thelance Biga. Brawner. Delman. Howe. Krecklow. Leehy. Mitchell. Peterson. Yasson. For a combined 289.5 years, the veteran guard of Westside High School has imparted its knowledge to generations of students in the district. “There’s a lot of history through these teachers, and experience that I think we’re going to miss,” Principal Maryanne Ricketts said. “A lot of Westside is what it is because of these people. You have to live Westside to know Westside, and they have done that.” Under a longstanding Westside policy, a teacher or administrator who had been with the district 20 years or more and was 60 years of age or older could retire and receive a generous payout. Part of the reason these teachers will end their long Westside careers is that this year, faced with a change in state law that will require the district to fit such spending under a mandatory spending lid along with its budget, the district was forced to amend this policy. The amendment lowers the minimum age to 57, and states that the policy will be repealed after this year. The change in minimum age meant 42 teachers across the district were eligible to retire and receive payouts. They were given a Dec. 1 deadline to declare voluntary retirement. Of the 33 teachers who chose to access the policy, nine teach at the high school. For many, retirement was a tough decision. “Very, very rarely in these processes did I find some-one that was just like, ‘I’m done. I’m ready to go,’” said

In the fall of 2010, the Omaha World-Herald wrote a story about a school teacher in Pender, NE named Lonnie Ford.

Lonnie’s son, Joshua, was killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq in 2006. He was driving the humvee that day for the first time. He died almost instantly, though had he been in the passenger seat he would have survived.

Lonnie, bereft after the death of his only son, visited his grave every day, trundling up the hill to his son’s grave through snow and 100-degree heat in his black pickup.

“It’s hard to let go,” Lonnie told the World-Herald. “I don’t want him to die, his memory can’t die.”

Some 100 miles south of Pender, Bill and Evonne Williams, residents of Omaha, read about Lonnie’s struggle.

Like Ford, Bill and Evonne had family mem-bers in the military. All four of their sons served or are still serving in the military, so this story was particularly affecting.

They decided to make the burden of re-membering those who have perished in the War on Terror the collective responsibility of all those living in Nebraska. In doing so, they hoped to alleviate the strain of remembrance on the grief-stricken fami-lies of fallen soldiers.

Evonne began compiling a list of all from Nebraska and Western Iowa who had died since Sept. 11, 2001 in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. She called many families, asking for pic-tures, both personal and formal, of the deceased servicemen.

“Everybody’s concern in these families is that their loved ones will be forgotten,” Williams said. “They’re more than thrilled to have them included so that they’ll be remem-bered by thousands.”

The Williamses then assembled all the pic-tures into a commemoration exhibit titled “Re-membering Our Fallen.”

They began taking the show around small

8701 Pacific St. Omaha, NE 68114 Volume 57 Issue 4

WINTER SPORTS START SEASONSCheck out our previews of winter sports teams on page 9.

December 14, 2012

RETIREMENT DECISIONSnine voluntary retirees to receive payouts

By Zane Fletcher, Emma JohanningsmeierMANAGING EDITOR, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Eric Weber, Assistant Superintendent for Human Re-sources. “A lot of them were very, very torn.” Many didn’t want to retire this year, but felt they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to receive a payout. “It is the best choice in terms of family and financial security,” journalism adviser Rod Howe said. For some, the time had come to retire, regardless of the change in policy. Business instructor Rita Leehy had planned to retire this year anyway, so the decision wasn’t as difficult for her as for some others. Chemistry instructor Kevin Biga hadn’t planned to retire this year, but the change in policy worked to his advantage. “I was going to retire in two years because my wife and I have plans to move to Phoenix,” Biga said. “But with voluntary retirement, since they weren’t going to offer it two years from now, it makes better sense to re-tire in one year. I should retire this year to work on the house and get it ready for sale, and spend time with my mom, who’s getting elderly.” Not everyone who was eligible for the payout chose to retire. Principal Maryanne Ricketts was the only person at the high school who chose to remain despite missing out on the money. “I didn’t really feel ready to retire, even though I’ve been here 34 years,” Ricketts said. “I love what I do; I’m very passionate about Westside High School and the staff and students and community.” For some of the departing teachers, retirement wasn’t even on their minds until this fall. For English department head Nancy Mitchell, the memo regard-

Top: Chemistry instructor Kevin Biga

hands back papers in one of his Honors Chemistry classes. Right: Journalism

adviser Rod Howe and junior John

Ficenec pose inside the journalism room. Both Biga and Howe

will take advantage of the buyout packages

and retire after this year. Photos by Estella Fox and Maddie Ryan

‘Remembering Our Fallen’ exhibit on displayBy Joe HackEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Photo by Estella Fox

continued on page 2

continued on page 2

ing the payout came as a surprise. “I hadn’t even thought about [the payout] at all, and then we got the message about the state laws changing,” Mitchell said. “It was the first time I realized I was eli-gible. I started considering it. I thought it might be the last opportunity I have to do something different.” All of the teachers have long, full careers behind them. A few started out in the three middle schools Westside had in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and others have been at the high school throughout the course of their time at Westside. The list of accomplishments by these nine teachers is long. A few of these accomplishments in-clude: -Swimming coach and physical education instructor Doug Krecklow has led the swimming program to 20 state championships, but is most proud of his no-cuts policy, and helping motivated underclassmen become productive team members. -When Mitchell came to Westside in 1994, there were no AP English classes. She went to an AP institute over the summer, and was inspired to push for AP English classes at Westside. -Howe has won the Pioneer Award, which is the high-est honor a journalism adviser can receive. Many of his former students have gone on to journalism-related ca-reers. -Biga organized the chemistry storeroom, worked personally with an architect to plan out the new chem-istry room, and has tried to make chemistry a fun class with humor and hands-on activities. -Leehy helped make Personal Finance required for all freshmen, starting next year. Many of the retiring teachers look at their retirement as the beginning of new adventures. “I think just the opportunity to do something dif-ferent while I’m still young enough to do something is kind of a draw,” World Language department head Mitzi Delman said. Some of the teachers plan to continue working — ei-ther in teaching or other types of employment. Kreck-low wants to finish his doctorate. Many look forward to spending time with grandchildren, family and friends. The void left by nine of the longest-tenured teachers will be felt immediately, but there is a lot of optimism about the new teachers who will be hired to fill their spots. Due to Westside’s reputation, most positions will have many applicants. Weber reads through the appli-cations and decides whom to interview, starting with the positions that are hardest to fill. Each promising ap-plicant is given an interview with Weber and Ricketts, then a final interview with Weber, Ricketts, the relevant department head and often a student. Ricketts remarked that the dynamic of Westside High School will be dramatically changed by the departure of the retiring teachers. “I can’t tell you how much I’m going to miss the people who are leaving, because they’ve been my col-leagues for a long time,” Ricketts said.

newsDec. 14. 2012 2

body’s husband.”Williams also stressed the importance of high

school students touring the exhibit.“Most high school students are generally self-ab-

sorbed,” Williams said. “They don’t think much about things like this. When they stop in front of the pic-tures of the young men and women not much older than they are and think about their sacrifice, it’s a good thing.”

The youngest serviceman featured in the exhibit was only 19 when he died in Iraq, only a year older than Westside seniors.

“When I see students at the exhibit they’re quiet and respectful,” Brousek said. “One has to think that this is all for the good of a positive learning experience, that they’ll come away with a deeper understanding of their citizenship as an American.”

After Westside, the exhibit toured several other Omaha high schools, such as Burke and Papillion-La Vista. One district, however, will not host the exhibit in the near future.

Millard Public Schools refused to host the “Remem-bering Our Fallen” exhibit. The district believes that if it were to host the “Remembering Our Fallen” exhibit now, they would also have to host exhibits with oppos-ing viewpoints in the future, establishing an unfavor-able precedent for the district.

Williams has never had any venue refuse the exhibit prior to this incident.

“Their lawyers said not to do it, and they’ve received criticism from newspapers around the country — rightly deserved in my opinion,” Williams said.

The refusal is no setback for the Williamses, who have grand plans for the exhibit.

“We hope to make an exhibit for every state and have them all travel the country in big arenas,” Wil-liams said. “People would come in the thousands and walk that oval. We’ll do our best to make one for every state.”

towns in Nebraska, to almost unanimously positive receptions. In Sidney, NE, people showed up to cheer the exhibit, and thousands visited it at the library.

Then, roughly a year and a half ago, Bellevue Uni-versity contacted them and said they would be happy to sponsor the exhibit, so Bill and Evonne quit their jobs and began touring the exhibit fulltime.

Since then, they have toured the exhibit extensive-ly through Nebraska and created “Remembering Our Fallen” exhibits for nine other states.

The diorama features the formal pictures of the 82 soldiers against the backdrop of an American flag.These stoic images are juxtaposed with personal pic-tures of the veterans: one man flexing his muscles and grinning at the camera, another on a beach with his wife and two small children.

