ASHLEY PAVESIO

Within the last few years, our country’s economic situation has faced many ups and downs. In order to deal with the enormous debt our country and states face, states like New Jersey have been cutting funding for public education. Although the students in our nation’s public schools are our future, in Governor Christie’s mind, the most logical solution to the crisis is to take money away from public schools.

“We cannot afford to let our school district’s budget fail this year,” said Bergenfield Superintendent Dr. Kuchar. Bergenfield has done every-thing in its power to keep from having to lower the quality of our schools because of the loss of funding. In or-der to keep the high quality of educa-tion we see in our schools, our resi-dents must approve our budget. These funds will all be put to good use

and go towards supplying our school with tech-nology, books, field trips, and other items nec-essary to support quality education. Further-more, the survival of our sports, music and art programs depends on funding.

April 6th is the last day to register to vote. Any voter who needs a registration form can contact the town or ask Ms. Wright for a copy. Most importantly, Wednesday, April 27th is voting day, and residents should report to their neighborhood polling location.

Students are the future of this world and a fully-funded education is important. Push your parents or guardians to register and vote for the continuance of our schools’ many won-derful attributes.

Rocking the vote in Bergenfield

Volume 2 Issue 2

NJHS welcomes 31 new members

Roy W. Brown Middle School — Bergenfield, NJ Winter/Spring 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

NEWS……………………………….1

FEATURES AND OPINIONS…....6

SPORTS…..…………………..…….7

For a more complete listing of articles, opinions and graphics, please visit the Junction’s web-

site at http://rwbjunction.webs.com/.

D.J. HASKINS

The annual induction ceremony for the Roy W. Brown Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society was held on Wednesday, February 9th at 7:00 pm in the Roy W. Brown audito-rium. In order to be eligible for mem-bership consideration, students must have and maintain a 3.6 GPA. In addi-tion, students hoping to be chosen for the National Junior Honor Society must meet high standards of leader-ship, service, citizenship, and charac-ter. Candidates from the 7th and 8th grades were evaluated and selected anonymously by the faculty of the chapter.

All of the present National Junior Honor Society members would like to congratulate all the new inductees that have been chosen to be a part of such a prestigious group here at our school.

This year’s National Junior Honor Soci-ety inductees include:

7th Graders: Mizuki Ajisaka

Alyanna Argueza Andrea Ascura

Kristen Barsatan Daniella Corredor

Colin Cudina Jocelyn Davis

Sarah Goldstein Princess Ibeabuchi

Natalie Infante Cayleigh Kelly

Ahlin Lee Melanie Manangan

Vincent Massa Rabya Mirza

Jennifer Narvaez Elisa Pancho

Angelica Paton Cherise Paton Logan Peters

Leslie Rodriguez Sarah Rojas

Ashley Thomas

Nicole Vindollo Nicholas Wolanski

8th Graders: Sabrina Acosta Akosua Amoah

Corin Cobbs Karrisa Empleo

Nichole Hernandez Marc Zoleta

Pandemonium in the Pyramids!

Check out pages 4-5 for our special

in depth coverage on the crisis in

Egypt!

Image cour-tesy UPI.com

School & Community News: Bergenfield took second place in

Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Best Places to Raise Your Kids 2011.”

Bear Tracks, our student-compiled art liter-ary magazine led by Ms. Anolik, has been judged a Gold Medalist publication by Co-lumbia Scholastic Press Association for the second year in a row.

Girls’ basketball team finishes season with a record of 4-5.

Boys’ wrestling ends season 5-1.

14 members of the music program were accepted into All North Jersey Junior Re-gion Band and Choir. Congrats!

Congratulations to Mr. Bisig’s Business Dynamics class for finishing 1st in the Stock Market Game sponsored by the Ber-gen Record and PNC Bank.

The Big Brothers Big Sisters group re-ceived Nets t-shirts and tickets to a game.

IN DEPTH—CRISIS IN EGYPT....4

Only 46% of RWB guardians are registered to vote.

KATELYNN HRUSKA & VICTORIA LEITCH

If you walk down almost any middle or high school hallway, you will see students wearing bracelets stating “I <3 Boobies.” Many teachers and principals are wondering if students should be allowed to wear these bands during school hours. Yes, they use a slang word for breasts, which many people think is degrading towards women, but they also sup-port breast cancer research. Many students that know someone with breast cancer have refused to remove the bands when asked. This situation leaves school faculty with a very important question: should the bracelets be banned?

