ORACLEFriday, March 30, 2012Volume 39, Issue 8 14555 Fern Drive, Houston TX 77079

Photo by Mary Elizabeth Schnake

ADD/ADHDp. 14

Baseball heats upp. 10 Photo by Stephen Martinez

Alex Eberly Wins Mr. SHS Pageant

Kony 2012 Causes Controversy Back in the day, students learned about global affairs in their history class, in current events, and from the nightly news. Now, thanks to social media, including Twitter and Facebook, news about people like Joseph Kony goes viral in a matter of minutes. On March 5 a video titled “Kony 2012” was released, revealing the actions of Kony, the head of the Lord’s Resis-tance Army (LRA) in Uganda. He has been accused of kid-

napping children and making them into soldiers and sex slaves. This video is part of a campaign trying to inspire the American people to take action in raising awareness about this man. Many students found out about this campaign through social media. “I first heard about Joseph Kony on Twitter,” junior Abby McMurtry said. For several days, “Stop Kony” was trending world-wide. The online video re-ceived millions of hits, and the issue became a discussion

topic among students for sev-eral days. “I think it’s good that [In-visible Children] is trying to spread awareness, but it is not a new issue,” sophomore Kar-la Gonzalez said. “I’m sure that Uganda is not the only country experiencing similar problems.” Invisible Children, the nonprofit organization that sponsored the Kony 2012 campaign, gives people many ways to be involved. On their web site, they have links to contact celebrities and politicians about the

matter. “Action Kits” that include a T-shirt, a bracelet, stickers, buttons, and posters have begun to sell out due to high demand. Web sites like InvisibleChildren.com and Kony2012.com include digi-tal kits that can be download-ed to your PC or Mac for free. The posters that come with the kit will be used on April 20 across America in an event titled “Cover the Night”. During this event, while people sleep, supporters will cover the buildings with these posters to publicize this event.

Aldo MartinezKatherine Kennedy

March 5 - Jason Russell posts his Kony 2012 video to Invisible

Childrens’ Vimeo account.

March 6 - Kony 2012 officially goes viral, penetrating Tumblr,

Facebook, and YouTube.

BREAKDOWN OF KONY 2012

March 7 - #stopkony and #kony2012 become top trending

topics on Twitter.

March 16 - Jason Russell is detained for behaving erratically in

public.

March 19 - Kony 2012 has a combined 100 million views on

Vimeo and Youtube.

March 21 - Exhaustion is the source of Russell’s breakdown and

he is to stay in the hospital for a “thorough recovery”.

April 20 - Cover the Night scheduled to take

place in cities across America.

STRUT YOUR STUFF • At the Mr. SHS competition on March 22, sixteen senior boys competed for the title of Mr. SHS. The categories the boys competed in were Swimsuit, Formal Wear, Interview, and Talent. Senior Aditya Dargan won second place and senior Anthony Payton came in third place. Senior Alex Eberly received a trophy and flowers for his achievement. All photos by Stephen Martinez.

Religion in Media

see page 15

The OracleNEWS2 Friday, March 30, 2012

Layla ShahhosseiniShe SaidHe Said

Girls shouldn’t ask guys creatively to Sweet 16 because they have trouble asking in general, that would be too complicated. Photo by Faith Figueroa

Freshman Matthew Quintana Sophomore Becky Dubner

The guys go through so much work to ask creatively and I know the girls in my grade just text guys. I don’t think it’s fair on the boy’s part. Photo by Faith Figueroa.

The recently opened Pa-tisserie Mabis breaks away from the recent cupcake fad. Located next to Blue Wil-low Bookshop on Memorial, Mabis is definitely not the typical bakery. As soon as one walks in-side the d o o r s , they im-m e d i -ately can see what m a k e s t h i s p l a c e so spe-cial. The windows are com-p l e t e l y f i l l e d with a v a r i -ety of F r e n c h pastries that are a re-freshing c h a n g e from the n o r m . The pas-t r i e s made there not only have French-influences, but Ital-ian, American, and Mexican influences as well. All of the pastries are made completely from scratch and include eclairs, cheese cakes, tiramisu, various tarts, and

much more by Mrs. Mabis herself, who has been in the baking business for over 10 years and has never taken a formal culinary course. By the taste of the pastries, one would have no idea. The main line up of pastries rotates daily, so there is al-

ways bound to be something different every time one goes in. In addition, every day one can find the classics that everyone knows and loves: cookies and cupcakes for the less adventurous customers. The idea of this bakery was conceived by the couple after

getting bored in their small town home. Moving to find the big-city excitement in Houston, the couple immedi-ately started searching for the perfect location for their new small business. After decid-ing on the location, it took six months to completely

t r a n s -f o r m the va-c a n t s p a c e into a c u t e , relaxed e n v i -r o n -m e n t that ev-er yone c o u l d e n j o y . O n e a c h of the w a l l s are Eu-ropean i n f l u -e n c e d p a i n t -i n g s , p a i n t -ed by M a b i s ’

own father, one of which is a Mona Lisa replica holding a cake in her arms. In addition to pastries, Patis-serie Mabis also offers vari-ous coffees such as cappucci-nos, lattes, and americanos as well as various sodas and iced tea drinks.

3Friday, March 30, 2012The Oracle NEWSPatisserie MabisHannah PriceNew bakery comes to town

Do The RobotSchool robotics team is first in districtLayla Shahhosseini

J’AIME À MANGER • (Above) New bakery, Mabis Patisserie, opened up on Memorial and Dairy Ashford in the HEB shopping center. The bakery is filled with homemade French style pastries such as eclairs, cupcakes, and chocolate croissants. Photo provided by staff.

PRE-PROFESSIONAL • Junior Katie Gregory and sophomore Katherine Kennedy advanced to BPA Nationals in Interview Skills and Fundamental Accounting, respectively. Nationals will take place in Chicago from April 25-29. Photo provided by Katie Gregory.• Enrollment for Spring Branch ISD Virtual High

School is now open. • A number of courses are offered that students can

take for either credit recovery or to get a course over with during the summer that they don’t want to take during the school year.

• There are two sessions one can enroll in. Enroll-ment for Session 1 of Virtual High School is open from now until June 1 and enrollment for Session 2 is open from now until July 12.

• Applications are available to fill out online and must be approved by your grade level counselor.

• Visit vhs.springbranchisd.com for more informa-tion.