“It’s seeing those personal pictures that makes it so powerful,” Williams said.

Little mementos of gratitude and tribute are hung all about the exhibit: letters from citizens expressing their appreciation, vases of flowers, personal testimo-nials about the importance of military service.

These poignant images were on display in the Westside foyer Nov. 23 through Nov. 30. The William-ses also gave a presentation Monday, Nov. 26 featuring U.S. Representative Lee Terry as the keynote speaker.

Seniors Karl Khandalavala and Noah Gould and sophomore Barrett Rector, all Eagle Scouts presented the flags. Gould and junior J.J. Toy also played “Taps” on their trumpets after the ceremony

Social studies department chair Bob Brousek be-lieves seeing the exhibit was invaluable.

“It’s important for our students to understand that freedom isn’t free,” Brousek said. “Some people pay the ultimate sacrifice for this freedom. It’s impor-tant for students to put faces and names with these individuals. They’re not just somebody. They’re some-body’s dad, somebody’s son, somebody’s wife, some-

EXHIBIT: Remembering Our Fallen

continued from page 1

continued from page 1

82: the number of soldiers from Nebraska and Western Iowa featured in the “Remember-ing Our Fallen” exhibit that was on display at Westside Nov. 23-30.

8,975: armed ca-sualties of U.S., British and coali-tional forces who have perished in the War on Terror, accord-ing to OWNI.eu, an international news site.

116,657: Iraqi and Afghan civil-ians who have died in the War on Terror.

9: the number of states (Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Mis-souri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin) for which Bill and Evonne Williams have created “Re-membering Our Fallen” exhibits.

TheStats

U.S. Representative Lee Terry delivers the keynote address at a

ceremony celebrating the “Remembering Our Fallen” exhibit. The ceremony was

held in the Westside auditorium Nov. 26.

Photo by Estella Fox

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TEACHERS: nine retire

This year’s elections were notable for, among other things, several landmark pieces of state legislation. Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington voted in favor of gay marriage, but in other states, the big issue was marijuana.

Prior to the election, 17 states and the District of Columbia had laws in place for medical marijuana use. This year, 63% of Massachusetts voters voted in favor of Ballot Question 3, which legalizes medical marijuana effective Jan. 1, 2013. And this year, some states had incentives to legalize recreational marijua-na on the ballot.

Colorado voters approved Amendment 64, which, if it can be reconciled with the existing federal prohi-bition on marijuana, will enable adults 21 and older to buy cannabis from state-licensed sellers. Individuals will also be able to grow up to six plants in the privacy of their own homes, and smoke in private. In Wash-ington, voters approved a similar measure, while Or-egon defeated one.

Because of its proximity to Nebraska, Colorado has garnered local attention for its bold action. Pro-ponents cite the potential economic benefits for the state of Colorado. If voters approve the referendum, the first $40 million per year raised from the high tax on recreational pot sales will go directly into improv-ing the Colorado public schools.

In addition, supporters point to studies that have shown marijuana has fewer negative health effects than alcohol, especially for adults. People can’t over-dose on pot and die like they can with alcohol; also, marijuana, unlike alcohol, does not typically lead to aggressive or highly dangerous behavior.

“Considering the fact that it has been proven to be practically harmless, I think it’s only natural that it should be regulated by the government, and sold — and taxed — to consenting adults,” said senior John

Marijuana legalization finds highest support among young peopleAMENDMENT 64

news Dec. 14, 2012 3

Smith*, a supporter of legalization. “Furthermore, even going past an economic standpoint, I think con-senting adults should have the right to put mind-alter-ing substances into their own body as they so choose, so long as it is not causing harm to others.”

From years of working with teenagers, Susan Schle-gel, Westside’s Chemical Dependency Counselor, has a different take on the push towards legalization. Over 80% of her counseling has to do with marijuana use. Although the Colorado law applies only to people 21 and over, Schlegel believes if it leads more parents to use marijuana at home, it will have a negative effect on young people.

“Lots of times, [teenagers] say, ‘Well, I didn’t want to drink alcohol like my mom or dad. I didn’t want to be an alcoholic, so I used marijuana,’” Schlegel said. “So my question is, because it is just part of human nature that as young people we want to not be our par-ents — if we have our parents in the home being under the influence of marijuana, stoned in front of the TV, or whatever, what are you going to do?”

Schlegel believes reverse psychology may lead teenagers to seek out more harmful drugs, or turn in-creasingly to alcohol.

“I see it as just being a cycle of, okay, if my parents are doing this, I’m going to do [something else], be-cause I don’t want to be like my parents,” Schlegel said.

Currently, marijuana is the “drug of choice” among high school students. In a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2011, 39.9% of ninth through 12th graders reported hav-ing used marijuana at least once in their lives; 23.1% reported having used it in the month before the sur-vey. Research has shown that smoking marijuana at a young age can negatively impact brain development in children and adolescents, often subtly. Schlegel said smelling pot in the home triggers a desire to smoke, so among kids whose parents legally smoke in Colorado, those who don’t decide to try alcohol or hard drugs may be influenced to use pot, potentially harming

Café Express responds to student proposals

By Emma JohanningsmeierEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On paper, it would seem obvious that a conve-nience store in the middle of a school with relatively lax security would be a target for theft. To many stu-dents, the news that the Cafe Express was considering raising prices to counteract theft came as surprise.

“It’s a problem for a very very small percentage of our students,” Said Diane Zipay Westside’s Director of Nutrition Services. “Just the same, it does create finan-cial loss to the school district.”

Theft from the Cafe Express has become such an issue, that a price increase was proposed to compen-sate for the loss.

Executive Chef Sharon Schaefer posted a notifi-cation Nov. 15, on TechSpot detailing the increase in prices, as well as a host of other proposed changes meant to curb the effect of theft.

Included in the notification was a request for stu-dents to suggest alternatives to the price increase, and while no specific suggestions have been received, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We though that we got a very positive response from our student body,” Zipay said. “For the most part I would say 99.9% our kids are very honest and want to do the right thing.”

The response has been so positive in fact, that it has convinced the Nutrition Services staff to recon-sider the price increase at least temporarily.

“It is surprising to me that more students didn’t know that theft was a problem,” Zipay said. “The goal is for our students to police each other and them-selves.”

Zipay is relying on this response, as without it there

will be no way to effectively prevent theft.“Our staff are there to serve kids, and I don’t want

to put them in the position of having to be police,” Zipay said. “They’re not prepared for that and they shouldn’t have to be.”

Still, the Café Express staff has had to deal with several incidents of theft this year.

“[I’ve] had to deal with at least three or four,” Dean Eric Sagert said. “Those are the students who get caught, and that doesn’t necessarily represent the actual number of students doing it.”

Most incidents of theft involve hiding smaller food items in pockets or beneath jackets, or some-times sneaking out with food in hand amid the throngs of other students in the Cafe Express during certain busier mods.

Because of this, in her TechSpot notification Schaefer also proposed limiting the number of stu-dents allowed in the Cafe Express at a time, and not allowing students to wear layers inside the Cafe Ex-press.

However, while the methods of theft are largely similar, its motivations can be a bit more complex and varied.

“Sometimes students don’t have money,” Sagert said. “They’re fearful that that’s the only time they have to eat that day, versus thinking, ‘I’m gonna do this to impress my friends.’”

Whatever the motivations, the problems posed by theft from the Cafe Express are becoming impos-sible to ignore, and if student awareness of the issue doesn’t diminish theft sufficiently, price increases may be inevitable.

“We’re taking it week by week, and assessing our losses,” Zipay said.

By Tom SchuenemanOPINION EDITOR

Students purchase food at the Café

Express. After multiple incidents of thievery,

the Café Express considered raising

prices on food items, but decided against it after negative student response. Photos by

Estella Fox

750,000: the approximate number of marijuana-relat-ed arrests in 2011 in the United States. This was about 50% of all drug-related arrests.

42 seconds: the time in between each marijuana arrest in the United States.

2: the number of states that legal-ized recreational marijuana this past election.

28.5 grams: the amount now legal to hold under Washing-ton state law. Colorado has yet to set regulations on cannabis

$2 billion: the amount of projected tax revenue from marijuana sales over the next five years in Wash-ington state.

TheFacts

their development.There is a correlation between age and opinion

on marijuana legalization. According to the Pew Re-search Center, 54% of people under age 30 supported legalization in 2011, while among those over 65, only 30% supported legalization. In a recent survey of 60 Westside students picked at random from inside the school, 28 (46.7 % percent) said they believe mari-juana should be legalized. The reasons why students believe it should be legalized ranged from “So many people already do it” to “It doesn’t cause any death.” Among those opposing legalization, reasons included “Weed is not the answer” and “People would be run-ning around and abusing it.”

Smith said although he believes Amendment 64 was “a step in the right direction for America,” he still thinks there is a long way to go in eliminating the stig-ma associated with supporting such legislation.