Some schools have already banned the

bracelets, but those that have not yet taken action wonder what they should do. Students with family and friends who have breast can-cer should not be made to take them off, but

what about others? Schools can’t let only some students wear the bracelets, and they also can’t do background checks to find out who knows someone with breast cancer. Due to these issues, many schools have decided to let students wear the bracelets.

“I’ll be honest; I’m not thrilled with the bracelets. On the other hand, I don’t see them as a distraction in class. These bracelets gain awareness and the profits go to a good cause. I would not make students take them off, but I don’t want students wearing t-shirts with the slogan either,” said Ms. Wright. For now, Roy W. Brown will allow its students to wear the controversial bracelets.

A worthy cause, but also causing problems

May I have your kidney? the miracle.

Once Dwaine knew he was able to give his brother his kidney, he didn’t hesitate and he automatically knew that he would go through with the process. With all the down-sides and possibilities that came with this surgery, Dwaine knew what he had to do. “I would not for a second regret my decision. And it only makes my decision easier consid-ering I’m giving my kidney to my brother. I feel like it’s my duty on Earth to do this. I’m the chosen one.”

The kidney transplant went smoothly, and both men are now at their respective homes doing well. Both men, strong and healthy, learned a lot from this experience. Life is nothing to overlook because it can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye. As well as not taking life for granted, siblings should always be there for each other.

Dwaine displayed a great deal of care for his brother by giving him his own kidney. This experience will have an impact on both men for the rest of their lives.

“He is my hero,” said David Rush. David and Dwaine have always been close, but nothing can compare to the bond they have now. “I have a part of his body. I don’t know if I will ever be able to reimburse him,” says David.

D.J. HASKINS

No longer does the upcoming rapper have to spend most of his waking hours sitting on a chair while his blood is filtered out by a di-alysis machine 6 days a week for 4 hours each day.

David Rush underwent a kidney trans-plant on November 9, 2010. His family gath-ered in the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick, NJ) waiting room, hoping to hear good news about the surgery.

Miracles don’t happen? Rush and his family wouldn’t settle for less. A miracle was delivered to the hospital that tested Dwaine Haskins, David Rush’s brother. After all the tests were completed, it turns out that Dwaine and David’s blood types were both perfect matches, along with everything else that fac-tored into the surgery. The doctors now had the green light to go ahead and follow up on

2 The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 News

Co-Editors-in-Chief

Katelynn Hruska

Ashley Pavesio

Managing Editors

Anthony Papoters

Shreen Sachdev

News Editors

Darin Diaz

Orlando Quiroz

Features Editors

D.J. Haskins

Kyle Siringan

Photographers

Katelynn Hruska

Victoria Leitch

Anthony Lorelli

Anthony Papoters

Sharuk Ozair

Orlando Quiroz

Graphics and Art

Bryan Blandon

Josh Calugay

Anthony Lorelli

Kyle Siringan

Dyllan Bustos

Katie Cabrera

Christopher Castro

Philippe Cham

Carlos Cusco

Aminah Evans

Jasmine Gaines

Jerel Harris

Emily Hernandez

Ieasha Jones

Zaran Khan

Sean Mullany

Darrell Sangalang

Alicia Sawyers

Kevin Torres

Anthony Tsikitikos

Staff

Advisor

Ms. Maura Andreula

The opinions expressed in the enclosed editorials do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the advisor or the school administration.

Fast Facts:

There are nearly 90,000 people on the “waiting list” to receive a kidney transplant

In 2009, there were only 10,400 kid-neys available from deceased donors; 6,300 kidneys were donated from liv-ing humans to selected recipients

Facts courtesy nyt.com

The Junction

Roy W. Brown Middle School 130 S. Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, NJ 07621

Ahmad takes National Geographic Bee ZARAN KHAN

The National Geographic Bee is not a normal competition where you can easily guess the cor-rect answers to questions. The questions that were asked at the school-level meet were ad-vanced and extremely hard. Rhyana Ahmad took first place, an unbelievable accomplishment for a 7th grader. Ahmad was right in front of eighth

grader Dan Karlo DeGuzman, who came in second (both pictured to the left). The 18 original contenders ranged from grades 6 to 8 and each participated in at least 8 grueling rounds of questions.

The bee was organized by Ms. Andreula and Mrs. Cooper. Rhyana Ahmad is still waiting to find out if she qualified for the state competition, and she has hopes of moving to nationals.

Image courtesy cbsnews.com

CARLOS CUSCO

Over 11 million people in the United States are suffering from some type of cancer. While many people think of the disease as random and unpredictable, there are actually

some actions that may prevent the illness. In fact, what you eat on a daily basis may have an impact on your chance of getting cancer.

