitting at home slaving over your final exam study guide. Without diving into personal waters, one can probably assume that whatever you are doing, you are more than likely happy. Now, think of a typical winter school day. Not only are you stressed to the max, but you have probably lost some of your happiness due to that stress. Have you ever thought about why you feel a little lower during the “most wonderful time of the year”? Freshman Hannah Rasnick sympathizes, “I just feel mad and gloomy all the time. I don’t know why.”
It’s possible that you may have a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or, coincidentally, SAD. Medicinenet.com defines SAD as the depression that occurs as the days grow shorter in the fall and winter. Don’t go running to the doctor now. According to psychtreatment.com, SAD affects almost 20% of Americans in some form. Sophomore Lexiee Gremling shares, “The days seem longer and it’s a bit sad, but if there is snow I enjoy these cold times more than the warmer weather.”
As you can expect, Alaska is currently the coldest state in America. As you may also expect, suicide.org recorded Alaska to have the highest suicide rate. So, what is it about the cold that has everyone under the weather? It could be a number of things. Among them are: the feeling of being confined to one’s home, the lack of freedom that comes from being able to go outside, and the weather itself may provoke feelings within someone that seem to match the mood that it sets. Think about it. When it’s sunny outside, it’s a lot harder to be pessimistic about life than it is when it’s a gloomy, cold, and rainy day. So, next time you’re tempted to get down in the dumps over a cold front, take a dose of optimism and stay above the weather!
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What's So Super About Super Tuesday?
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Written by Darren Davis, Reporter
You know all about Superman, and the Super Bowl, but do you know what Super Tuesday is? Super Tuesday happens every four years. It happened this year. Super Tuesday is a Tuesday early in a presidential election year when the greatest number of states decide their candidate preference for the presidential election that will be held in November. Tennessee is one of nine states that held their primary on Super Tuesday. When several states hold their elections or caucuses on the same day, a presidential candidate can win enough delegates that day to secure his party’s nomination for the presidency. That is what makes Super Tuesday “super.” It is a very important day in our election process. Other than the actual presidential election day in November, Super Tuesday is the most important day in the presidential campaign. This year, Super Tuesday was March 6, 2012.
In the United States, each state participates in the presidential candidate selection process by voting for the person they would like to see represent their political party – either the Democratic or Republican Party. Different states follow different processes to select their candidate. Some states hold caucuses, where people gather locally in small groups to discuss the candidates and they decide as a group who they want to support. In caucuses, people vote by raising their hand, by standing on one side or the other of a room, or some other kind of open show of support. Other states hold primary elections in which each individual vote is tallied to determine a winner.
The states begin making their selections individually in January, usually one or two states at a time, starting with Iowa. Everyone else in the country watches and learns more about the candidates from the states that go first. Then, usually in late February or early march, several states hold their primary elections or caucuses on the same day, the day referred to as Super Tuesday. According to the web site HowStuffWorks.com, Super Tuesday is important because it shows how well a candidate does in a broad spectrum of voters and regions, instead of just one state.
The states have different weights or values in determining a national candidate or winner based on population. Each state is allowed to send a number of delegates to the nominating convention to vote for the candidate that the state selected. According to The Green Papers, a web site that is chronicling the 2012 elections, Tennessee will have 58 delegates in this year’s nominating process. In some states, the candidate that wins the support of most caucus groups or the most independent votes in a primary wins all of that state’s delegate votes. That is called ‘winner-take-all.’ In other states, the candidates are awarded a percentage of the state’s delegates proportionate to the number of caucus groups that supported the candidate or the number of primary voters that voted for him or her. Some states have special rules. In Tennessee, if the top candidate wins 2/3 of the votes, that candidate gets all of Tennessee’s delegate votes. But if the top candidate does not win with a 2/3 majority of the votes, each candidate wins a proportionate number of Tennessee’s delegates.
Sitting, first term presidents are customarily the automatic candidate of their party, so Barack Obama will presumably be the Democratic candidate. The opposing party, in this case the Republican Party, must choose a candidate to run against the sitting president. However, if a current president is already serving a second term, each political party must select a presidential candidate to run in the November presidential election.
Sandra Cook, of the Sullivan County Election Commission, said, “We do not do anything different for a primary election or for Super Tuesday than we do for any other election.” When asked about expected voter turnout, she said, “Since only the Republican Party is selecting a candidate this year, we will actually have only about half as many voters this year as we had in 2008, when both parties were selecting a presidential candidate.”
When asked about eligibility to vote this year, Cook stated, “The last date to register to vote in the November 6, 2012, General Election is October 8, 2012. You must be registered in order to vote, and you must be 18 years old on or before October 8 to register.”
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Indians Take the Stage
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Written by David Martinez, Reporter
Have you ever heard classic rock music, country music, Christian music, and guys singing Britney Spears all at the same place? This all happens in Indian Idol, Dobyns-Bennett’s talent show. This event exhibits the amazing talents students have successfully acquired at such young age. “This year, the show is going to be very similar to last year’s show as far as quality. We also have three different judges, and they’re all charismatic people, so hopefully they will entertain the crowd,” stated Mr. French, enthusiastically.
Our students as well as our teachers greatly appreciate this event, and we hope more DB students come out and support. Junior Estrella Martinez says, “I know a lot of the students here have amazing talents and Indian Idol is surely a great way for them to demonstrate it. I will most definitely be going to this year’s performance!”