“The fact that I even feel the need to remain anon-ymous in this article, I think, shows a lot about our country’s current view on cannabis legalization, and the associations that come with being a supporter of legal cannabis,” Smith said. “People seem to have sort of negative connotations with cannabis legalization after so many decades of prohibition on this plant. I guess we also associate supporters of cannabis legal-ization with cannabis users, which in and of them-selves don’t have the best reputation.”

Time will tell how the state-federal legal conflict will play out in Colorado. For now, Smith hopes this will help dispel stereotypes about the type of people who support recreational cannabis legalization.

“I think that we oftentimes hear people [say], ‘Oh, he wants to legalize cannabis — he’s just a hippie or a filthy stoner who wants to get high,’ when in fact it goes so much more beyond that,” Smith said. “It’s about the economic standpoint, [and] it’s about the freedom of consenting adults to do as they please with their own bodies.”*name changed for anonymity

opinionDec. 14, 20124

The Lance is a school-sponsored publication of Westside High School, Westside Community Schools, 8701 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68144. The Lance office is located in room 251. Phone: (402) 343-2650. The Lance is an in-house publication.

The paper is distributed every month to all students, except in vacation periods. Subscription rates to others are $25 prepaid. The Lance is printed by White Wolf Web, in Sheldon, IA.

Advertising rates are avail-able upon request. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit all ads for clarity and grammatical errors. The edito-rial staff reserves the right not to publish any ads that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance editorial staff also reserves the right to nullify contracts at any time without prior notification. The Lance also refuses ads that promote activities illegal to a majority of the student readership.

Reader response is wel-comed in the form of letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words, signed by the author and sent to room 251. Names may be withheld upon special request. Lance editors will decide whether to honor such requests.

The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff also reserves the right to not publish any letters that are libelous or that contain non-factual information.

The Lance is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill & Scroll Society.

The Lance staff recog-nizes that the administration of Westside Community Schools controls the curriculum and, thus, sets the parameters of the production process of school publications. The Lance staff also recognizes its own responsi-bilities to inform, enlighten and entertain its readers in a way that reflects high standards of journalism, morals and ethics.

Editors-in-Chief Joe Hack, Emma Johanningsmeier; Managing Editors Zane Fletcher, Sophie Goldberg; Copy Editor Ellie Anderson-Smith; News Editor Kellie Wasikowski; Opinion Editors Connor Flairty, Tom Schueneman; Feature and In-Depth Editor Andrew McVea; Sports Editor Aren Rendell; Arts & Entertainment Editor Skylar Harris; Staff Writers Sophie Clark, Grace Fogland; Photo Editors Aaron Boyle, Estella Fox; Adviser Rod Howe.

lance

Legalizing, though it ap-peals to the rights of in-dividuals, should be re-stricted. Humanity is too twisted to handle it.

JORDAN KLEPFER instructor

Do you think marijuana should be legalized?

I think marijuana should be. It doesn’t hurt anyone and it relaxes you — so I’ve heard. CAMI BRANDT junior

I don’t see a problem with it. If it generates revenue, it’s fine. CORY CURFMAN senior

I think it should be legal-ized for adults because it could be taxed and help the economy. BELLA PEPITONEsophomore

warrior voice

With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington this November, a scenario in which smoking pot isn’t criminal is tantalizing. More than two thirds of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized, and if the legalization process goes well in both of the aforementioned states, more will likely give their support.

We acknowledge that pot prohibition is a failure. The war on pot is expensive and takes up valuable po-licing resources. Every year, 750,000 people are arrest-ed for marijuana possession, although fewer than 400 people are serving sentences for pot possession alone, according to marijuana journalist Tony Dokoupil.

All these expenditures of policing resources and money haven’t deterred marijuana use in the slight-est. More high schoolers than ever, one in 15, use mari-juana daily, says Dokoupil. In fact, high school use is at a 30-year high and increasing. The illegality of mari-juana alone and the $100 fine assessed for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana aren’t enough to discourage people from doing it.

This is not to say, however, that everybody who wants to smoke pot is smoking pot. The number of users is expected to triple after legalization, according to Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. America already consumes marijuana at three times the global average. With such a demand, and such potential profit, marijuana could become the next big vice industry, joining alcohol and cigarettes.

What would the world be like if marijuana ads ran on TV, if celebrities endorsed their favorite strains in magazines and food companies sold products like “pot bacon?” Vice industries make their money by ad-dicting people to their product. And while pot propo-nents will be quick to tell you that pot is not technical-ly chemically addictive, more than four million people self-report behavior that meets the clinical criteria for dependency, according to Dokoupil.

Marijuana can be a pleasurable and harmless thing in moderation, but in a society where it’s legal, teens will begin experimenting with marijuana at an earlier age. Fifteen percent of teens become addicted to mari-juana, the same capture rate as alcohol. This rate is up from nine percent, and one has to think dependency will increase with legalization and greater availability.

While the health risks of marijuana are often over-blown, persistent use in adolescence can permanently lower IQ and can be detrimental to health.

The other problem is that cannabis is becoming more potent. In the 70’s, premium cannabis usually had less than 10% THC. Now, marijuana has 15% THC or higher, on average. Food products will have even higher THC content; a medical marijuana company in Colorado makes truffles with a whopping 60% THC.

Marijuana with that much THC is no longer such a benign recreational drug. While increased potency doesn’t have to mean increased abuse, who trusts people to self-regulate when chocolate and pot are in-

volved? How feasible is it to be a productive member of society when you’re constantly high? How capable of a worker or parent will you be?

We don’t want to make any sweeping generaliza-tions, because we don’t totally know how this will play out. Washington and Colorado are the first two plac-es in the country to legalize recreational marijuana, but just because pot isn’t always a bad thing doesn’t mean it’s a great thing either. Even if big-industry pot doesn’t take a toll on the social welfare and health of this country, it definitely won’t improve it.

Marijuana won’t necessarily be such a financial boon, either. The legalization of pot will create greater demand, but the prices will also drop with the pro-liferation of weed. The taxes generated from the sale of marijuana won’t go to schools and other deserving public programs, but rather to the regulation of the pot industry, according to Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know.

It won’t necessarily create good jobs either. Most of the jobs in marijuana production, processing and dis-tribution would be fairly menial entry-level work. The industry probably couldn’t support more than 15,000 growers, according to Dokoupil.

Marijuana could be one of life’s pleasures. Its downside isn’t great enough to justify prohibition, but it’s not a magical, silver-bullet crop either. Just because something isn’t bad doesn’t necessarily mean it’s com-pletely good.

Decriminalization may have downside

ORTH legalization:

HILE?Graphic by Sophie Goldberg

opinion Dec. 14, 2012 5

Last year in the March 30 is-sue of this paper, I wrote an ar-ticle expressing my ethical con-cerns over Facebook’s business model. My fear was that Face-book’s success would establish the viability of a business model based on selling its users’ per-sonal information. Towards the end of that article, I urged read-ers to instead adopt Twitter for their social networking needs. I doubt my column actually con-vinced anyone to do so, but it would seem that many people have decided to go this route any-how. This probably owes more to the virtues of that website’s format than to its more principled business model. Whatever the reason, the cool kids these days are all on Twitter.

But its superiority to Facebook with re-gard to privacy does not make Twitter a bastion for ethical use of the Internet. As is often the case with websites relying so heav-ily on user-generated content, the website itself is not necessarily at fault, but rather, some of its users are. The parties in question are the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas, the Islamist political organization that controls the Gaza Strip. Admittedly, these are not your average Twitter users. While Twitter often plays host to the quarrels of its users, such disagreements are not often accom-panied by the trading of missile and rocket fire, as was the case last month.

This was hardly the first time the two factions have come into conflict with each other, and it wasn’t even especially intense in comparison to some of their previous clashes. What really makes this most recent clash stand out is its extensive use of social media.

The IDF fired first in the online exchange of hostilities, tweeting from @IDFSpokesperson, “The IDF has begun a widespread cam-paign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets.”

This would seems a fairly innocuous tweet, likely intended to be little more than a useful update to the handful of people who fol-lowed @IDFSpokesperson before the outbreak of hostilities.

Hamas’s military wing fired back, using the Twitter handle @AlqassamBrigade. The militant micro-bloggers denounced the killing of the organization’s leader, Ahmed al-Jabari. This was still pretty common fair for the PR wing of such a controversial organi-zation.

Things got a little more heated when @IDFSpokesperson tweet-ed a link to a video recorded from an Israeli drone as it destroyed al-Jabari’s car with a Hellfire Missile. They literally released a re-cording of someone being killed. Granted, the victim was hardly in-nocent himself, but that doesn’t excuse sharing the video of a man’s death.

YouTube promptly took down the video, as it violated the web-site’s terms of service, but the Twitter war, as some in the media have dubbed it, hardly got any more tasteful after that.