Eating guacamole may turn out to be just what the doctor ordered. Avocados are rich in glutathione, an antioxidant that attacks free radicals in the body, which are said to cause cancer. Eating these fruits will provide your body with healthy antioxidants, and scientists report that they may have the power to pre-vent liver cancer in particular.

Although some find these veggies disgust-ing, it really is important to eat your broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. These leafy and sometimes smelly vegetables contain a chemi-cal called indole-13-carbinol, which is said to

reduce your risk of breast cancer. Carrots are also an important source of beta carotene, which is said to prevent many types of the dis-ease, including lung and stomach cancer.

Other foods such as chili peppers, garlic, and nuts are said to contain cancer-fighting nutrients. Eating these foods, however, is not enough. It is important to mix a well-balanced diet with exercise and regular visits to your doctor. Keeping your body healthy now may help you prevent cancer-related health prob-lems in the future.

Preventing cancer

ASHLEY PAVESIO

Fact: for every four American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan, there is a robot fight-ing alongside them. Although this may make you think of Optimus Prime doppelganger robots at first, our armed forces are in fact using robots that are not as advanced as Op-timus and his squad; in reality, our servicemen and women are assisted by small drones that are made to fight the enemy.

Still, with recent technology advancing very quickly, we are definitely moving to-wards a future where Optimus-like robots could become a reality. MoNETA, a piece of new technology currently in the research stage, is one of the many examples. HP’s “memristor,” a complicated piece of electron-ics developed in the 1970s, is proving to be a breakthrough in the research of robots. Ac-cording to a representative from spectrum.org,

The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 3 News

Town shocked by tragic death of former student KATELYNN HRUSKA & VICTORIA LEITCH

Heather Reyes was 22 years old. She lived in Bergenfield and her family and friends meant everything to her. She took care of her sick father, spent a lot of time with her younger brother, and always loved playing with her cousins and nephews. She loved kids and she loved life. All of that changed when she died of gun shot wounds inflicted by her boyfriend on Friday, Febru-ary 25.

Jordan Turner, 24, called police late Fri-day night and reported that he had shot his girlfriend several times. When Heather was found in the early hours of Saturday morn-ing, she was pronounced dead on the scene. Both Reyes and Turner went through the Bergenfield school system, Heather graduat-ing Bergenfield High School in 2007 and Turner dropping out in 2005.

Many people are still in shock after the tragic shooting. Heather will never be forgot-ten and will always be in the minds of the people she loved. Heather Reyes will be missed and remembered.

“Before the memristor, it would have been impossible to create something with the form factor of a brain, low power requirements, and in-stantaneous internal commu-nications. Turns out that those three things are key to making anything that resembles the brain and thus can be trained and coaxed to behave like a brain. In this case, form is function, or more accurately, function is hopeless without form.”

Researchers are now on the brink of cre-ating walking, talking, thinking machines that work the way we do. In the future, wars may not be fought by humans, but by ad-vanced mechanical robots.

Heather Reyes, murder victim pictured above, graduated from Bergenfield High School in

2007. Image courtesy northjersey.com.

Our masters of words ORLANDO QUIROZ

Congratulations to the 60 students who obtained high scores in their respective Word-Masters challenges, a classroom competition based on analogies held in all Language Arts classes throughout the school.

Seventh grader Princess Ibeabuchi earned a perfect score in December’s meet and won highest honors in the competition, ranking at the top of the approximately 220,000 students who entered the competition. Only 83 students in the entire country achieved such a high score as Ibeabuchi.

Seventh graders Akosua Nyamekye, Matt Calugay, Patricia Sarcauga, Annie Khan, Ed-ward Flores, Kenny Mejia, and Gerard Rutigli-

ano, and eighth graders Alexandra Sarcauga, Veronica Chavez, Ashley Pavesio, Gabriel Morton, Darin Diaz, and Esmeralda Castillo also achieved very high scores in the school level competition.

Students will participate in two more meets this year.

More than 2,000 robots like the one pictured here are fighting alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Photo courtesy wired.com.

Robotic soldiers in Afghanistan

“She was a wonderful daughter. She did

everything for our family, everything.

She loved the children.”

-Mother of Heather Reyes commenting

on her daughter’s personality, quoted in

an article on northjersey.com.

Chilies are thought to contain cancer-fighting ingredients. Photo courtesy lesliebeck.com.