• The Junior Class Garage Sale was a huge success with a profit of $15,000.

• Parents, students, and members of the community came out to volunteer both Friday and Saturday at the garage sale and to support it.

• If students had a last period class on Friday that was an athletic or study hall class, they had the op-tion to miss it to volunteer.

• Every year the junior class has a garage sale to raise money for Prom and Project Prom.

• With the cancellation of the bake sale last year, there have been more fundraisers to try to raise money for each class’s prom. Each class does something different.

Virtual High School Information Junior Class Garage Sale

The Stratford Robotics Team is the FIRST (For Inspira-tion and Recognition of Sci-ence and Technology) in the district, and they are trying to encourage other schools to join in this organization. “We went from a group of students to a team,” ju-nior Amy Penick said. As this is their busy build-ing season, the robotics club has spent the last few weeks preparing to show off their robot. “We meet once a week, but during build season its seven days a week,” Penick said. “We usually work for four or more hours dur-ing a week, but during build season we meet for eight, nine, ten hours a day,” senior Katherine Perez said. They are in building sea-son for a six-week period and participants in the proj-ect are encouraged to help most of the time the robot is being built. The designs for the robot are part of the whole team’s contribution. During build season, the students work at each oth-ers’ houses. However, they hope that they will have a proper facility to build in next year. For now, the stu-dents are working vigor-ously toward learning ev-ery part of the robot and why it does what it does.

“The rules for the com-petition are really picky,” senior Daniel Leeper said. “A lot of things have to be in compliance with safety and standard rules,” Perez said. The judges that will be pres-ent at the competition are go-ing to ask each team specific questions about their robot that they have to answer. Therefore, all team members are going to have to know

their robot inside and out. “It is likely that a judge would come up to someone and ask what makes your robot different,” Leeper said. The robot built by SHARC (Stratford High School Ad-vanced Robotics Club) has the capability to shoot balls and move around. “The first sight of our robot, ‘ball help’ was when it rolled down the driveway made from a box of mere parts, and it is now a fully func-tionally robot,” Perez said. To build the robot, the com-petition supplies the team with a basic kit of parts. “If you fundraise your

own money, you can buy your own parts from anywhere,” Perez said. The total cost of the robot, including registration, is $6,500 funded by sponsors. “We got a rookie grant to cover the cost,” Perez said. After the season is over, SHARC is planning to tour schools and show them their robot before they take it apart for parts next year. They are

considering going to middle schools in the district to get them to participate in robotics. “We are planning to promote it for schools next year and cannibal-ize the robot for parts for next year’s com-petition,” Leeper said. The robotics team wants more students in-

volved next year and is look-ing forward to a new season. “We want people to join, and you don’t have to like math or science to join,” Perez said. “Robotics is a lot more than robots,” SHARC spon-sor Tracey Jensen said. SHARC has its own web site that anyone can check out for more information on the making of the ro-bot, FIRST, or the com-pletion at Team4155.tk. This year’s competi-tion will be held at the George R. Brown Conven-tion Center in downtown Houston from April 5-7.

““We went from a group of students to a team.”

- Amy Penick, 11

The Oracle4 Friday, March 30, 2012ADS

Hey Morgan Conder,

-Connor Flanagan

5Friday, March 30, 2012The Oracle ADS

Crazy PhraseyThe Oraclepuzzle page6 Friday, March 30, 2012

Every answer is a rhyming pair of words. Each underscore represents a letter.

The number after the definition clue tells you how many syllables are in each word.

ANSWERS: bunny funny, chick brick, flower shower, rain pain, hatch match, breeze knees, thaw gnaw, spring king, puddle muddle, warm swarm

1. Another word for rabbit/hu-morous (4)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. Baby chicken/”She’s a ____ house” (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. Plant with petals/standing up bath (4)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4. Precipitation/unpleasant sensa-tion from injury (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

5. To break out of an egg/fire starter (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

6. A soft wind/”head, shoulders, ____, and toes” (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

7. To defrost/to bite or chew (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

8. Season after winter/male monarch (2)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

9. Pile of water/to mix or stir (4)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

10. Moderately high temperature/a body of bees_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Sukoku for this issue is on our blog! To find it, visit spartanoracle.blogspot.com

They seem to creep out of nowhere, filling music charts and dominating in album and digital sales. Their voices ramble in our heads, haunt-ing our every thought. Our generation’s blossoming of talented youth from YouTube did not end at Justin Bieber. At 12 years of age, a British girl known by the name of Birdy uploaded a home video of herself playing an original song to YouTube. An execu-tive from Warner Brothers Music UK caught wind of the marvelous talent, and at first

listen knew the young one was destined to be huge. Three years later, at the prime age of 15, Birdy has released a self-titled album featuring 13 cover tracks of songs by art-ists ranging from The xx to James Taylor. Birdy’s most popular cover track, “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver, was released on YouTube along with her own music video. The youngster’s ver-sion of the song is one that is ahead of her time. Filled with haunting har-monics from the piano back-ing her momentous vocals, it is no wonder that the track

was released on the United Kingdom’s Singles chart and featured in the popular televi-sion series, The Vampire Dia-ries. The album takes an alter-native spin to each cover, all similar to that of “Skinny Love”. A melodic piano with vocals to match subdue the listener into a tranquil state of mind. Birdy’s individuality shines through each cover, giving them all an original feel. The one track featured on the album that is not a cover, “Without A Word”, comes from the 15 year old’s heart.

The ballad yearns over a for-mer lover, but gives herself the initiative of ‘I will survive’ attitude with the compelling line, “I’ll leave you without a word”. Despite her age, Birdy has made a phenomenal impact in the music industry. Birdy was also a contribut-ing artist to the soundtrack of the successful movie off of the trilogy, The Hunger Games. The track, “Just A Game”, is one of the most successful on the album. Though she’s already global, the Birdy obsession has just begun to take flight.

The Oracle Friday, March 30, 2012 7muse

MUSECountdown

to...

7 Days... “He’s so cute! I have the biggest crush on him”- Clementine Berranger, 10

18 Days...until

The Maine

“I’ve never been to that country...” - Catherine Frost, 11

15 Days...until

The Pokemon Card Game Championship

untilDaniel Tosh

Birdy Takes FlightCaitlin Hilton

Lydia Sweet

Avery Falick

Harrison Vaporci-yan

Paige Tormey

Joker & the ThiefWolfmother

Stitch Me Upfun.