This incident may appear at first to be an anomaly, but it is actu-ally indicative of a trend that has been rising rapidly with the popu-larity of Twitter, and of social media in general.

As many in the media have opined, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as much a war over public opinion as it is over land. So it makes sense that the IDF and the al-Qassam brigades would be making use of the same strategies that advertising agencies and public relations firms have grown so fond of over the last few years.

While the vast majority of Twitter us-ers, and users of other social media sites, are individuals, it is now commonplace for businesses, government agencies and other large organizations to have their own Twitter accounts and Facebook pag-es, often run by third parties. While such accounts make up only a small percent-

age of social media users, they tend to have more followers, and are more frequently retweeted than the majority of users. Every time one of their statuses is liked, or one of their tweets retweeted, the organization’s exposure is increased, at basically no cost.

This isn’t always a bad thing. Most of this kind of activity isn’t in any way harmful, but the potential exists for it to become harmful if the wrong messages are being sent. As globalization and the in-creasing availability of information make public opinion more im-portant, methods of swaying the masses will grow more prevalent. It is important that people understand the significance of the role they play in shaping everything from foreign policy to business.

Granted, the victim was hardly innocent himself, but that doesn’t excuse sharing the video of a man’s death.

TWITTER WARSHamas, Israel fire off tweets, missiles

Shakespeare plays are in basic

curriculums at many schools.

The first few pages most often

leave the students in awe, wonder-

ing how the English language

could possibly have been like

this. “Thy?” Since when has that

been part of any-one’s vocabulary?

Language is changing all the time. Teens in the 1940’s had quite a different vocabulary than modern teens do today. The English language at its birth in 450 A.D. was a completely different language than what we hear today. Many things helped change the language to its present state, such as other languages combining with English to create hybrid languages, and new words that eventually just caught on. One of the next huge things that could further develop our language just might be the Twitter account.

Suddenly words like “bromenistan” (BRO-MEN-EH-STAN) or “ayedo” (AYE-DOUGH) can be heard in everyday modern conversation.

Social sites and texting only allow users to type a small amount, which forces writers to be “creative”. Words like “lol” and “brb” were some of the first of the “texting” language, and have worked their way into our English language. Since then a galaxy of new words has been invented. What if this is what our language comes to? Is this what we want — a wa-tered-down language composed of conversations of 140 characters or less?

I always dreamed of taking a time machine to the future to see what mighty changes will have been made. My first thought includes newly developed so-lar flying automobiles. However, now my view of the future differs from its original state.

It seems the objective in this new way of speak-ing is to get the point across as quickly as possible. Instead of reading this article in about 600 words, it could be read in a matter of five.

The part that scares me the most is that it seems like we’re taking a step back — going back to primi-tive grunts rather then evolving our language to a fine scripture. A conversation, rather than going in depth about what the person is truly saying, truly feeling, is restrained to a measly “K”. That seems to be a little backwards.

We are advancing in everything — medicine, ar-chitecture and education — yet we are crawling back into a dark age of language. As we look back through ancient civilizations, literature defines what they were like. With the English language developing the way it is, our literature and our society will be defined by a watered-down language whose bestselling novel is an Internet meme.

With the mass connection through the Internet, particularly sites such as Twitter, the spread of new words is incredibly quick. Instead of having to spread a particular word by mouth across mass populations and land, one can make a post to the quite notorious Urban Dictionary and receive millions of views. This could mean we land in a text-like literature world in a very short time.

F

PowerGradeA+

D+

The proposed price raises in the Café Express were received with much angst. Listening to students’ voices and not raising the prices was the right move on the part of Nutrition Services, and we feel it showed students they have a voice.

The new computer background is poorly conceived. Although the “W” graph-ic in the center is kind of cool, the sentences in the corners are generic and the use of the abbreviation “net” for Internet is outdated by about 15 years. Ultimately, while the message is good, we don’t need it on our computers.

Finals are required in all classes, but for what reason? Students cram for hours to relearn the material of the semester to keep their grades, but don’t re-ally learn anything. Finals add unnecessary stress to students’ lives, and most things the students study they quickly forget immediately after finals.

Tom SchuenemanOpinion Editor

Connor FlairtyOpinion Editor

Graphic by Tom Schueneman

WORDSSocial media say ‘TTYL’ to English language

featureDec. 14, 2012 6

Saturday, Nov. 3, sophomores Eric McAtee and Teigen Swanson woke up before 6 a.m. Instead of sleeping in, they took a bus to Lincoln Southwest High School to spend the day debating. Neither of them knew it would be the biggest day of their debate career so far.

The morning started out with five preliminary rounds. McAtee and Swanson ended with a 4-1 re-cord, thus advancing to the elimination rounds.

The confidence gained in the preliminary rounds was essential for the two boys as they entered the elimination debate rounds as second seed. In the elimination rounds the top 16 teams began to debate and advance over each other in the tournament.

Swanson and McAtee made it to the final round of the tournament, and after the debate they were posi-tive they had won.

“We were pretty confident after the round,” Swan-son said. “When they announced it was a 3-0 [judge] decision for us, it was the best feeling in the world.”

Not only was this the first tournament Swanson and McAtee had won together, but the two were also awarded a bid to the Tournament of Champions (TOC), held in Lexington, KY, at the end of April each year.

“The TOC is the most prestigious debate tourna-ment in the nation — possibly in the world,” Swanson said. “In order to qualify for the TOC you need to have at least two bids, so we’re halfway.”

The weekend of Nov. 30- Dec. 1, McAtee and Swanson had their second chance at getting a TOC bid at the Millard West tournament. After two long days of debating, Swanson and McAtee got second

place at the end of the tournament, and were awarded another TOC bid.

Seventy-two teams around the country will qualify for each style of debate — policy debate, public fo-rum debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and congressio-nal debate. Debate instructor Dana Christensen ex-plained what traits teams need to qualify for the TOC.

“The number one thing is that they have to be hardworking,” Christensen said. “You obviously have to have talent, but talent alone is not enough, and you have to be willing to sacrifice [your] time and energy. ”

Christensen sees qualities in both Swanson and McAtee that make them stand out from others.

“They’re both very intelligent and studious,” Chris-tensen said. “They’re willing to put in the time and effort that it takes to do what’s necessary to do well. [Swanson and McAtee] have a lot of self-belief; they expect to do well. And they’re both pretty charismatic people.”

Swanson and McAtee participate in a style of de-bate called public forum, which many people also consider to be the easiest type of debate to under-stand. Many hours of research, writing cases and blocking out other arguments goes into the prepara-tion for tournaments. McAtee and Swanson have a unique way of preparing that has worked for them.

“We do a lot of cramming for tournaments,” Swan-son said. “First, we begin writing our case, which is like a speech arguing for the resolution or against the resolution.”

“Then we also do some extra research — we cut cards, which are basically pieces of evidence, and we [write] blocks to answer other people’s arguments,” McAtee said.

Although they say they procrastinate, McAtee and Swanson think their way of preparation and working

DEBATESophomores qualify for national tournament

together is successful. “I like to think that we work well together, espe-

cially when we actually start cracking down and put our minds to it,” Swanson said.

McAtee’s older sister, Stephanie, also attended the TOC last year for public forum debate.

“I think it’s really cool how I will be going to the TOC, just like my sister did last year,” McAtee said.

Swanson and McAtee are also involved in numer-ous other activities, including tennis, band, show choir and orchestra, but they both agree debate is their favorite.

“I think the good thing about debate is that it brings different social groups together,” McAtee said. “So I feel like I can really connect with more people that way.”

“Logic will get you from

A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere.”-Albert Einstein

For information, contact Melanie Morrissey Clarkclarkcreativegroup.com • 402.345.5800

By Kellie WasikowskiNEWS EDITOR

Sophomores Eric McAtee and Teigen Swanson participate in a practice debate round after school in the E&T IMC. Prac-tice debate rounds and other preparation before tournaments are essential to be successful at debate. Photo by Estella Fox

feature December 14, 2012 7

Siblings form club, pack food to end hunger

Before activist Ryan Sallans was born, his grandfa-ther claimed he could predict the gender of a baby by dropping a needle over the mother’s palm. The gen-der was determined by which way the needle swung. When dropped over Sallan’s mother’s palm, the nee-dle predicted a boy. But Sallans was born a female.

His story began with growing up in Aurora, NE, by the name of Kim Sallans. As a child, Sallans never liked her name.

“I had a sense of being male since age two and a half,” said Sallans, who spoke at Westside Nov. 14 about transgender issues.

At age 6, Sallans began feeling depressed about her body. She realized she didn’t feel like a girl. She wanted to fit in with her brother and dad instead of her moth-er and sister. She didn’t tell anyone about her feelings, because she felt like no one would accept her.

“At age 6 I remember thinking; ‘I have to live with this for the rest of my life and I don’t know if I can do it,’” Sallans said.