Did you know: one in every 50 soldiers in Afghanistan is a robot!

life for them. Under his rule, the police force was cruel. It is said that he is dishonest and manipulated elections. Instead of creating thousands of more jobs for people like he had promised, Mubarak gave more money to wealthy people and allowed poor citizens to rot in their poverty. People longed for the day that they would see Mubarak vacate the presi-dency.

In order to hold a protest, you have to get the word out. This task seemed to be impossi-ble after Mubarak shut down the Internet. Mubarak shut down Internet services to pre-vent protesters from organizing demonstra-tions on websites like Facebook and Twitter. Mubarak tried to thwart protests even further by shutting down cell phone services. Yet, against all these remarkable odds, Egyptian citizens still managed to get out and stand up to the dictator.

In response to the demonstrations, Muba-rak ordered the military to use brute force to

control the protesters. While the military used tanks, rubber bullets, and tear gas, almost all protesters had nothing but the clothes on their backs as “protection.” They used helmets and cardboard shields. The only weapons that were accessible to them were their fists and the rub-ble in the streets. They hurled rocks at police. They captured Mubarak supporters, often tak-ing them into alleys for violent confrontations. In a way, the protesters were contradicting themselves by terrorizing Mubarak supporters, just as the ousted president used force to squash his opposition.

After a month of violent, chaotic, and fren-

zied protests, President Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down from the presidential office. On February 11, he announced that he would re-sign from his 29-year rule and the streets of Egypt rejoiced in cheers. However, the people of Egypt will not be celebrating for long be-cause the recovery process will prove to be the hardest challenge that the country has faced thus far.

KEVIN TORRES

Could Mubarak`s 3 decades in office have been the whole problem in Egypt? Due to the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, there is a 4 year, 2 term limit for our president, allowing him to serve for a maximum of 8 years.

If our president is unpopu-lar, we all know that we are going to get someone new soon. But Mubarak said that he planned to be president until he dies. This angered the citizens of Egypt, causing them to react in protests and dem-onstrations. Mubarak had clearly overstayed his wel-come. A policy like the U.S. term limit for the president could have changed what has hap-pened in Egypt and other countries.

JASMINE GAINES

In the United States of America, we have the freedom and right to form peaceful pro-tests with no penalty according to the First Amendment. For example, in the times when African Americans were being treated un-fairly, they still had a right to create protests and express what they believed. Heroic figures such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks led such movements.

Egypt’s former president, Hosni Muba-rak, took away many of his people’s rights. The Egyptian economy has only become worse and Egyptians have had enough of Mubarak’s antics. Because Mubarak had taken away Internet connectivity, sites like Facebook and Twitter were unavailable to citizens. The gov-ernment’s actions took away the freedom of expression and free thinking. If Mubarak stepped down from office earlier, many people would not have faced the danger that the pro-tests brought to the country.

News 4 The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011

DARIN DIAZ

When you are in charge of a country, you have to answer the calls of the people. But that has not been the case with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. During his almost 30-year rule, Mubarak ignored the pleas of many Egyptians urging him to step down. Mubarak even commented that he would stay in power until he died. However, enough was enough. In January, riots broke out in Cairo and other surrounding cities and shared the same message: “Down, Mubarak, down!” The number of protesters reached up to a mil-lion, with people pouring out into the streets of Egypt. Cars were flipped over, fights with police took place, and people were protesting on highways. Chaos blanketed the streets of this historic country.

Although President Mubarak made a vow to lead until the day he died, it seems as though he won’t be able to keep his promise. Many people in Egypt feel Mubarak ruined

Above: The angry citizens of Egypt show their rage as they burn, rip and destroy images of

Mubarak. Photo courtesy NYT.com.

*Photo essay by Katelynn Hruska and Victoria Leitch

Above: Protesters wielded banners to show their expectations of Mubarak.

Photo courtesy NYT.com.

Left: Egyptian sol-diers and citizens attack each other during the revolt

against Mubarak’s regime. Photo

courtesy NTY.com.

DARIN DIAZ

When a child does something that some-one else just did, especially when reckless, the adult usually says “monkey see, monkey do.” Some people say that is the case with recent outbreaks of protests in the Middle East and Northern Africa. People have said that because of the protests in Tunisia and Egypt, numerous other countries have fol-lowed in their footsteps. However, the angle of all these protests isn’t quite the same. Re-gardless of minor differences, the Middle Eastern and Northern African countries of Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Oman, as well as Tunisia and Egypt, continue to exist in a climate of disapproval, with citi-zens expressing themselves though protests as they march for revolutions.