Indian Idol is not all about singing. It is also for dancing and presenting dramas. This year, fifteen acts auditioned, which includes a dance routine, and eleven acts made it to the show. They were judged for their stage performance, their talent, and their entertainment value in the auditions. So stop by and support your fellow DB students in the Little Theatre this Friday, March 16, 2012, at seven o’clock. Tickets are only two dollars per person, but the talent you will find being performed by the students is priceless.
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We All Fall Down
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Written by Jasmine Toschlog, Reporter
The crack of gun shots reverberates throughout the school halls as fear strikes the hearts of the student body. The faculty and staff do their best to protect, but they know it is hopeless. It is too late. Now it’s time to sit and wait. Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. With all the media attention, one would assume that school shootings are just a common occurrence now-a-days. Contrary to popular belief, violence in schools has declined dramatically since 1994 (youthviolence.edschool). However, that fact doesn’t alleviate the severity of extreme school violence when it does occur. Teen violence is not limited to school shootings. According to at-risk.org, teen violence can be classified as anything from dating someone who is verbally violent to actual life threatening scenarios. “I have personally witnessed violence in the school over petty things; things such as who’s dating who and clothes and make-up. Mostly, I see girls arguing over guys and who’s better. I really wish that the small things didn’t cause such big hassles,” sophomore Ashley Lovin vents.
The more important question, however, is why rather than what. What causes this violent behavior? Is it bullying? Is it verbal abuse? Is it emotional abuse? As a matter of fact, all these are all contributing factors. Sophomore Victoria Peters shares, “I was verbally bullied last semester by another student who I thought was my friend. It made me feel really bad because, after a while, I started to believe what they said.” Victims of any of these types of bullying are the most common assailants when it comes to extreme retaliation, such as school shootings.
So, what can be done to prevent these outbursts of violence? Words are our greatest weapon, and this situation is a perfect illustration. Words can kill; not only the victim, but also those affected by the victim. Words reach farther than the one they are being spoken to, but words can also heal. Consider how differently a violent situation like a school shooting could turn out if loving and assuring words are being spoken to the shooter. Words must be chosen wisely, or not spoken at all. Was it the gun that took lives, or the mouth?
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Behind the Tape
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Written by Meredith Aulds, Opinions Editor
“I love tape,” Dr. Hampton joked. “I like to look at it.”
No, that’s not the real reason why Dr. Hampton asked Mr. Cook and his Leadership and Peer Mentoring class to decorate the hallways. In actuality, Dr. Hampton wants to paint the boring, sterile walls, even adding pictures and memorabilia from the eighty years that Dobyns-Bennett has been in existence in order to, as Dr. Hampton put it, “build on our past but emphasize our future.”
Dr. Hampton drew the idea from Mrs. Kilgore, who adorned the front office with pictures from art students. He feels that the front office feels more like a school while the main ramps and hallways feel boring and unimpressive. While interviewing, Dr. Hampton said that he felt that while walking down the ramps, it’s not obvious that you’re walking through a school. He wants to “put students on show” by depicting not just sports but theater, band, color guard, and academic achievements.
However, he didn’t want this venture to be “teacher-led or principal-led,” so he asked Mr. Cook, the director of the Dobyns-Bennett marching band, if he and his leadership class would be willing to undertake this drive for more school spirit. Heather Mitchem, junior, said, “I feel like it’s a more inspirational thing; it’ll bring more pride to the school, more school spirit.” Everything you see in the hallways was done by this class, all of the ideas coming from the students.
The money for this idea was requisitioned on March 7, and we should be seeing progress by the end of Spring Break. If you have any ideas for other activities like decorating the hallways, then please let Dr. Hampton know. This is, after all, your school. You’re going to spend the rest of your high school career here, so why not contribute?
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Horray for Gay!
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Written by Ellysse Clark, News / Student Life Editor
Proposition 8 is on its way to the Supreme Court! What is proposition 8 you ask? First approved in 2008, Proposition 8 started as a petition that banned gays and lesbians from getting married in the state of California. It was declined on February 7, 2012 because it was declared “unconstitutional” by a court of appeals. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California made a 2-1 ruling and became the first appellate court to decline a law that pertained to marriage between and man and a woman.
Personally, I don’t see what the big deal really is. This is America right? The people in this country have a right to do whatever it is that they want to do, as long as they are not harming anyone or animals (that is highly frowned upon here).
The right to marry whomever you choose is just as important as having freedom of speech or freedom of religion. How can we be called the “land of the free” if people are not free to do whatever it is that they so choose? Who are we as people to tell another group of individuals that they cannot make decisions themselves, just because some people feel uncomfortable? Auria Kincaid, senior said, "It’s not right to tell people who they can and can’t love.” Junior Samantha Burke said, “I’m for it. Gays and lesbians getting married does not affect me, so let them get married.”
I know that many people would beg to differ by saying things like, “by allowing gays to be wed, children would grow up in a world of confusion.” Come on, really? The only thing that kids worry about is getting a new toy or what color to color Hello Kitty’s bow in a coloring book. Children are not focused on sexual orientation. When the time is right, parents should talk to their children about their beliefs.
There are many rights that are taken away from gay and lesbian couples that have only participated in a civil union. For instance, employers do not have to recognize a civil union, and partners technically cannot call each “husband” or “wife.”
The bottom line is people are people. Instead of all the hatred, can we all just try to understand and respect each other enough to agree to disagree? Here’s the truth whether you have a problem with gays and lesbians or not, they are still going to be around. As Rodney King once said, “Can we all just get along?”
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