Sallans remembers puberty as a horrible experi-ence. Kim Sallans disliked everything about her body. She developed an eating disorder over time because she wanted to look like a boy. Anorexia almost killed her.

Six months of therapy and a trip to the bookstore changed Sallans’ life for the better. After discovering a book about transexuality at age 25, Sallans realized she was transgender. She began her transition only five months later.

First, she had surgery to remove her breasts. Then she took testosterone hormones. She changed her name to Ryan Sallans. After her transition, Sallans was officially a male.

Sallans knew he needed to tell his family about his transition. He decided to tell his brother first, and sent him an email. His brother said he wasn’t surprised and was supportive of him. But Sallans knew telling his parents would be a challenge.

“I wrote my parents a seven-page letter,” Sallans said. “I wrote about how I felt as a kid, my eating dis-

order and my transition process. I said, ‘I’m not doing this because I’m crazy or just going through a phase. I’m doing this because this is really who I am.’”

It was hard for Sallan’s parents to comprehend his transition. His father said Sallans was “dead to him,” and refused to speak with him. But through the years, Sallans’ parents learned to accept him more and more and were recently present at his wedding.

Ryan Sallans is now a national speaker, an author and a consultant for the LGBT community. Sallans re-cently published a book about his story, called Second Son.

He speaks all over the country and has been threat-ened and encountered protesters. At one event, he had to be escorted through the back door by security guards. According to the Human Rights Campaign, an average person has a one in 18,000 chance of be-ing murdered. A transgender person has a one in 12 chance.

Sallan’s goal in speaking is to help people under-stand transexuality and prevent violence against transgender individuals.

His advice to parents is to allow their children to be themselves.

“It’s impossible in our society not to assign a child a certain gender,” Sallans said. “But if you have a child who is starting to express an interest for toys that aren’t stereotypical, let him or her play with them. If you tell them not to play with certain things, that’s like telling them their feelings are not acceptable.”

Sallans is also concerned with transgender issues in schools. He tells teachers to be mindful of the gen-der language they use in the classroom.

“Instead of saying ‘ladies and gentlemen’ you could say ‘everyone,’” Sallans said. “Don’t segregate between boys and girls. Be open-minded and set an environ-ment that is safe for everyone. If you hear someone saying something that could be offensive, make sure you document it, and be able to discuss it with your students.”

Senior Jordan Brown, a member of Westside’s Gay-Straight Alliance, sees Westside as a safe place for the LGBT community. Brown identifies himself as trans-gender, and said he hasn’t been bullied at Westside. If

he is having issues, he said he listens to music or talks to people he can trust.

“I can talk to Ryan, my mom or my guidance coun-selor,” Brown said.

Brown said Westside students and staff are very accepting. He is proud Westside has a Gay Straight Alliance club, because many schools in Omaha don’t have those kinds of clubs. Brown sees the LGBT com-munity becoming more accepted in the community. He has a message for people who don’t understand transexuality.

“There’s a difference between sex and gender. Sex is what you’re born with and gender is what you feel,” Brown said.

He said he was pleased with the number of teach-ers who came to hear Sallans speak and with the many questions they asked. He hopes to stay in touch with Sallans.

Sallans tells high school students like Brown to stay strong and continue being who they are.

“I think high school is a very difficult time because students are starting to develop more individual iden-tity,” Sallans said. “But as you age, I do think it gets bet-ter.”

By Sophie ClarkSTAFF WRITER

Sophomore Danny Coyle and senior Kate Slosburg help mix food for a packing event for the club Kids Against Hunger. The club was successful at their first packing event on Dec. 2, where they packaged 2,400 meals. Photo by Aaron Boyle

Every six seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from a hunger-related cause. Almost 16,000 chil-dren die from hunger-related causes every day. Orga-nizations such as Kids Against Hunger help fight star-vation in over 60 countries around the world by send-ing food packages. Kids Against Hunger is the second largest food distributor in the world, after the United Nations.

After participating in a Kids Against Hunger-spon-sored event called the Million Meal March, sopho-more Max Slosburg wanted to found a school club to help fight hunger.

“I thought it was really cool,” Max said. “I liked how people can help a lot just by doing something easy.”

Max asked his older sister, senior Kate Slosburg, if she’d be interested in being a co-president of the club. Once she agreed, the next step was to find a teacher sponsor. The Slosburgs asked Family and Consumer Science instructor Landon McCormick if he would be interested, and he accepted.

“We had about 1o0 students that signed up to be in the club,” Kate said. “But 20 are actual members.”

The club members have weekly meetings every Tuesday morning, where they assign businesses to ask for donations, and plan packing events. Their first packing event was on Dec. 2 from 10 to 11:30.

“Our packing event went really well,” Max said. “We had 11 students there and we ended up packing 2,400 meals in about an hour and a half. Everybody had a great time doing it.”

Packing events involve packaging meals into boxes and shipping them out to organizations that can dis-tribute them to people who need it.

“Right now we are figuring out where the food will

go,” Max said. “Originally it was going to go the West-side Food Bank, but they told us they don’t want it. One of our options now is the Heart Ministry in North Omaha. They have a huge need for food.”

The Dec. 2 packing event was a small one of 10 people because it was the first one the club members organized themselves.

“Just seeing how well our last packing event went makes us excited to hold even more,” Kate said. “Hope-fully we’ll open it up to people who aren’t in the club too. But the cost increases because it requires more money to pay for all of the supplies.”

Funding is expensive; $600 pays for enough meals to feed 400 families. Nebraska Furniture Mart has been a big contributor to the club. The club has also sold t-shirts to its members to help pay for packing events.

“A lot of the businesses that we receive donations from are the ones that people have connections with,” Kate said.

The school club donates money through the or-ganization Kids Against Hunger, who then sends the components of the meal in bulk amounts back to the school club.

“The food we pack is rice casserole that has chicken and vegetables in it,” Kate said. “You just add water, so it’s easy.”

While the idea of working with a brother or sister might not appeal to some people, the siblings find it helpful and fun.

For both siblings, the most fulfilling part of being a part of the club is helping out people who are in need.

Everyone can help. Both high school students and people in the community can donate, and when the packing events get bigger, they can pack themselves.

“There’s so much high school kids can do.” Kate said.

Gender issuesTransgender speaker advocates for LGBT rights

LGBT speaker Ryan Sallans and senior Jordan Brown pose together after Sallans’s talk. Sallans informed students and staff of transgender issues by telling his story Nov. 14. Photo by Estella Fox

By Grace FoglandSTAFF WRITER

sportsDec. 14, 2012 8

Westside chases NSAA Cup

As a new banner went up in the landing, there were questions among students as to what it was for. Many shrugged it off as just another sign in the school, but in reality it has a unique purpose.

The banner was put up to increase the students’ knowledge of the U.S. Cel-lular Cup, an award given to the best all-around perform-ing school in each class in Nebraska. The Cup winner is the team with the highest number of combined points from multiple sports and ac-tivities.

All NSAA-sanctioned sports are included in the cup scoring. The activities included in the cup scoring are journalism and music. The scoring for all activities goes as follows: the top eight finishers in the state get points ranging from 15 for eighth place all the way to 50 for the state champion or top finisher. At the end of the year the NSAA tallies the total points for each school and ranks the schools from highest to low-est. Last year Westside placed fifth out of 32 teams, with 465 points. Lincoln Southwest won the cup, with 662.5 points.

Westside won the cup in 2007. Since then West-side has stayed near the top, but hasn’t been able to win. Head football coach Brett Froendt sees winning

the cup as a great motivation for players and activity participants.

“It’s a goal the entire athletic department can strive for,” Froendt said. “It’s something each coach can talk to their team about, to rally around and use it as a

source of pride. That’s what peo-ple rally around — your school being one of the best in the state — and this is one of the ways in which it’s recognized.”

Along with motivating the athletes, Froendt believes the cup is a way to get non-athletes fired up for cheering on the teams. Enthusiasm, though, needs to start with the athletes.

“It has to start with the sports teams,” Froendt said. “If each team cares about it, then that’s how. It’s kind of like a grassroots effort. If each team, each player within each team, starts caring about it more, then perhaps that will start spreading to other students.”

Kerkman said a top-ten fin-ish in the cup would be a success. He personally con-siders it to be a good representation of Westside’s over-all success.

“It’s a nice goal for our school to be a school that tries to show that it’s not just a one-sport school, or just an all-sports school, but a school that is good in all ac-tivities and athletics,” Kerkman said. “We have a good journalism program, we have a good music program, we have a good band program. The cup shows that you are a really well-rounded school. It really displays who Westside is. It combines everybody’s skills.”

By Aren RendellSPORTS EDITOR

Tom KerkmanAthletic Director

The cup shows that

you are a really well-

rounded school. It

really displays who

Westside is.