Protests in both Tunisia and Egypt began in January 2011and were successful in forc-ing the countries’ respective leaders out of power, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. Other countries in the region are now fighting for similar reasons. The people of these countries are seeking a new begin-

ning, one filled with more democratic forms of government that respect human rights. The age of dictatorships in the Middle East and Northern Africa might be at an end.

The crisis that this area is now facing is very similar to what Americans did centuries ago when they fought for independence from the monarchy of England. The people in the countries that are experiencing protests are much like the American colonists long ago; groups of people have banned together and fought for a common cause, for freedom and democracy.

The United States has been in contact with the countries, pressing for the evacuation

Back to square one

News The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 5

of U.S. citizens. In a dreadful way, these at-tempts at governmental overthrows affect the United States. Just over the last two months, the price of crude oil has risen over 14%, and many fear that it may continue to rise to an unprece-dented $200 per barrel. Due to this surge, Americans have already seen a rise in prices at the pumps and may continue to see other changes in our economy. Furthermore, stability in the Middle East region is in jeopardy while this time of uncertainty continues.

With protests and dissent still continuing, the entire world waits on edge to see the end of this dramatic turn of events. 

The red stars above represent countries that have seen protests in the past several months. Map courtesy Harper College.

BRYAN BLANDON

“If Mubarak does not step down, there will be bloodshed this Friday.” Hosni Mubarak’s dreadful decision to stay in the country until his term ended led him to a very shocking threat. Thousands of people took to the streets in the capital city Cairo, revolting and showing the bottom of their shoes as a sign of dis-

respect towards Mubarak.

Mubarak’s resignation was followed by cheers. “Thirty years he has been starving us, thirty years he has been keeping us in his belly, thirty years he has been taking advantage of us. For thirty years he has been selling us to other countries. Hosni has nothing left for him but to sell us to other countries,” an angry citizen said.

If Mubarak hadn’t stepped down from the presi-dency, Egypt would have been in absolute chaos; he saved himself from a possible assassination. Many in Egypt are afraid that Vice President Sulieman will have the same governing strategies as Mubarak had. Suleiman should just change the Egyptian constitution and let Egyptians be free and happy once and for all.

ALICIA SAWYERS

Often the most challenging types of crisis require you to respond to a dynamic set of events that are outside of your control. President Obama’s admini-stration is in the mist of one of these problems right now. Since January 25, President Obama has had to respond to the crisis in Egypt, a situation which seems to be growing in its unpredictability with each passing day. This has required the president to craft a message that has him walking on thin ice. Not only must Obama avoid escalating the situation, but he

must balance the idea that he is letting events unfold and that his administration is properly engaged. With Egypt as a strong Middle Eastern ally for the U.S., along with continuing threats of terrorism from groups such as Al Queda, President Obama has to think about many angles of the cri-sis.

“Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation. The voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments; this is one of those times,” Obama said in his

speech on the crisis in Egypt. President Obama urged a speedy and peaceful transition of power, and must continue to react to the evolving crisis.

IESHA JONES

Some people think that the pro-testing Egyptians are insane and un-civilized, but they do have a reason for these actions. If American citizens were having the same issue as the Egyptian citizens, they would try to have their rights recognized by doing something to get the government’s attention. The Egyptians have good reasoning for their protesting. These people have families to feed and take care of, but are suffering from the country’s lagging economy. They can’t feed families when they are making only a few dollars a day. Mubarak’s regime is responsible for creating this problem in the first place. The Egyptians are not uncivi-lized or insane; they are just speak-

ing the truth and taking action.

Obama’s Response

“Through

thousands of

years, Egypt has

known many

moments of

transformation.”

-Barack Obama

PHILIPPE CHAM

Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets is an extraordinary basketball player. He is a small forward and is one of the best at what he does. He played college basketball for Syra-cuse University where he led the “Orangemen” to their first national champion-ship in 2003. He earned the Most Outstanding Player award and was named the Most Valu-able Player of the NCAA East Regional. Af-ter just one year playing in Syracuse, he was entered into the 2003 NBA draft where he was the first round, third pick for the Denver Nug-gets.

Over the years, Carmelo has grown into a phenomenal, well-known player. Since he has been in the NBA, he has achieved an All Rookie team; he has participated in four NBA All-Star games; and he has made the All-NBA team four times, as well. He has led the Nug-gets to two division titles and to the NBA playoffs every single year since his rookie year. He even brought the Nuggets to the conference finals in 2009.