HurtNine Inch Nails

People SayPortugal The Man

It’s like metal music with-out the horrible vocals. Possibly the best thing to come out of Australia.

Generic. Nothing about this song makes it stand out. Everything about it is vanilla.

The lyrics are pretty cliche and over done. Admittedly it has a lot of raw emotion.

The music video really speaks to me. I also some-times run around with rubber cement on my face.

The lyrics and catchiness of this song make it an easy listen for a harsher song.

This sounds like a song that would be played dur-ing a montage in a movie set in the summer.

This song is loaded with deep emotions, which is a nice change from other songs by this band.

While this song is catchy, it’s a pretty generic “alter-native” song and nothing really special.

The guitarist obviously knows what he’s doing, and the lyrics actually sort of make sense.

This sounds like the cheap, store-brand version of an alt-punk song that’s actu-ally good.

Little-known fact: Trent Reznor can actually con-vey emotions other than rage when he wants to.

“Alternative” describes this song perfectly - it’s an ex-cellent alternative to good music.

Metal can sometimes be too harsh, but this is a nice blend.

It sounds like a song they would play in Hollister. Some may enjoy that, but most of us don’t.

This is the last thing I would expect from Nine Inch Nails. It’s a step in the opposite direction.

This song probably sounds best when performed live due to its energy and openness.

“Pikachu! I choose you!” - Kyle Casa-nover, 11

The Oraclemuse8 Friday, March 30, 2012

The Stratford Playhouse has had a fantastic season thus far, and it looks like the suc-cess will continue. The Will Rodgers Follies, the winter musical, sold out for the first time since the Playhouse’s production of Barnum in 2009. On March 21, Principal Juntti announced that Will Rodgers had received 10 Tommy Tune Award nomi-nations. The Tommy Tunes, started in 2002 and spon-sored by Theatre Under The Stars, recognize achieve-ments in musical theatre in Houston area high schools. This year’s 10 nominations

are only a few nominations short of last year, when the Playhouse was nominated for everything aside from Best Choreography. However, this cannot be con-sidered a disappointment as the Playhouse cannot be nominated for the Best Cho-reography category due to the fact they have a profes-sional choreographer, Paula Sloan. The Playhouse also hires professional members for their orchestra, which prevents them from being nominated for Best Orchestra as well. The nominations consist of Best Musical, Best Lighting Design, Best Scenic Design, Best Ensemble, Best Direc-

tion, Best Costume Design, Best Musical Direction, and Best Technical Execution. Seniors Will Lynde and Katy Wilson were also nominated for Best Leading Actor and

Actress, respectively. The members of the Play-house find out about the nominations at the same time as the rest of the school does, which is when Principal Junt-ti announces it over the inter-

com. It is safe to say this was an exciting announcement for the Playhouse. On April 17, the cast and crew of Will Rodgers will trav-el to the Hobby center for the Tommy Tune awards show.Hopefully, the success of last year’s Tommy Tunes will ex-tend to this year and they will sweep the house. However, the Playhouse’s season doesn’t stop there. For the next show of the season, the cast and crew of the Play-house competed in the UIL competition with The Love of the Nightingale by Timber-lake Wertenbaker. On March 22, the cast and crew of Nightingale went to Waller High School and rep-

resented Stratford at their first level of this esteemed competition. The cast and crew performed their best, but unfortunately did not ad-vance to the next round. Following Nightingale, the Playhouse will put on A Night With David Ives the first two weeks of May. This produc-tion will consist of a series of short comedic plays by play-wright David Ives. Despite not advancing in UIL, it is clear that the Play-house’s success is not limited to one show. On April 17, think of Stratford’s amazing Playhouse and wish them luck as they travel to the Tommy Tune awards.

The Hunger Games, the best selling novel by Suzanne Col-lins, was adapted into a movie and released on March 23. The main plot line remained loyal to the story dreamt of by Collins, and the actors fit their parts well. However, because the trilogy already had a large fan-base before it was converted to film, many die-hard fans complained of what was left out from the movie that was important in the book. The series begins in a coun-try called Panem that has risen out of the ruins of post-apocalyptic North America. Panem is divided into 12 Districts with the glamorous Capitol at the middle. Katniss Everdeen, the pro-tagonist, is pushed into a competition-The Hunger Games-in which 24 chil-dren, two from each district, must fight to the death on live television. The Games were instated to punish the Dis-tricts for rebellious actions earlier in the century. One fault in the cinematic recreation is the missing de-tails of the competition. The movie fails to fully explain all aspects of the Hunger Games, including how kids are entered into the drawing for the contestants and the

numerous prizes the winner receives. The development of the characters lack depth and de-velopment. Important quali-ties were left out of charac-ters such as Rue, Peeta, and

Gale. Because of their ig-nored qualities, the plot line loses importance and criti-cal relationships were simply skimmed over. Katniss’s background is

quickly glanced over even though it is important be-cause it shapes her personal-ity and work ethic. Katniss’s rural life in District 12, her broken family, and the re-sponsibility that was dumped

on her at a young age forced her to grow up fast. Because she had to hunt for food for her family, she became inde-pendent and reacts quickly to physically threatening situ-

ations. Details such as these were overlooked, regardless of their importance. All of the action in the mov-ie was rushed through and watered down. Granted, the movie is only 2 hours and 22

minutes which made it harder to be able to fit in all of the thrills that were detailed in the book. This fault is understand-able, however, as movies cannot always include a spotlight on the actions of lesser importance. Therefore, the book bet-ter depicts the story and allows the reader to be completely indulged in the story and transport-ed into the middle of the Hunger Games. The movie also failed to include sufficient base for the following stories. In the setup of the plot of the book, the Mayor of District 12’s daughter gives Katniss a Mocking-jay pin to bring with her to the Capitol. However, in the movie her younger sister Primrose gives it

to her as a reminder of what she’s fighting for. This some-what ruins what is to come in the future of the trilogy. The pin from the Mayor’s daugh-ter foreshadows her District’s

involvement with the gov-ernment. It represents how District 12 will stand behind Katniss and follow her in-stead of the Capitol. This is an important detail that should not have been overlooked for the sake of the following movies. After the failure of other big-screen adaptations such as Eragon and Percy Jackson and the Olympians, it is possible that the crew skimmed over the finer details of The Hunger Games just in case the movie did not do well financially, for this reason, no sequels were green-light. However, the crew doesn’t have to worry about box office receipts: The Hunger Games has grossed over $214 million worldwide just on its opening weekend. Despite outcry from the Hunger Games fandom, the movie has been well-received by critics. Jennifer Lawrence, who portrayed Katniss, has garnered much praise and critics are even talking about the possibility of a second Os-car nomination for the young actress. Despite this, the fans will watch this movie with guarded feelings-after all, they’ve been waiting for this book to hit the big screen since it was first released in 2008.

