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About Port Orford news. (Port Orford, Curry County, Oregon) 1958-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 2009)
------------------------------------------------------------ St UD Ent ArT at PaCIf Pa ic HIGh Pro/Con D EBATE C OLUMN I by Oceana Fields by Oceana Fields Janet Copeland by Janet Copeland by Janet Copeland by Camille Walker by Oceana Fields by Camille Walker Hello again PHS/Port Orford. Here once again is your column of debate. I want to start off by apologiz- ing. When I first started the debate column we had much more student participation, which meant a more interest- ing and more diverse article. I am going to work to bring that back. This month the topic up for debate is one that people have had mixed feelings for since it first showed up in medical history. We are going to tackle assisted suicide in hospitals. If a patient is dying in a severly painful yet slow manner and suffering despite the best efforts of the doctors, should the doctor be able to releave them of their pain by taking their life. Here is what your classmates had to say on the subject: Seniors: --Trinity Russell-- “I think they should be able to, because if I was in pain I would want them to do noth- ing.” by Chantelle Finley by Camille Walker --Julian Carter-- “I think people should be al- lowed to choose when they die” Juniors: Music Monthly By Angelena Sandez and Mandy Krake The Origins of April Fools Day Eye on the World By Quinn Allen There are always people and organizations that we can point our fingers at for the crisis: individuals who, in their desire to become home-owning Americans, took on mortgages that were up to ten-fold the size of their annual salary; banks who approved these loans knowing fully that the borrowers would not be able to support them, and then bundled them up into packages of risk called CDOs—or Collateralized Debt Obligations— which they could then sell off to unknowing investors; ratings agencies that eagerly approved these collections of mortgage debt as AAA investment grade securities and let loose an onslaught of international buyers who fervently took up these investments on the faith that Americans would be able to make their mortgage pay- ments. Surely all these groups hold a heavy share of the blame and to some extent knew what it was that they were getting into, but what about the person who knew everything? When Allan Greenspan—the Chairman of the Federal Reserve—lowered the federal interest rate to 1% to avoid the economic recession we were supposed to enter in 2000, money was able to flow as people began to borrow and invest. As Congress pushed for increased home ownership and lifted regulations off housing-cen- tered money lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, April 1st, the infamous day that we spend -Folk Music- scheming and playing pranks “All music is folk music; I ain’t never heard a horse sing.” Louis Armstrong. Folk on any and all that are music by definition is music, usually of simple character and anonymous authorship, handed gullible enough to fall into down among common people by oral tradition. It all started with a singer named Woody the trap. We indulge in the Guthrie who wrote “This land is your land”. Woody Guthrie joined up with Pete Seeger in the childish urge of immaturity late 30’s. Pete Seeger’s more popular songs were “If I had a hammer”, and “We Shall Over- to fool someone, and even come”. the most serious of us might In the sixties we were introduced to Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez and enjoy a joke or two on this the more recent artists such as The Kingston Trio, Neil Young and Alison Krauss. Many folk day. Although often, these songs were written and performed to protest war, laws, authority, or to lobby for equal rights. little jokes are much funnier Folk music is often related to bluegrass or country music because of the common themes played out in our heads than about being out in the country or hard times that everyday people have gone through. Folk what happens when they are music originated in the southern United States and has merged into multiple sub-genres like played out in life. Neverthe- folk rock, folk metal and protest songs. less most are still good sports It is described as dialogue music because it often originates from family stories about friendly and harmless that have been past down through generations, or are the artists story about an event that has pranks and will have a good happened or a person they have known. Folk music expresses every aspect of life and living laugh at their expense and through many views and is undoubtedly the way many historical events have come to be at others. known. Over the years, pranks have evolved from small personal pranks, funny objects meant to embarrass someone, and just setting people up to seem fools, to tricks played on the masses YEARBOOKS ARE ALMOST HERE!!! Don’t forget to grab yours, available mid- May! Find yourself in the pages of this book of memories from this year for many years to come! HARLEY KING COMICS You l<now -l~eYe Is a pro blt1r1 w~,- 1 you \e,:.v f4,;' ,, by the media, influential people, and kids who throw their imaginations into the schemes with reckless abandon. Often it seems April Fools Day becomes a battle between teachers and students, with the students thinking of harmless jokes to play on their teachers that will get the class in an uproar and make them famous for that prank. The teach- ers likewise play jokes on the students, often thinking up ways to make students be- lieve outrageous stories that couldn’t be possible, except for the mysterious teacher to perform. According to one somewhat foggy legend of origin, during the 1500’s the western world counted days by the Julian calendar. They celebrated the start of new years’ on March 25th, but the festivals celebrating the New Year started on April 1st because March 25th fell during Holy Week. With the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, new years was moved to January 1st, and since communications during those days was slow, news traveled just as slow that New Years was now held on January 1st. Those who could be tricked into believing April 1st was the start of the new year were considered April Fools, just as was the obstinate crowd who refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1st. Generally these stubborn folk were subject to some ridicule. Sent of “fools’ er- rands” and made the butt of other practical jokes. Movie Review: Bride Wars By Angelina Sandez Best friends Liv and Emma played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hatha- way. Liv and Emma have been friends for