“Melo” has made it a long way with Den-ver, but the ride is about to end. Carmelo An-thony’s contract is up and he must decide which team he wants to join. The Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, and the New Jer-

sey Nets are strongly trying to persuade An-thony to join them. Anthony recently said that he would be willing to talk to the Nets about their offer, but it’s doubtful that he will join the Nets due to their continuous losing record.

The smartest thing for Melo to do is to sign with the Knicks. The Nets obviously don’t have what it takes to go to the playoffs right now. If they were to obtain Carmelo, they would achieve the playoffs, but probably not a champi-onship. In Denver, nothing is changing for Melo. He works extremely hard to get to the playoffs, and his championship dreams crumble right in front of him.

Melo should try something new and play for the Knicks. Melo working with Amare Stoudemire and Mike D’Antoni would be fan-tastic. D’Antoni is one of the smartest coaches in the league. He turned the Knicks into a team to talk about. Stoudemire’s strong power in the post season and ability to shoot the mid-range jumper makes him a huge threat to his oppo-nents. If they add Carmelo to their lineup, the Knicks have a chance to achieve goals they have not been able to reach in a long time.

If Carmelo really wants a team that has the potential to win a championship, he should pack his bags and head over to “the city that never sleeps.”

Where will Carmelo Anthony land?*

Mark Twain under fire classics more comfortably. But those angered by the alterations believe that censoring words like “nigger” and “injun” is equal to ignoring an important part of our history, a part which helped us transform our early na-tion into the democracy that it is today. The racist parts of our history must be remem-bered as a warning to our future generations,

and the reading of books such as The Adven-tures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn serve as testaments to our past.

Reserving the readings of these books for more mature high school students would be the most ethical and logical plan of action. If you’ve ever read these two books, you would know that the text is difficult and challenging for younger students anyway.

If Mark Twain was to learn of the censoring of his work, he would not approve of the chang-ing of his writing, and neither do I. Let our lit-erature continue to write the story of our history, and let our students continue to be unsheltered historians.

ASHLEY PAVESIO

New copies of Mark Twain’s The Adven-tures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will now be sold without the words “nigger” and “injun.” Some people see these words as offensive and politically incorrect and I completely agree. Calling someone those words would be wrong. How-ever, literature should not be edited in such a way, because these types of words remind us of our history and the dangers of racism and bigotry.

Proponents of the censored editions of Twain’s novels feel that the new edited ver-sions will allow younger students to read the

6 The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 Features and Opinions

Who wore it best? SHREEN SACHDEV

Gossip Girl star Blake Lively and former model and English TV host Alexa Chung were spotted wearing the same dress from Chanel’s Resort 2011 collection.

The short-sleeved navy blue dress, with a flower print and black lace that extends through the midsection, made both ladies look stunning.

Lively stepped out in a risky but gor-geous choice, choosing to pair her dress with

simply jewelry and nude pumps, wearing her dress for the premier of her newest movie, The Town.

While Lively added spice to her look, Chung seemed to dress- down her ensemble by adding black flats and a black clutch. Chung topped her outfit off with a simple necklace and wore the combo to a Chanel show.

Though both women look great, Chung could have added more glam to her look. Lively definitely won this face-off due to her bold but classy style.

“Fortune Teller Phil” predicted Carmello An-thony’s trade weeks in advance!

Photo by Anthony Lorelli. *This opinion was written in January 2011, well

before Anthony’s trade was made.

A man's character may be learned

from the adjectives which he

habitually uses in conversation.

-Mark Twain

Cast your vote online!

“If they add Carmelo to their

lineup, the Knicks have a

chance to achieve goals they

have not been able to reach in a

long time.”

JEREL HARRIS & ANTHONY TSIKITIKOS

The Packers saw Super Bowl XLV as an opportunity to show they were good enough to be matched up against the Steelers. Al-though Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for the first 4 games of the season, the team was able to rally and ended the season with a record of 12-4. The Steelers’ running game was very ef-fective for them in the postseason, allowing them to beat both the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets.

On the other hand, the Packers had to fight to get into the playoffs this season, fin-ishing as the 6th seeded wild card in the NFC . The Packers barreled through the Philadel-

Vince Lombardi Trophy and sent the Green Bay Packers home with something to celebrate.

Sports

KYLE SIRIGNAN

The San Antonio Spurs may have the best record in the NBA, but the Boston Celtics are by far the best team in the league. With the Spurs holding a record of 50-11 as of March 4, they’re statistically a better team than the Celtics, who are holding down a 44-15 season. While the number of wins may not give it away, the Celtics are on top with assists. The Celtics team leader, Paul Pierce, is also ahead of Manu Ginobili with an average of 19 points per game.