muse 9Friday, March 30, 2012The Oracle

Never Met A Play They Didn’t LikeMichelle Evans

The Movie On Fire

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out wheth-

er you like it or not.Virgil Thomson

Of the two years of being on staff, I have only written two stories. One being the memorable, “Toddlers and Tumbling”, and the tear-jerk-er, “The Influential Parent”. I only wrote these stories because I was scared of the former editor-in-chief and I thought that it would make my teacher like me. I hope that you, dear read-er, understood that the first paragraph was complete sar-casm, except that I really was scared of the former editor-in-chief and I wanted Mrs. Cummons to like me. But all kidding aside, I did not write more because I felt that my photography was stronger, which has proven true the majority of my soph-omore, junior, and even se-nior year. Also, it was very intimi-dating having my friends be section editors and find that I misspelled words such as “your” and “you’re”. I still to this day blame my usage of social networking and AIM for those careless mistakes. Then years later I am given the position of editor-in-chief and I was once again nervous that I would have to write content for the newspaper. I also dodged that bullet by making my bi-issue column a “photo-column”. However, a couple weeks ago my mom asked why I never wrote for the paper. She explained that I survived junior AP English class, so why did I have to worry about the school newspaper? Well first, AP class writing is completely different than a newspaper story writing, and second, she had a point. If I could write a rogerian argu-ment essay, then I could sure-ly write a column about my inner thoughts and emotions about life and what not. So let the emotions and in-depth feelings about random situations in life begin.

ANNIE and the adventures

“It is safe to say this was an exciting announcement for the

Playhouse.

The Playhouse scores several Tommy Tune nominations, competes in UIL

‘The Hunger Games’ adaptation sweeps the box office, leaves fans slightly disappointedPaige Tormey

HUNGRY FOR HUNGER GAMES • Hundreds of students from all over Spring Branch poured into local theatres to watch the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games. Many dressed up while others showed off souvenir Hun-ger Games cups that several theatres gave out. Photo by Esther Jeon.

The Oracle10 Friday, March 30, 2012SPORTSHappenings of The Back YardSamantha Hicks The Spartan varsity base-ball team starts district play strong with fourteen seniors returning to the program. These senior mem-bers are Alex Eberly, Cameron Johnson, Colton Candelario, David Anderson, Evan Hayes, Hayden Barnett, Jeremiah Briscoe, Matt Hays, Matt Milan, Max Bredthauer, Miles Hennington, Ryan Hickman, Tyler Denney, and Will Duffy. Also making the varsity roster was re-turning junior Clyde Harvey along with junior Landon Neu-mann. Sophomore Freddy Price also plays for the Spar-tans and is a new addition to the varsity team. Opening up their season against Montgomery at home the Spartans lost a close game 3-2. Candelario was able to make the first run off a single made by Bredthauer. Then Duffy

bunted and allowed Johnson to score in the bottom of the 5th. The Montgomery Bull-dogs were able to come back and take the lead though,

leaving the Spartans 0-1 in district play. After their first district game the Spartans played Pasedena Sam Rayburn in the Goose Creek Memorial Tourna-ment. The Spartans came out with a huge victory of 8-2 with many great plays made by Duffy, Barnett, Briscoe, Hayes, and Hickman.

On March 13 during Spring Break, the Spartans faced the Northbrook Raiders in The Back Yard. The team had an overwhelming victory with

a final score of 10-1 making them 1-1 in district play. Then on Fri. March 16 the Spartans played Magnolia. The team lost 8-0, making them 1-2 in district play. The team then faced the Spring Woods Tigers and won a close game with a score of 4-3. This made them 2-2 in district play. In their next dis-trict game the Spar-tans played Magno-

lia West and lost a close game 3-2, putting them 2-3 in dis-trict play. On Sat. March 24, the Spar-tans played a non-district game against the Memorial Mustangs. Putting up a good fight and taking the lead at one point, the Spartans lost another close game, 5-4.

EVERLASTING VICTORY• (above) The Lady Spartan varsity soccer team went undefeated this season in district play and only allowed one goal scored on them. The members of this team are: seniors Ellen Barth (#3, Co-Captain), Alyssa Johnson (#8, Co-Captain), Rihana Devany (#12), Raven Jaimes (#13), Kellie Barranco (#15, Co-Captain), and Romina Jara (#23), juniors Cathleen Evans (#2), Kelly Ann Craig (#9), Erica Lefaive (#11), Jen-nifer Morris (#17), Emma Koydemir (#20), Ashley Romero (#22), and Medea Sarbach (GK), sophomores Kelly Cuevas (#7), Becky Dubner (#10), Taylor Aycock (#16), Sophie Moll (#19), and Caroline Hilton (#21). Photo by Megan West.

Batter Up

HITTING HARD• (above) The Lady Spartan Softball team is starting up district play with many wins in tournament play under their belts. The team’s first district game was played against Montgomery and the Lady Spartans were on the wrong side of victory. They then had a great come back and shut out Northbrook with a final score of 21-0. Next the team faced Spring Woods and won 10-0. The team then went on to lose a close game to Magnolia West, 4-3. The Spartans played Magnolia next and lost 8-4. Photo by Maggie Vickers.

Girls Soccer Undefeated

UP, UP, & AWAY• (above) Up to bat for the Spartans is senior Max Bredthauer. Picture provided by Booster Club.