twenty years and have spent most of those years very specifically planned out their weddings together down to every last detail but they never thought they’d have to get married on the same day. Liv and Emma find themselves engaged and have scheduled their wed- dings at the same place and on the same day. This imme- diately fires the two friends up and instead of joining the two ceremonies together they both want to have their own wedding and at the date and time they chose. Both women come- out with their fists swing ing and attempt to sabotage each others weddings. Liv is a high-powered lawyer who will stop at nothing to get precisely what she wants and Emma is a school teacher who has all her life put oth- ers before herself and is now enjoying indulging herself for her wedding. Liv and Emma both grow into major bridezillas attempt hampering the others wedding preparations includ- ing dying Liv’s hair blue and Emma ending up with an or- ange tan instead of a natural tone. After many wacky, tir- ing and unnecessary pranks are pulled the two friends are faced with many hard deci- sions and settle on sacrificing a few things they think they need to help the other out. Julian Carter Future Business Leaders of America By Mrs. Pendegrass Ten Pacific High School FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) members attended the 2008- 2009 Oregon State Leadership Competitions on April 8-10 at the Doubletree Hotel and Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Pacific High School’s FBLA Chapter had another chance to make itself known to the bigger schools participat- ing in the competitions. In order to be eligible to compete in Port- land, members competed at the Rogue-Umpqua Region competition in February. The ten Pacific members were Rebekah Wagner in Accounting I and Business Communications; Manuel Finley in Introduction to Business Communications; Ol- ivia Bolter in Word Processing and Accounting I; Courtney Lakey in Public Speaking; Ana Newman in Accounting II and Business Communications; Daniel Neilsen in Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure; Peter Swenson in Business Math; Isaac Wagner in Introduction to Parliamentary Proce- dure; and Manuel Finley, Daniel Neilson, Isaac --Shawnee Potter-- “I guess if the patient wants it then why not.” more people than ever were able to take out loans to purchase a house. The increased demand led to in- creased home prices meaning that people were able to refinance their homes and receive cash equal to the improved equity, or sell them for a profit and trade up for even pricier bits of real estate. The problem was that as people continued to buy more and more expen- sive homes, their incomes were not rising in step. With many people taking out multiple mortgages under the assumption that their home value would rise and they would be able to pay it off later, there was no way for them to make their payments. When the homeowners could no longer pay off their debts, all the CDOs that people had invested in were now suddenly toxic and a debt to be held by the investor. All this was foreseen by Alan Greenspan, but rather than present this to Congress, whom he feared would not listen to any advice which might hamper the cur- rent housing boom, he decided instead to urge lenders to find news ways to offer loans to more people in the hopes that this would keep the housing market alive long enough for some miracle to happen—or for him to retire. Some of these “miracle” loans included adjust- able rate mortgages and loans where you could opt to pay less than the minimum interest, the remainder of which is simply added to your principle, meaning that every month you are actually further away from paying off your home. These new loans flooded the market with what Alan Greenspan himself referred to as “froth”. In 2006, Greenspan was told that over one fifth of the housing market was made up of sub subprime mortgages—mortgages held by persons not quali- fied for standard loans. Shortly after, he retired, leaving the economy to continue on its path until its inevitable collapse in June of 2007. Now the employment rate in the United States is over 8.5% and another 0.4% lose their jobs each month. I believe that had Alan Greenspan respond- ed sooner and enacted regulations on the market which he saw exploding, the economy would not have become so bloated with bad loans and the economy would be in a much better state. Wagner, and Peter Swenson as a Parliamentary Procedure Team. The students were guided to the competition by their advisor, Mrs. Earlyene Pend- ergrass, who teaches junior and senior English as well as Accounting and Word Processing at Pacific High School. The chapter officers this were Ana Newman as President, Rebekah Wagner as Vice President, and Heather Valentine as Secretary. During their stay at the conference in Portland, the students either competed in events or attended business-related workshops. The FBLA Annual Business meeting was held and new of- ficers were elected for the following year. The voting delegates for Pacific were Ana Newman and Rebekah Wagner. On the final day on the conference, the competing students, their advisors, and their guests filed into the Oregon Convention Center to attend the Awards of Excellence Session. Awards were given to the top ten places in over fifty individual and team events as well as chapter events. Rebekah Wagner placed 1st in Accounting I and in Business Communications, Courtney Lakey placed 4th in Accounting I, Olivia Bolter placed 10th in Word Processing, Manuel Finley placed 2nd in Introduction to Business Communications, and Daniel Neilsen placed 5th in Introduction to Parlia- mentary Procedure. The Parliamentary Procedure Team did phenomenally well for their first year, taking second place in the whole State of Oregon. To conclude this year of FBLA and to further reward their accomplishments, Rebekah Wagner and Manuel Finley have a chance to attend the National Business Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California where they will be compet- ing against the top competitors from all fifty states. While in Anaheim, students will take part in elect- ing Naional FBLA officers, participate in their competitive events, attend workshops, and maybe even visit Mickey Mouse. Sophomores: --Mandy Krake-- “Yeah, if they’re already there, and dying, why let the person suffer. ” --Angelena Sandez-- “Yes cuz nobody should have to suffer waiting to die.” --Cassie Breuer-- “Yeah, I dont like to see peo- ple suffer.” Freshmen: --Melody Pittman-- “I think they should be al- lowed to do it because if someone is in that much pain then they should be allowed to die if they want.” Written By: Chris Greene