Aside from all the stats, the Celts are playing better than ever. Ray Allen took over Tony Allen’s role as the “Kobe Stopper.” It turns out the name didn’t need to be changed after all. Kendrick Perkins has come back from his knee surgery and dominated the Cleveland Cavs 112-95. Perkins, with a black brace over his right knee, dropped in seven points and six rebounds in 17 minutes before leaving with less than three minutes left in the second quarter.

Almost anything can happen in the NBA. A team can go from the top of the list to 7th in the boards. Team standings change weekly, and with the Celtics playing as they are, the Spurs might underestimate the underdogs and be pushed off top.

ANTHONY PAPOTERS

People underestimate the extreme sport of scootering; however, the population of scooterers is increasing. Skateboarders and bikers are starting to make fun of people who participate in the sport. The hate is increasing as the population is increasing. The criticism has gone too far. It has gotten to the point that a bike company named Colony is starting to take people’s scooters, cut them up, and give them free bikes to ride so that they quit scootering and start biking. There are still a lot of bikers and skaters at the skate parks. Now scooterers are arriving at the scene and most scooterers are little kids and they may cut in line to go down a ramp without knowing; that may be why all the skaters and bikers are getting angry. Inward Scooters sold over 4 times as many scooter parts in 2010 than they did in 2009. Increased sales represent the increased in-terest in the sport.

Matt Ogle, professional scooterer, says "Scooter riders are mistreated or criticized for a handful of reasons. For one, many scooter riders are young children and will therefore snake other riders. It is also a relatively new extreme sport when in comparison to those existing; it needs time to adjust and not look weird to the public eye. Ultimately, some people will always just have a biased hatred towards the progression of scooters regardless of reason or lack of one. If we, the scooter riders as a whole, will continue to progress our riding, respect those around us

and expand at the rate we have been within the past half decade then the sport itself will surely become less criticized and more appreciated."

Glittered in green

The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 7

Packers take Super Bowl XLV phia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons and Chicago Bears in order to advance to the Super Bowl.

Although the beginning of Super Bowl XLV seemed to be a blowout in favor of the Packers, the Steelers were able to score some late game touchdowns. Green Bay put up a quick 14 points to push the Steelers onto their heels in the first quarter. Furthermore, it became more obvious throughout the game that the Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers outplayed Ben Roethlisberger. In the end the Steelers’ inconsistent effort throughout the game cost them the coveted

The Packers celebrate after beating the Steelers with a score of 31-25.

The Boss’ exit may bring major changes to the Bronx Bombers CHRIS CASTRO

2010 was a tragic year for the New York

Yankees, one that changed their organization in a major way. One of the most successful

owners in all of baseball, George Steinbrenner, died after owning the Yankees for 37 years.

Steinbrenner, also known as “The Boss,” is credited with turning the Yankees franchise around. At 80 years old he had already led the team to 7 World Series champion-ships and 11 pennant wins, creat-ing a sporting world powerhouse valued at around $1.6 billion. George Steinbrenner’s death af-fected each and every player on the

Yankees, but hit especially hard were Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Petite, and Jorge Posada, all of whom played under Steinbren-ner’s leadership for over a decade.

This season, the Yankees are expected to play each and every game for George, who was once quoted saying, “As I've always said, the way New Yorkers back us we have to produce for them.” Now memorialized in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, Steinbrenner will continue to live on in the minds of players and fans as a Yankees great. Major changes to the team’s leadership may be forthcoming.

The Steinbrenner memorial at Yankee Stadium.

Scootering on the rise

Staff writer Anthony Papoters, shown in the photo to the left, is an avid scooterer.

REMEMBER! GET

OUT TO VOTE FOR

THE SCHOOL BUDGET

ON APRIL 27!

ANTHONY LORELLI

From Southern California to New York City, the Maloof Money Cup (MMC) is one of the biggest contests in skateboarding. This year, the location of the contest may surprise you; it’s taking place in Kimberley, South Africa. The contest will take place from Sep-tember 30th through October 2nd and will be televised internationally, featuring profes-

sional street and vert competitions.

The contest layout, including the street course and vert ramp, will be donated to the community after the contest is held. This isn’t the first time the Maloof Money cup has demonstrated its generosity, given that the Maloof brothers donated a contest course to the city of Queens this past summer in New York City.

The main goals of MMC South Africa in-clude hosting an international contest where all countries can compete and provide one of the first skateboarding training facilities in the world.

As always, the Maloof Money Cup will be another groundbreaking contest in the world of skateboarding. 