The RundownA play-by-play of Stratford athletes

Matthew HaysFavorite Food: FajitasFavorite Teacher: Mr. ClancyFavorite Movie: School of RockFavorite Quote: “When life hands you curve balls, you gotta hit them out of the park.” -Justin Bieber Favorite Game: FIFA ‘12Top Priorities as an Athlete: Swagger, Intimidation, Teamwork, Persistence, WinningPosition: Second Base

Photo by: Aldo Martinez

Favorite Food: Macaroni & CheeseFavorite TV Show: Pretty Little LiarsYears Diving: 3 1/2 yearsFavorite Song: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj Favorite Teacher: Coach MatthewsFavorite Movie: Project XFavorite Memory: Qualifying for the Olym-pic Trials

Photo by: Caroline Demeris

Phoebe LaMay

The Oracle11 Friday, March 30, 2012SPORTS

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

18 19 20 21

22 23 24 2625

21

3130

98

76543

1615

1413121110

March - April

27 28

17

Newton’s Law Alex Newton

Girls JV, Varsity Softball v.s. North-

brookSHS @ 5, 7

Girls JV, Varsity Softball v.s. Mag-

noliaMagnolia @ 5, 7

Girl JV, Varsity Softball v.s. Spring

Woods SWHS @ 5, 7

Girls JV, Varsity Softball v.s. Waller

Waller @ 5, 7

Boys Varsity TrackDistrict Champi-

onship SHS @ 4

Boys Varsity TrackDistrict Champion-

shipSHS @ 4

Girls JV, Varsity Softball v.s. Bren-

ham SHS @ 5, 7

Boys Varsity Base-ball v.s. Brenham

Brenham @ 4

Boys Var-sity Baseball v.s.

NorthbrookSHS @ 7

Boys Varsity Base-ball v.s. Brenham

SHS @ 7

Boys Varsity Base-ball v.s. Katy Taylor

Katy Taylor @ 12

Boys Varsity Base-ball v.s. Waller

Waller @ 7

Boys JV Baseball v.s. Kinkaid

SHS @ 3:45

Even with the frightening condition of the current As-tros “team”, the baseball sea-son is approaching and with it comes many reasons to get excited. The biggest story line this off-season has been the move of the greatest player in the game today, Albert Pujols. The signing of Pujols along their pick up of former Rang-ers pitcher C.J. Wilson make the Angles a favorite to win the AL West, the Astros fu-ture division, and possibly a popular pick to win it all. And yes, the Astros will still be in the same division as Pujols next year as they make their move into the Ameri-can League. New Astros owner Jim Crane is embracing the change as an opportunity to provide a much needed face lift to a dying franchise. Success has not been present for Houston baseball since the prosperous 2005 World Series run. The Astros had their worst season in franchise history last year and that was with Hunter Pence and Michael

Bourn. They are without both this year and have a lineup seemingly composed of minor league players and the new face of the franchise, Carlos Lee. Carlos Lee, or El Caballo as he is often called, is possibly the best player on the team which is truly frightening. Lee entered spring training at a whopping 275 while his coaches were hoping he’d be around 250. Throughout his time in Houston, he has always come off as lazy and it seems he has no intention of changing. In fact it is not an uncommon sight to see Lee walk from the dugout all the way to left field. The Astros have some young talent with players like Brett Wallace who shined at times last season. Jim Crane has made his focus on improving the farm system and the ad-dition of Jeff Luhnow as GM should help. During Luhnow’s tenure with the Cardinals they had one of the best farm sys-tems in baseball. Hopefully he brought this success with him to Houston.

The Oracle12 Friday, March 30, 2012SPORTSTo Quit or Not to Quit

Everyone is invited to come out and cheer on our senior and junior ladies!

Enjoy fabulous halftime entertainment fea-turing Stratford’s drum line, Spartanaires, a Mr. SHS contestant parade and performance by our senior men! Come enjoy concessions, a bake sell and bid on graduation tickets and

the coveted team ball!

Celebrating the Gold

On Feb. 24-25 the Men’s and Women’s swimming and diving teams participated

in the 4A State Swim Meet held in Austin, TX at the Joe Jamail Swim Center.

Congratulations to the Men’s team for becoming the 4A State Champions and

to Phoebe LaMay for grasping the gold in the three meter diving making her a State

Champion as well. Photos by Annie Rice

Senior year is often associ-ated with symptoms related to “senioritis”: low grades, laziness, and procrastina-tion. However, for an athlete, determining a senior year schedule requires looking at not only the challenge of their core subjects but also partici-pating in a challenging sport. There are many reasons why athletes may be quitting their sports. Some students are tired of working so hard and having constant after-school demands. Others have been playing for so long that they are getting burnt out. A few students are forced to quit because medical conditions prevent them from exercis-ing. Some students do quit because they are more pas-sionate about another sport and want to focus all of their athletic abilities on it. A ma-jor reason for non-partici-pation is because of athletic injuries that can require

over a year of rehabilitation, especially for injuries such as a torn ACL. It is common for many ju-niors to debate quitting their sport before senior year. Many coaches find it disappoint-ing that after years of train-ing, an athlete would give it all up for a little down time. Athletes may look at quitting their sport at the end of junior year for personal preference, but then af-ter taking a second look at the years of commit-ment put in, such as p ar t i c ip a-tion in select teams and their friendships with fellow team-mates, students often decide otherwise. “We often see players who were formerly planning to quit actually return the fol-lowing season,” said Girls’

Softball and Basketball Coach Hope Grochmall. “Those who do end up following through to quit find them-selves hanging out with their ex-teammates and friends, and admit that they regret their decision.” The volleyball team will only have three returning seniors, which includes only one re-

turning varsity player. This is partially caused by the num-ber of athletes per grade level who have tried out for a par-ticular sport each year. A per-fect example of these breaks in grade levels is shown by the softball team. This year,

there are three seniors com-pared to ten juniors and five sophomores to nine fresh-men. These numbers show the natural flow of athletes coming and going in each athletic program. “When there are such large gaps in between the amounts of players per grade level, you have to start preparing the younger athletes for future varsity play time years in ad-vance,” said Girls’ Basketball Coach Buffie Matthews. The quitting epidemic and lack of the amount of seniors participating is creating new open slots for the freshman and sophomores on the varsi-ty level. The under-classmen filled varsity teams usually start out weak because of lack of varsity experience. Howev-er, after a few seasons of var-sity experience, the teams will have progressed immensely. This can create an amazing team for the up-coming sea-sons after a year of rebuild-ing the inexperienced varsity teams.

Elyse StieberElaine Parizot

“Those who do end up following through to quit find themselves hanging out with their ex-teamates and friends, and

admit that they regret their descion.

-Coach Hope Grochmall, Girls Softball and Basketball

Students leaving sports before end of year increasingKicking Into Playoffs

VICTORY AT LAST • (above) The boys Varsity soccer team will be attending playoffs for the first time in seven years. The team had an out-standing season with over thirty five goals scored; the leading scorer was junior Antonio Fernandez. The first game will be here on Friday at 7 against Galena Park. Photo by Jackie Mask.