BRIEFLYThe swimming and diving team is among the most storied programs at West-

side, with 36 state championships, including one last year.However, while many are aware of the swimming and diving team’s success,

many people forget about the second part of the name. The dive team, though smaller than the swim team, has already started making waves this season. At just their second meet this year, sophomore Erin North and freshman Maddi Simon qualified for the state championships on Feb. 21. To qualify for state, divers must achieve at least a score of 300 in their diving routine.

“It is a great improvement from last year,” North said. “It usually takes longer then the first meet to make it [to state].”

The team, led by senior captain Kate Durst, currently only has six members, five of whom are underclassmen. This inexperience has not hindered the team, though. Last year, North placed 14th at state, and she is looking to do better this year. She has also built up an impressive diving repertoire.

“There are five categories, and I compete in all of them,” North said. “The catego-ries are fronts, backs, reverses, inwards and twisters.”

North says her emotions are different from dive to dive, but there is one constant that keeps her diving and working to improve.

“I know it’s cheesy, but it feels like flying,” North said. “It is really exhilarating.”

Dive team makes a splash

Freshman Cole Hop-kins prepares for a dive at a dive team practice. The often overlooked dive team has helped Westside win 36 state swimming and diving championships, includ-ing one last season.Photo by Estella Fox

sports Dec. 14, 2012 9

SWIMMINGThe girls team did exceptionally well last

season, earning the state title in late February. The boys were not as triumphant, largely due to their lack of experienced upperclassman swimmers. Coach Doug Krecklow still has the same goals for both teams.

“I think we can get into the top ten this year,” Krecklow said. “That’s always been a goal, year after year. Just because you get beat doesn’t mean you should lower your goals or expectations.”

To achieve this goal, both teams have to get used to training back in a high school set-ting. The transition from off-season training to team practice takes time to get used to, and is one of the largest challenges associated with swimming in school. It’s also important to fix technique errors early in the season, so the ma-jority of training time can be used to improve, not make up for lost time.

“We want to make sure that whatever you’re doing, that technique is right for you,” Kreck-low said. “If it’s not, you need to make adjust-ments. Kids need to be willing to make those adjustments, and then be patient for those ad-justments to take effect.”

Krecklow often observes newcomers at practice for three to four weeks to understand how they move in the water. Then, he and his team determine whether or not adjustments are needed.

Beyond physical training, Westside swim-mers also focus on their mindset.

“We spend a lot of time trying to teach our athletes how to think, what to think about, how to focus on what they’re doing, and how to be concerned with their own behavior and not that of somebody else,” Krecklow said.

Swimming is unique in that members race the clock more than they race their competi-tors. Because the swimmer is competing alone, mental blocks are frequent barriers to utilizing their training.

As usual, Westside’s biggest rivals are Creighton Prep and Marian. This year, West-side swimmers also have their eye on Lincoln East and the Millard girls programs, which are vastly improved.

Westside’s freshmen have shown promise. “We have really good depth in our freshman class. It’s the largest ninth-grade boys class in a decade,” Krecklow said. “The ninth-grade grade girls that we have coming are a talented group and have lots of experience, which will carry them well into the season.”

The team’s flexibility is another asset. A team talented at multiple events is vital in or-der to excel at state this year.

Lastly, because boys and girls swimming have the same coach, the teams are closer than the swim teams in other schools. As a result, they work well together.

“I think the chemistry is going to blend

well,” Krecklow said. “It will be uplifting as I look forward from where we are right now.”

GIRLS BASKETBALLLike any discipline, sports have their own

language. It’s easy to get lost in the terms, tech-nique and court lingo of the girls basketball team. When watching the members play, how-ever, their chemistry and competitiveness are crystal clear.

Great playing comes with hard work. Dur-ing the off-season, the team has been practic-ing on and off the court and meeting with a trainer twice a week to work on strength and conditioning.

“They’ve all had good summers … they are ready to show off all their hard work,” said var-sity head coach Steve Clark. “I’m excited to see all the new girls get a chance to perform in var-sity games.”

But a new season would not be complete without some changes.

“There will always be changes from year to year to best utilize our personnel,” Clark said. “We’ll change some of our zone offenses since many teams played us zone last year. We will add some zone to our defense and press a little more to utilize our athleticism.”

So far this year, the team has been success-ful over Grand Island, but lost in a conference game against Lincoln Southwest.

This year, Clark said Westsiders should ex-pect to see the team go above and beyond by boosting their competitiveness, composure and passion for the sport.

“You will see girls being reliable in their jobs on the court with great sportsmanship and a lot of Warrior Pride,” Clark said.

BOYS BASKETBALLWhen one thinks of a team, several things

immediately come to mind. Precision and ath-leticism are a few, but if you ask the players on Westside’s boys basketball team, they might say family.

The team emphasizes a tight-knit environ-ment where players recognize teamwork is im-portant to success.

“Our players have dinner together the nights before games,” said varsity assistant coach Jered Hellmen. “We say ‘family’ at the end of our practices in a huddle.”

Senior center Jacob Koester and junior shooting guard Mike Kiger agree that the con-cept of family has been emphasized this year.

“Family is a big part of our team this year,” Koester said. “The bond that you create with your teammates and coaches throughout the season truly feels like you have a second fam-ily.”

Unity among the teammates has grown to be a major asset to the team. The players are able to perform and work together to best uti-lize strong suits and help correct weaknesses.

“I think our team’s strength is that we have a very unselfish team,” Koester said. “We all play really well together and work off each other’s

strengths.”Though the Westside community has been

supportive in the past, games have been under attended. The team hopes to see more support in the bleachers this season.

Last year, boys basketball had a tough sea-son with a 10-13 record. The team hopes to im-prove its performance with some changes this season. With only one returning starter, four new players will have the chance to start and put their training to good use. Also, the em-phasis on family and teamwork has added to overall team chemistry.

“We all stick together through the highs and lows of the season, and know that we are all in it together and have each other’s back,” Koester said.

WRESTLINGWhile basketball players were going

through their “grueling” week of training from Nov. 5 to Nov. 9, wrestlers were working as hard, if not harder, in their normal preseason conditioning.

Head coach Michael Jernigan thinks the grueling two-a-days help the team stay fo-cused and will help them get off to a good start.

“In the morning we just focus on running and lifting, and that way in the afternoon we can just focus on wrestling,” Jernigan said. “It pays huge dividends early on in the year be-cause we go into the early season events in good shape lot better than some of the other teams do.”

Last season senior Erick Vargas narrowly missed out on medaling at state, while junior Dylan Sorrell failed to qualify for state after making it to state as a freshman. Jernigan iden-tified Vargas and Sorrell as the team’s leaders. Vargas said they each have their own style of leading.

“Dylan, he pushes the guys - if they are slacking, he’ll be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this, let’s go,’” Vargas said. “I’m more of a leader by example, like if kids aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing I’ll stay quiet, but if we have to do 20 pushups and kids are only doing 10, I’ll just do all 20.”

With the help of the team’s leaders and demanding training, the team has improved since last season.

“Kids have been doing a lot in the off-sea-son and overall just a lot of the kids are older and they have a lot more experience now, so we will be a lot better this year,” Vargas said.

While the team only qualified four wres-tlers for state last season, it has goals of qualify-ing more wrestlers and improving its numbers from last season.

“Some of the ones [goals] right off the top are district champion,” Jernigan said. “District champion qualifies us for the first ever dual state tournament that the state of Nebraska has incorporated this year, so it would be nice to be in the inaugural one there. We have goals of trying to break 85 pins as a team, 400-plus takedowns. We’d like to get back to our domi-

nant numbers at state and hopefully qualify five-plus guys.”

HOCKEYAlthough the majority of the student body

often overlooks club sports, a number of club teams play and compete representing West-side. One such club sport is the Westside ice hockey team.

Last season the team posted a losing record. The team, which is composed of eight students from Westside and eight students from other high schools, such as Gross, hopes to improve its record this season. In addition to improv-ing its record, the team’s main goal is to win its end-of-season tournament.

“We’d like to have a winning record, first of all,” said head coach John Fletcher, father of senior hockey player and team captain Zane Fletcher. “Secondly we’d like to contend for a title.”

The team has already played six games, and has a record of 3-4-1, the team has already improved compared to its record of 1-15-4 last season, with last season’s No. 3 scorer Connor Byrnes leading the team in goals scored. The team has experience and leadership to help it continue to win games and vie for a champi-onship.

“Zane [Fletcher] definitely [is a leader],” said senior Erin Hodges, the only girl on the team. “He was named captain. He’s always giv-ing speeches. They’re usually funny and have nothing to do with hockey, but it really gets us pumped up. It’s mainly the seniors on the team try to help the younger kids along and get them to actually play hockey, not just go try to kill someone on the ice.”

With the help of the leadership from Zane Fletcher and the other seniors, the team has developed good chemistry, something Hodges did not expect.