Maloof Money Cup gives back to South Africa

and Zaran Khan. The team practiced daily and it seemed as if they came along stupen-dously. They worked on free throws, lay-ups, sprinting, agility, and, of course, all the ba-sics. The team also worked on some plays such as the press break, some out of bounds formations, and motion offense. Several play-ers say the practices were tough at times, but tough practices and hard work can pay off during games.

All teams hope for a championship sea-son, but there’s something special about the RWB team. D.J. Haskins says that, “The plan was to go out there and play hard. We won as a team and we lost like a team.” Even though they had to go through rough patches on the road to victory, the team still strived for that perfect season. “We wanted to win all thir-teen games. We wanted to develop as a single team and play the best we could. We hope to do better in the future,” said wisely by Sean

Mullany.

Two games were cancelled and the team didn’t get its perfect season. But they did finish amaz-ingly at 9-1.

For anybody who didn’t already know, listening is key in basketball. However, some teams think they’re too good to listen to their coach. But not the RWB boys. They believed and still do believe lis-tening to their coach is what made them win. “Other teams don’t listen to their coaches and on this team it was important to pay attention so we could perform well as team. No matter what, we are still a team.” But even with good coaches and strategies, it didn’t make them invincible. Teams like Upper Saddle River, Dwight Englewood, and Allendale proved to be diffi-cult. However, the only team to thwart the bomb squad was Upper Saddle River.

Anyone that plays basketball, or any com-petitive sport for that matter, wants to be the best. But you can’t be the best if you don’t work the best. On the other hand, D.J. Haskins, along with every other teammate, thinks that they were the best. The team perfected the ba-sics and worked skillfully to get the fundamen-tals right. With the way the boys played and worked, they could’ve “won on skill alone,” according to Coach Lastra. But even if you were the guy with the most skills on the court, you can still lose if you don’t share the effort. All Roy W. Brown basketball boys know is that there are still 4 other teammates besides yourself and they’re there to help you win the game. The team won big this year, and so did our other teams.

GO BEARS!

DARIN DIAZ

The cuts are made! The list is in! In De-cember, a list of the people who made the Roy W. Brown boys basketball team was posted on the door of the lower gym. Of all those who tried out, only few were chosen.

Only 13 players made the team. The talented mix of 7th and 8th graders include: D.J. Haskins, Sean Mullany, Vincent DeBellis, Zaran Khan, James Hamilton, Kevin Marfo, Sebastian Alzate, Kyle Haag, Jovani Haskins, Andres Reynoso, Austin White, Chrislon Bolton, Leonard Bellosa.

Out of those 13 players, of course, only 5 started, including Kyle Haag at point guard, D.J Haskins at shooting guard, Vinny DeBel-lis at small forward, Sean Mullany at power forward, and Kevin Marfo at center. The team did, however, have sub-ins regularly at games, like Jovani Haskins, James Hamilton,

Sports

Their playin’ bas-ket-ball!

The last un-beaten no more SEAN MULLANY

The Ohio State Buckeyes are off to one of the best starts in school history, and stood as the last unbeaten team until February 12. At 26-1 (12-1 Big Ten), the Buckeyes stand atop the Big 10 conference, and 2nd in the country. Having one loss might make the Buckeyes look and sound invincible, but really any college basketball team can be beaten by any team on any given day.

A rough Big 10 schedule has caused

some problems for the Buckeyes, who have won their last 6 games by an average margin of less than 4 points. A mainly veteran squad, led by freshman center Jared Sullinger, the starting line for the Bucks includes guards William Bu-ford, Jon Diebler, and David Lighty, and power forward Dallas Lauderdale. The Buckeyes are now off to their 2nd best start in their history(27-0, 1960-1961 season). Some of the Buckeyes solid wins came against conference foes Pur-due and Minnesota, and non-conference wins against Florida and Florida State. But a rela-

The Junction, Winter/Spring 2011 8

tively easy schedule now meets some of its faults, with upcoming games against Purdue, Illinois, Penn State and Indiana, and a finish to the year with a home game against Wisconsin.

Ohio State is expected to finish atop the polls and be a number 1 seed in both the Big 10 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. But Purdue and even Indiana can easily cause prob-lems for the Buckeyes, and as we all can see, nothing comes easy in the college basketball world, as teams fall, week in and week out.

Sean Mullany, Zaran Khan and Lenard Bollosa watch their teammate Kyle Haag put up a shot. Photo by Darin Diaz.

“We wanted to

develop a

single team and

play the best we

could.”

-Sean Mullany