The freshmen class will have to take standardized testing to a whole new level. The STAAR test has been issued this year and the freshmen will be the first class to take this test. The sophomores and juniors still get to take the TAKS test until they graduate. The STAAR has different qualities than the TAKS. For instance, the STAAR tests will be based on the curriculum of the class that is designated and each student will have to pass twelve end-of-course (EOC) assessments: Algebra I, ge-ometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English I, English II, English III, World Geography, World History, and U.S. History. There is a plus side to taking the EOC’s, however. For ex-ample, if I was taking TAKS, I would be taking a Geom-

etry test instead of Algebra II, which is the class I’m in now. This is difficult since I don’t retain last year’s math curric-ulum as well as this year’s. By taking the EOC exams after finishing each course it will enable students to use knowl-edge that they have recently learned and is fresh in their minds. “STAAR is apparently a whole lot harder than the TAKS has ever been,” Alge-bra II teacher Mrs. Mary Ste-phens said. The average score for her class was around 75. The students don’t even know what the passing standards are. “I have students in Algebra II that are taking the TAKS and the STAAR. The students that are taking the TAKS were getting 96’s and higher while the highest grade for STAAR for my students was 88,” Ste-phens said. Since this is the

first year STAAR has been issued, there isn’t a practice for the students to take to prepare. “We’re trying to prepare and don’t really know what we’re preparing for,” Stephens said. The test itself is proving itself to be a lot more rigorous than TAKS. “We know our math pro-gram is really strong, so they’re going to have to fix something,” Stephens said. The Geometry STAAR test was also a shock to math teacher and head of the math department, Mrs. Sue Heine. “It’s proven to be hard and they haven’t set the passing standards,” Heine said. There was a debate as to whether the test should count as 15% of their semester av-erage, but it has been voided since it’s the first year STAAR is being distributed. “It may or may not involve

class rank,” Heine said. The other major difference between STAAR and TAKS is that the EOC’s will have to be completed in four hours, whereas TAKS allowed unlimited time. While we (be-ing sopho-mores) still have to take TAKS, I think that STAAR would take more pa-tience to e n d u r e . Judging by the grades c o m i n g out from the STAAR test, the state should reconsider the level of difficulty it has been imposing on stu-dents.

The swim team’s 4A Swim State title marks the first time since 1978 that a Stratford team has taken home the gold. Upon winning, a group of people starting with the athletic department and go-ing to the school board, start-ed planning a school wide celebration. This validation of the teams’ hard work and dedication was important to all members of the school. “It is important that it be a team, not just an individual event,” said Building Princi-pal Christopher Juntti. “We wanted something that would honor what a big deal this was. Including the entire stu-dent body as well as the com-munity; is a very important thing”. Juntti and district athletic coordinator Paige Hershey planned this school and com-munity wide event. “We already had a sched-ule put in place from the Lip Dub, so it was very simple just to reserve the Don Cole-

man Colosseum and the costs were very minimal,” said Juntii. “We also didn’t have a venue big enough on our campus, but the convenient location of the Colosseum made it possible for us to have such a large celebration.” Juntti also expressed the need to pick and choose what to dedicate a whole pep-rally to. Many people are upset be-cause of the lack of recogni-tion for the arts. The Choir and Band earned straight ones at UIL this year and were not recognized with a grand celebration. The Play-house won Best Musical at Tommy Tune Awards last year for Damn Yankees and did not have this type of rec-ognition either. “It is a balancing act. If we begin recognizing too many things, it will become less meaningful,” Juntti says. This celebration represented the sense of pride, and ac-complishment the whole school felt when the swim team brought home the gold.

13Friday, March 30, 2012The Oracle OPINIONS

As a popular mode of trans-portation among country clubbers and beach goers, golf carts often represent sunny, relaxing memories. Children are often allowed to drive golf carts with their parents in the passenger seat, giving off the allusion that golf carts are saf-er than cars. While golf carts are less powerful than cars, they should still be operated with safety in mind. According to the Con-sumer Products Safety Commission, there are approximately 15,000 golf car related injuries requir-ing emergency room treat-ment in the United States each year. Reckless driving is the leading cause in golf carting incidents, as drivers often feel like they can be cra-zier while driving a golf cart than a car because they are smaller and less powerful. I know from first hand experi-ence that this is not the case. While riding as a passen-

ger in a golf cart in Atlanta, Ga. during the summer in between middle school and high school, the driver of the cart made a sharp turn to the left. As a result, I was ejected from the golf cart, landing on concrete on my right side. My head hit the ground first, and I sus-tained a concus-sion, a fracture in my s k u l l , and a hole in my me-n i n g e s (the sac a r o u n d t h e brain). I was very lucky that this is all that happened, as I was very close to being deaf in my right ear and the right side of my face being para-lyzed. Golf carts are not normally made with seat belts or sides. Because golf carts lack these

safety measures, passenger ejections caused by reckless driving and sharp turns are common for passengers who do not anticipate upcoming turns, which is exactly what happened in my case. Golf carts also often have back seats that face towards the

back of the car with no rail-ing. These seats offer no pro-tection for passengers from ejection because of a sharp turn or hitting a bump. Golf cart operators are not restricted by the same laws and regulations as car opera-tors, such as being required to

wear a seat belt. In many cas-es, there isn’t even a legal age to drive a golf cart, resulting in children and elderly driv-ing who would not normally be allowed to drive. Even though carts are not as pow-erful as cars, if a child were to be ejected from a cart, it could end up fatal because of the lack of safety regulations. Golf carts can often travel up to 20 miles per hour. While this is not as fast as a car, it is still fast enough to cause seri-ous and fatal injuries if some-one were to be ejected from the cart or if the cart were to tip over. While many people think of golf carts while also thinking of relaxing on the beach or a golf course, they should be operated with the same con-sciousness as a car. As long as operators are not reckless while operating a cart and drive golf carts with the same care they would use while driving a car, golf carts can maintain their serene reputa-tion.

Catastrophic CartingSeemingly harmless transportation method deemed unsafe Swim team wraps up a great year

Freshmen Shoot for the STAARsNew testing standards has Class of 2015 worried about new testsLayla Shahhosseini

Chandler CallahanAvery Falick

Time to Recognize

“According to the Consumer Products Safety Commis-sion, there are approximately 15,000 golf car related injuries requiring emergency room treatment in the United States

each year.