“I think we do, surprisingly, [have good chemistry],” Hodges said. “When we went into the season we knew that we were getting a lot of new kids, because we had a lot of graduating seniors these past few years. We were worried that we were going to get all these new fresh-men and it was just going to be awful. In the end, first practice out, everyone was really nice and everyone is good and we all have different skills that we can bring out onto the ice.”

Even with its leadership and chemistry, the team does face one disappointing challenge, though: a lack of fan support sponsored sports at Westside, such as football and basketball, receive. Coach Fletcher hopes to see more sup-port from Westside students.

“I wish there was more, frankly,” Fletch-er said. “I know it doesn’t get advertised too much, and I understand it’s a club sport and not everyone on the team is from Westside, but the majority of the kids on the team are from Westside this year. The players on the team love to see kids from the school show up and love to see it supported, so I’d like to see that as well.”

WINTER SPORTS PREVIEW

By Aren Rendell & Ellie Anderson-SmithSPORTS EDITOR & COPY EDITOR

arts & entertainmentDec. 14, 2012 10

newest album, is a hipster’s dream, complete with a track featuring Zooey Deschanel, the quirky pre-hip-ster hipster. Hipster-bashing aside, Companion is a great album, sure to start a surf guitar revival.

NEW: New wave pop is a difficult genre, gener-ally composed of over-played prima donnas. Howev-er, hope came to me when I first heard Ladyhawke’s Anxiety. It’s very poppy, slightly techno, a bit lazy, and reminiscent of ‘90s pop. It’s an album that will not easily escape your head. The lyrics seem to circle about, in and out of the beats. It’s peppy, uplifting and full of sunshine.

Best of New-Wave Alternative:There have been at least eight notable alternative

albums this year. The best, however, is unapologetical-ly Passion Pit’s Gossamer. It’s true nu-alt. It makes you bob your head. Finally an alternative band that makes you feel something other then sublimity. Passion Pit has an impressive catalogue, but Gossamer takes the cake. This album demonstrates the band’s maturity. Its come from 2008’s Chunk of Change techno and overly rhythmic sound to a refined, more magnetic experience.

Best of Metal:DEATH: Riding in on horses of fire is the always

valiant Dethklok, butchering all other bands for the best death-metal album of the year. Much like Deth-klok’s past two albums, Dethalbum I and II, Dethal-bum III is no disappointment. The much-anticipated work of Brendon Small comes as a relief to the world of Metalocalypse lovers. This high-voltage album is full of Deathklok’s classic fast, dark, pounding guitar lines, as well as Small’s signature sweep-picking solos. Small, who released Galaktikon, a non-Dethklok al-bum, six months before Dethalbum III was released, is certainly a force to be reckoned with in the world of metal.

THRASH: It has been an exceptionally bru-tal year for thrash, with the release of Testament’s Dark Roots of Evil, Overkill’s Electric Age, Municipal Waste’s The Fatal Feast, and Tantara’s Based on Evil. I am not King Solomon. I’m physically unable to de-termine the single best thrash album of 2012. Both Testament’s and Overkill’s new releases retained their signature sounds, and unlike Metallica’s Death Mag-netic, have evolved it to fit the times, in a pleasing, non-sellout way. Thrash has been a work in progress from 1980 to the present. With the promising releases this year, hopefully thrash continues to grow and more new thrash comes to light.

Worst of Music:This year, there has been a plethora of great releas-

es. Unfortunately, there have also been a number of albums by artists that would be better off never having released anything. For the sake of humanity, please make it stop.

First and foremost, Now That’s What I Call Mu-sic. This year was the release of its 44th U.S. album. The compilation album riddles the late night airwaves with its infomercials and bombards grocery store shoppers. In this day and age, if a person likes a cer-tain song, he or she can simply spend 99 cents on the Internet, as opposed to $11.39 for the full Now compi-lation.

Now That’s What I Call isn’t the worst offender, however. No, the worst offender has a cult following. Oh yes, Juggalos and Juggelettes, prepare yourselves for a verbal lashing. Insane Clown Posse, which re-leased Mighty Death Pop this year, may not be com-pletely talentless, but has released 12 albums too many. Out of the 12 albums, there is possibly not one song I can force myself to sit down and suffer through. I gave Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope a try, but I couldn’t get over the pathetic, womanizing, pro violence and overall senseless stupidity of the lyrics. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for ridiculous songs about violence and self-empowerment. ICP doesn’t come close to the low bar I have set for the maturity of songs. The theme of the vast majority of the songs are a sad attempt to be obscure and twisted, but usually comes off as self-conscious and insecure. The ICP has accumulated a vast following over the years; hopefully one day they’ll realize how dumb their music is.

Just like the sanctity of rap has been slaughtered yet again this year, the purity of punk rock has also been violated. NOFX, presenting itself as a “punk-rock” band, lied to the population at large, and re-leased another pop-punk album that’s mediocre if even that. I’m not asking the band to be as fantastic as Wire, or even Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreak-ers. I’m just begging for its sincerity when it oh-so-corporately markets itself as punk-rock. It lacks the passion, the spontaneity of real punk, and comes off more as extremely poppy Adam Ant, or even, dare I say it, Green Day.

Randy Newman said it best in “I’m Dead,” stating, “everything I write all sounds the same/each record that I’m making sounds like a record that I made/just not as good.” The Rolling Stones are an amazing group, and one of my personal favorites, but they’ve gotten to the age where everything just starts to blend musical-ly, and they no longer are producing life-changing al-bums. This year’s Stones album, Grrr! along with Kiss’ latest, Monster, makes me sick of hearing bands that were once revered turn into mushy, unoriginal, static.

Nothing’s worse than a bad album. Fortunately, we’ve had a few good ones this year to make up for the massive number of disappointments. Music can only go up hill from here. This year gave some encouraging signs of a shift in the world of music. Shifts back to appreciating artists for more then their physical ap-pearance, or how well they dance. Auto-tune is slowly but surely falling through the cracks. Our generation is the future of music. Stay gold Ponyboy, and don’t let us down.

Generally, I don’t look forward to new albums, or even to a new album from an old artist. As pessimistic as that may be, it is because I love music so much. I live in fear of new, and usually awful, releases. Over 390 major albums were released in this past year. You can’t expect all, or even half of them, to be decent. For-tunately, this year gave birth to a number of refresh-ingly decent albums. Since nowadays there is a large variety of musical styles, it wouldn’t be practical to compile a definitive list of the best songs, from all the categories. Instead, here are the best songs from most of the categories. And no, you won’t find Taylor Swift’s new hit album on any list of mine. We’re talking about music here, not annoying Corporate America noise.

Best of Rock:INDIE: Jack White has always been a difficult

musician to categorize. He’s managed to create a mu-sical style all his own, much like Van Halen and Nir-vana did before him. His April release, Blunderbuss, is the best White-styled album since Icky Thump. It’s catchy, easily relatable, and is coated in the all-so-loveable sound of Jack White.

A close second is Mumford & Sons’s ridiculously well received and widely accepted Babel. It excels po-etically, and much like White, is extremely difficult to put a label on. As the folkiest music I have ever heard on the mainstream radio, it definitely deserves credit for creativity.

HIPSTER: Hipster rock is a newer genre, growing at an unbelievable rate, with new bands being born every day. Grizzly Bear, a band containing a Coldplay-esque vibe in its mellow tunes, put out its first album in three years, Shields, which was definitely worth the wait.

CLASSIC: Neil Young hasn’t released a good al-bum without Crazy Horse standing behind him. The band is half the reality of Young’s success. Psychedelic Pill is another Young and Crazy Horse masterpiece.

Notably, Leonard Cohen also released an immacu-late album, Old Ideas, in late January. Any folk fan, or fan of any classic rock, will certainly enjoy this always-eloquent artist.

NEW: I try to stay away from new rock. It’s one of the most unoriginal and talentless forms of rock I’ve forced my auditory canals to endure. Foxy Shazam, however, is an exception to the dull genre. Its debut al-bum, The Church of Rock and Roll, is fun, soulful and aggressive. It’s exactly what the skeptic fan is looking for in a pick-me-up album. It’s something to shake your body to. It certainly is a religious experience. The Church hit the shelves Jan. 24, and has been gloriously streamed on the radio since.

ALTERNATIVE: The genre of alternative rock, a genre whose sound changes every year, is a complex animal. Though the Smashing Pumpkins’ Oceania, as well as Marilyn Manson’s Born Villain, were great albums, the little-known Chelsea Wolfe’s Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs is truly stranger and more haunting than the rest. Wolfe, who’s been known to whisper-sing into the microphone, finally allows us to enjoy her soft voice in front of streams of strings.

POP: I’m not entirely sure what Tame Impala is. Is it hipster-rock? Is it just a translucent formation of sound waves? How easily could I jog with them on my Walkman? The airy sound of Lonerism, Impala’s Oc-tober release, takes you on a windy walk down a hot beach to the ocean. Lonerism can make even Nebras-ka, in the crest of winter, feel like you’re in the band’s native Australia, afloat on the sea.

Best of Pop:HIPSTER: M. Ward has been synonymous with

Connor Oberst, the king of hipsters, ever since the Oberst/M. Ward collaboration for the group Mon-sters of Folk. A Wasteland Companion, the band’s

By Skylar HarrisA&E EDITOR

BEST OF 2012Year brings satisfying new albums

THE GOODBlunderbuss Jack White

Babel Mumford & Sons

Shields Grizzly Bear

Psychedelic Pill Neil Young

Old IdealsLeonard Cohen

The Church of Rock and RollFoxy Shazam

OceaniaSmashing Pump-

kinsBorn VillainMarilyn Manson

Unknown RoomsChelsea Wolfe

LonerismTame Impala

A Wasteland CompanionM. Ward

AnxietyLadyhawke

GossamerPassion Pit

Dethalbum IIIDethklok

GalaktikonBrendon Small

Dark Roots of EvilTestament

Electric Age Overkill

The Fate FeastMunicipal Waste

Based on EvilTantara

Death MagneticMetallica

THE BADNow That’s What I Call Music 44Mighty Death Pop Insane Clown

PosseGrrr!Rolling Stones

MonsterKiss

arts & entertainment Dec. 14, 2012 11

“I dreamed a dream in time gone by when hope was high and life worth living.”

So begins the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from the timeless musical clas-sic Les Misérables. After much waiting and anticipation, that time has finally returned. The popular stage musical is being brought to the big screen Dec. 25 in a movie adaptation.

A movie version of Les Misérables has been a long time coming. It was originally set to go in production in the early nineties, but was shelved until the recent surge in popularity of the musical brought it back into the lime-light. Much of this can be attributed to the British singer Susan Boyle, whose rendition of the tune “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent created newfound interest in the musical. Although the movie will be directly adapt-ed from the popular stage musical that came out in 1980, the original source material comes from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, which is considered one of the greatest novels of all time. The book follows the lives of multiple Frenchmen leading up to the June Rebellion in 1832. The main character of the novel is Jean Valjean, a man who was imprisoned for 19 years because he stole a loaf of bread for his starving children.

Starring as Valjean is Hugh Jackman, probably most famous for his por-trayal of Wolverine in the X-Men movies. Despite being known as mostly an action-film star, Jackman is an accomplished musical actor and won a Tony award starring in the musical The Boy from Oz. When he hosted the Oscars a few years ago, he showed off his Broadway chops with fellow cast member Anne Hathaway. She will be playing Fantine, who sings the musical’s most famous song, “I Dreamed a Dream.” The cast is filled with great actors, and there is plenty of movie-musical experience to go around. Amanda Seyfried, who starred in Mamma Mia, and Helena Bonham Carter, who was in Swee-ney Todd, both play minor characters in Les Misérables. The only possibly miscast part is Javert. Russell Crowe plays the coldhearted inspector. Al-though Crowe is a great choice because of his acting style and overall aura, he is not known as a singer. While he certainly won’t need to belt like Hathaway or Jackman, Javert does have multiple singing parts, and based on the pre-views, Crowe will not be wowing anyone with his musical ability.

Tom Hooper, who recently directed the critically acclaimed film The King’s Speech, brings us this adaptation of Les Misérables. This is his first foray into the world of musicals, yet he is already bringing in innovation that may radically change how movie musicals are filmed in the future. In most musicals, before the cameras start rolling, the cast gets together and records an album with all of the songs that will be in the movie. When they film the music sequences, the actors lip-sync to this album while also acting. Instead of using this approach, Hooper had the actors sing live on camera. While this means the actors will have to sing perfectly and act at the same time, it also means the music and the visuals will be more connected emotionally.

Clocking in at over two and half hours, Les Misérables will be a very long film, but even at that length I worry it may not be able to include everything important. The novel lasts over 1000 pages, and the stage version, which lasts over three hours, is unable to suitably cover everything in the original novel.

There have already been a few test screenings of the film, and many critics are buzzing that it could be an Oscar contender for Best Picture. Like the love of Fantine, hopefully it will “fill [our] days with endless wonder.”

In 2009, The Hurt Locker made a surprise sweep of the major Academy Awards, winning not only Best Picture, but Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Jeremy Renner, and Best Director for Katherine Bi-gelow. It did not take long for Bigelow to begin work on a follow-up, Zero Dark Thirty, this time with the much wider focus of U.S. efforts to capture Osama bin Laden. Production actually began before the raid that killed bin Laden, and the screenplay had to be dramatically revised in order to account for this.

The film encountered controversy during the presidential election, when it was asserted it was a politi-cal propaganda piece meant to highlight President Obama’s role in the killing of bin Laden. As a result, the release was pushed back to Dec. 19, after the election.

Though set in a war, Zero Dark Thirty’s predecessor was more of a character study set in a war than a conventional war movie. However, given Zero Dark Thirty’s wider focus, it will be interesting to see if it can manage the level of character development that made its predecessor so brilliant. Regardless, it will no doubt be an exciting and engaging thrill ride.

ZERO DARK THIRTY

By Tom Schueneman & Andrew McVeaOPINION EDITOR & FEATURE/IN-DEPTH EDITOR

PREVIEWwinter movie

Quentin Tarantino is a name that should need no introduction. The director of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill has made a career out of stylizing violence. But there is more to his films than just outlandish situa-tions and gratuitous bloodshed. Tarantino’s films are wonderfully absurd, and stylish. They’re also surpris-ingly thoughtful, steeped in cinema tradition — specifically low-budget cinema tradition: kung fu movies, 50’s B-movies, exploitation films and especially spaghetti westerns. The influence of this last genre is read-ily visible in Tarantino’s most recent film, 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, but this year’s Django Unchained promises to be the director’s most literal interpretation of the genre yet. Set in the pre-Civil War South, the film follows Django (Jamie Foxx) working alongside a dentist turned bounty hunter played by Cristoph Waltz (who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a Nazi officer in Inglourious Basterds) as he attempts to free his wife from a brutal slave owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio. It may not be the most conventional of ensembles, but it’s definitely not short on talent, and the premise is certainly promising. Expect to see this one on top-ten lists, and perhaps even for it to be given an Oscar nod. It should also be safe to expect at least one Mexican standoff.

DJANGO UNCHAINEDLES MISÉRABLES

One does not simply ignore the new Hobbit movie. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which comes out Dec. 15, follows Bilbo Baggins, a hob-bit, which is a short humanlike creature with hairy feet. One day, the wizard Gandalf the Grey brings a band of dwarves into his home in the Shire, and before you can say “my precious” they are off to save Lonely Mountain from the hideous dragon Smaug.

The film is based on The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolk-ien’s prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit will be divided into three movies, the first two based directly on the book and the third more loosely based on it. The first film will have to do with the group’s journey to Lonely Mountain.

Many of the actors from the Lord of the Rings trilogy will be reprising their roles, including Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and Andy Serkis as Gollum. Directing the film is Peter Jackson, another familiar face. Jackson direct-ed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and won Best Direc-tor for The Return of the King, and he will again be leading the audience through Middle Earth. This is great news, because Jackson has more than proved himself before with Tolkien’s material. He is very true to the books, but is not afraid to take creative liberties to improve the transition of the books to film. His movies are also filled with tons of great references to the Tolkien universe. Many of these come from The Silmarillion, which is essentially a history of Middle Earth. This book extensively details the history and culture of Middle Earth,

including some of the languages like Elvish and Dwarvish. Jackson uses this book to craft deeper cultural identities and characters, and his use of it is one of the reasons why he is so perfect for the job.

Playing the lead role of Bilbo is Martin Free-man, an actor new to Middle Earth. While previ-ously best known for his comedic acting as Tim in The Office, he has begun turning heads as a more serious actor as Watson in the BBC series Sherlock. His Holmes colleague, Benedict Cumberbatch, will also be in the movie as the voice of Smaug, the dragon and main antagonist of the film. Cumber-batch will also be playing the Necromancer, also known as Sauron, who created the ring to rule them all. The remainder of the cast is filled mostly with unknown actors who will be playing the band of dwarves that accompanies Bilbo on his journey.

So far, little about the new Hobbit movie has been revealed in the trailers. Most of what is shown is small snippets of action and some setting of the scene. One portion that is shown with some length is when Bilbo meets Gollum. Jackson’s interpreta-tion of Gollum was one of my favorite aspects of the Lord of the Rings films, and Gollum’s frighten-ing madness and aggression are on display for this scene.

If the new Hobbit trilogy manages to stay close to the quality of The Lord of the Rings, this will be a movie worth seeing. With the addition of three new movies, The Lord of the Rings might become the film series to rule them all.

THE HOBBIT

arts & entertainmentDec. 14, 2012 12

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