Graphic by Sarah Davis

In the past few decades the use of prescription ADD and ADHD medication such as Adderall, Vyvance and Ritalin has drastically changed. These powerful pills that were once hard to get have become some of the most easily prescribed drugs in the country. Throughout colleges and high schools across the na-tion the abuse of ADD and ADHD drugs has become shockingly common. As students feel the pressure to make the best grades pos-sible, stay up late to go out or even to lose weight, they are turning to these frightening pills. When a big test or finals week rolls around, some stu-dents ask their friends with ADD or ADHD for pills to help them stay up late and fo-cus on studying. Others who do have prescriptions decide to double or even triple up on

t h e i r dosage to maxi-

mize the effects. While many are abusing these drugs to make better grades, some are taking them for a different matter. Depressing your appetite, ADD and ADHD pills can shed off pounds in no time. This form of abuse has been known to lead to various forms of anorexia and buli-mia. The usage of drugs has be-come socially acceptable giv-en that people are unaware of how dangerous taking non-prescribed medication or overdosing can be. Medications used to treat ADD and ADHD are classi-fied as amphetamines, in the same category with speed and cocaine. They spike your heart

r at e and blood pressure as well as increase your release of mul-tiple chemicals. Abusing these drugs can re-sult in high blood pressure, anorexia, sudden death and symptoms of psychosis. Not only does abusing these drugs become a health haz-ard, it can also lead to drug addiction. ADD and ADHD pills are very addictive and can be mind-altering. Described by many as “coke in a pill”, Ad-derall can lead to abusing more potent drugs like co-caine that have similar effects. The really disturbing mat-ter is how easy it is for kids to get their hands on these drugs. While some students sell their own medication for a few bucks a pill, other stu-

dents simply ask their parents to get tested. In America, seemingly virtu-ally anyone can get diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. Unfortunately pharmaceu-tical companies are focusing more on making money off these medications rather than the care of patients. This goes for ADD and ADHD medications and also hundreds of other drugs such as Xanax more commonly known as “barres”. Selling and taking unpre-scribed medications is illegal and if caught you can face se-rious punishments. Besides the criminal risks, the health hazards behind these medications makes them not worth those few points on a test or few pounds you lost. Earning good grades and maintaining a fit figure

with-out medi-cation is s o m e t h i n g that is pos-sible. With hard work, reach-ing your full poten-tial on your own will be much more rewarding in the long run.

The Oracle14 Friday, March 30, 2012OPINIONS

Natural beauty is all the rage. So if it’s so important to post a picture of yourself on Facebook with the caption “No makeup! <3,” why is it so acceptable to run to the tan-ning beds after school? Your Facebook wall posts that will be online forever are “natural.” But the photo-graphs from that one dance sophomore year that you’ll probably forget about after you leave for college abso-lutely must be perfect. Right? Tanned skin, heat-treated hair, fake nails. Don’t for-get the teeth bleaching and makeup that went into the million-dollar smile in that picture. Everyone does it, and some frown upon such an activity. However, there’s not neces-sarily anything wrong with it. There’s nothing wrong with doing something artificial in order to feel better aestheti-

cally. Our society values tan skin and white teeth. We’ve l e a r n e d to look for these traits in attractive p e o p l e . On a daily basis we see how unnatural attributes are hoisted into the limelight, m a k i n g people fa-mous. Nicole “Sno ok i” P o l i z z i , aside from her care-less atti-tude and rampant partying, is known for her “tan”. All of the famil-iar cast members of Jersey

Shore are known for their tans. Obviously, this is some-thing we find attractive (or at

least enter-

taining). These artificial character-istics of our bodies can be

seriously detrimental to our health. Girls in high school and older have been known to lay out in the sun for hours, soaking up the UV rays in

order to be a few shades darker. We’ll continue to enjoy the warmth of our bright, Texas sun and the result of our dark skin for years to come

(whether it holds the possibility of skin cancer or not). Tanning salons bring in thousands of dollars to keep us pampered. It can be extremely dangerous, yet we seem to pay no attention to the consequences.

This isn’t a new fad by any means. Centuries ago, when running water and electric-

ity weren’t even in the minds of inventors, women did un-natural things to themselves in order to feel prettier. It’s not as if we can blame the popularity of artificial beauty on the world we live in today. For some reason, though, that’s what we always hear. Everyone has their own opinion about whether or not these physical alterations are appropriate. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look a certain way. If you think that real beauty is when you’re wearing sweat-pants and a natural face-say so. If you think that the pret-tiest girls are the ones getting dolled up everyday-so be it. In a society that continues its endeavor to change how we see ourselves, our friends, and those around us, we fol-low trends and fads with al-most blind ambition. Enjoy the beauty around you-it may be fleeting.

ADDitional HelpStudent usage of ADD/ADHD medication increasesKali Venable

Not So NaturalSocietal views of beauty changing from previous viewsHannah Bevers

Rachael’s Ramblings

I want to touch on a subject that has been boggling my mind lately. Last year I ended up getting in about 4 car ac-cidents that should have left me with multiple injuries, or worse. Instead I walked away with nothing more than a major cause of whiplash that landed me in the hospital for a brief amount of time. My first accident was by far the worst of all of them, a driver of a Ford F350 de-cided he wanted to evade hit-ting the car in front of him by doing a U-Turn and directly running into the drivers side of my car with this tailgate. At the time I was driving a dingy Nissan Sentra that was always reliable just a little worse for the wear, the impact of him backing into my drivers side no only completely destroyed my door, but managed to knock me around my car in a dangerous way. I was in utter shock at what had just happened, and to only make it worse both cars decided to flee the scene and leave me to fend for myself. It was like I was in a horrible dream, nothing like this had ever happened to me, and to say the least I was scared out of my mind. I could barely get words out of my mouth to scream for help because I was to busy being in agoniz-ing pain. All of a sudden I felt an inner peace wash over me, besides the pain I was in, I was still breathing and wasn’t bleed-ing. I realized that someone up in heaven was watching over me, making sure that I made it out of this accident alive and well. Immediately a picture of my Grandmoth-er, Grandfather, and cousin popped into my head smil-ing at me. At that moment I realized that I had three pre-cious guardian angels looking out for me, and I knew that I would never be alone when I needed help.

Rachael Brennan

Graphic by Isabel Deakins

Graphic by Kelsey Hunter

The Oracle Friday, March 30, 2012 15OPINIONS

Oracle StaffAdvisor Janice CummonsEditors-in-Chief Annie Rice, Maddie Stone, Avery FalickAssociate Editor Rachel BrennanNews Editors Samantha Vargas, Layla Shahhosseini, Sara Boyle News Reporters Chandler Callahan, Esther Jeon, Samantha Stazo, Ara LuzMuse Editors Caitlin Hilton, Hannah Price, Paige Tormey Muse Reporters Kaela Beasley, Janelle BlackwoodSports Editors Samantha Hicks, Valeria Chelala, Leslie Bustamante Sports Reporters Alex Newton, Elaine Parizot, Elyse StieberOpinions Editors Michelle Evans, Lydia Sweet Opinions Reporters Andres Acosta, Caroline Suchman, Jackie VelardePhoto Editors Katie Gregory, Amy Jordan, Mary Elizabeth Schnake Photographers Jackie Mask, Ariyan Almassi, Maddie Byers, Caroline Demeris, Faith Figueroa, Jacob Pennington, Logan Tinkler, Samantha Vanston, Amy Brajenovich, Stephen Martinez, Aldo MartinezCopy Editors Ammarah Tariq, Marina Khalid Staff Artist Kelsey HunterDesign Editors Isabel Deakins, Harrison Vaporciyan Design Staff Gil Sanchez, Kali VenableAds Editors Leslie Baker, Caroline Schreiber, Katy Wilson Ads Staff Stephanie Slaughter, Mary Margaret Weaver, Blake Schreiber

Caroline Suchman Harrison Vaporciyan In the real world, we face is-sues like war, love, sexuality, and religion. All of these top-ics are also seen in the media, but the most controversial seems to be religion. This is a problem because it means we are not able to accept the re-ality of our society-a society where people of all religions and non-religious people are forced to coexist. Religious news should defi-nitely not take over all of our news and entertainment, as that would also shut out part of the population, but it should not be banned from mention. Religion has influ-ence over our lives whether we take part in it or not, and should therefore be in our media. After all, do we not get angry when a new TV show sprouts up that doesn’t depict life accurately enough for our taste? Religion has been an im-portant part of society since the beginning of time. It is the culmination of every-thing humans cannot make real sense of. It gives an-swers when we do not know them, gives comfort in times of need, and gives a code of morals to follow and a rea-son to follow them. Although there are many different belief systems, we should be able to acknowledge all of them. See-ing things in the media that do not relate directly to us and our interests broadens our world view and makes us more savvy to other issues. This is similar to news of other countries. Although we live in the United States, we often want to know what is

going on in other countries. If we allow news about other countries to be published, we should also allow news about religion to be published. To ignore these events would be to ignore a portion of the population. People who are minority re-ligions need to stay in touch with the news of the center of their religion. Just because a piece is not relevant to some of us does not mean that we should ban it from being published when we can just as easily skip over that piece. Banning religious media would make religious people feel less welcome because it would be saying that we do not feel that type of news is important to the public, and to prove we are progressing we need to be accepting of issues that do not relate di-rectly to us. To a well-round-ed, aware per-son, all types of news from all sorts of places should matter. This includes reli-gious news as well as politi-cal, cultural, technological, and the like. Some people who do not wish to see religion in the media feel that it is offen-sive to non-religious folk. But not hav-ing religion in

the media is ignorant and is a violation of the freedom of press. A better way to grow towards the future is to accept that multiple beliefs are pres-ent in our society, and be free to acknowledge all of them. The actual process of re-porting religious events is a dangerous one. While many people act like idiots when it comes to these deeply in-grained beliefs, it is not po-lite to call people idiots in the news and only widens the chasms that religion cre-ates in our society. A report about a religious topic should be just that-- a report. There is no need for bias in a news report, and since that is the cause of controversy in this case it is a simple solution to a problem that will never go away.

Going through the front page of any reputable news web site these days is like nav-igating an intellectual mine-field of potentially offensive opinions. Whatever the topic, whatever the author’s opin-ion of it, there will always be someone offended by it. No other topics lure out bit-ter arguments quite like re-ligion does. Time after time, religion has shown itself to be an extremely touchy topic both in the media and in dai-ly life. Examples abound: in 2010, an extremist Muslim group successfully pressured Com-edy Central into censoring a South Park episode featuring Mohammed; the Westboro Baptist Church has become infamous for its inflamma-

tory picketing tactics; and atheists recently took out ads on buses openly denouncing religion. These groups all have one thing in common: they want attention. And thanks to the sensationalist news coverage, they get it. Clearly, something needs to change. Since history has shown time and time again that trying to change hu-man nature is an exercise in futility, the only thing left to change is the media itself, namely by discouraging them from covering religious is-sues. Just to clarify, I’m not pro-posing that the media should never cover religious news items. Far from it. The prob-lem is that covering religious issues in major news outlets

only encour-ages extremist groups to use them as outlets for them to gain publicity while masking their inten-tions under the guise of “religious free-dom.” In the end, the simplest and most effective way to deal with them is the same way you deal with an annoying toddler: just ignore them. Now, this problem is in no way unique to religion; it

happens all the time in fields like science and literature. The problem with religion is that its goals and preachings are so varied and malleable that anyone can twist them to suit their own ends. Not covering these issues would also solve the prob-lem of people getting of-fended when they think their religion is being slighted. Avoiding the issue entirely is easier than trying to cater to the tastes of every religious group out there - the latter leads to watered-down, “po-litically correct” articles rife with qualifying phrases to the point where it comes across as less of a report on an inci-dent and more of a case study in how to not offend people. Some would argue that this route is akin to self-censor-ship, and it certainly appears so on the surface. However, self-censorship is not neces-sarily a bad thing all of the time. Self-censorship is what keeps you from blurting out remarks that might lead to arguments or controversy in certain company. For ex-ample, you probably wouldn’t want to remark that gun control laws should be made stricter in the middle of an NRA meeting. Similarly, any article about religion will necessarily incite arguments when published in today’s religiously diverse environ-ment. This could all be solved if people could respect each other’s beliefs, but since that’s never really happened before, the measures described here are much more realistic.

One Station, Under God?

Graphic by Sarah Davis

Should religious issues be covered by media outlets... ...Or is it not worth the trouble?

The OracleADS16 Friday, March 30,2012

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