2
    .
    Hurricane Katrina
    Disrupts Lives
    Jessica Bailey, 7th Grade
    Hurricane Katrina disrupted the lives of
    many people, killing many and affecting all in her
    path! Dead bodies floated in the disease laden,
    flooded streets. But why did it take the govern­
    ment so long to respond?
    The National Guard should have been in
    New Orleans twenty­four hours after Katrina hit.
    If they had arrived in a timely fashion, maybe thou­
    sands of people wouldn t have had to suffer.
    When the Tsunami hit Indonesia, the Na­
    tional Guard was sent immediately, helping the
    citizens of Indonesia get their lives back on track.
    Millions of dollars was raised to help with the re­
    building.
    The same help is now needed in New Or­
    leans. Please donate through the Red Cross to help
    the victims of hurrican Katrina.
    PTSD is one acronym that military offi­
    cials don t like. Instead of post­traumatic stress
    disorder, top military officials prefer
    temporary
    adjustment disorder
    with an emphasis on tem­
    porary. However, seventeen percent of soldiers re­
    turning home from Iraq have PTSD related symp­
    toms.
    Post­traumatic stress disorder is caused by
    an extremely traumatic event in one s life. PTSD
    has three general types: intrusive, avoidant, and
    hyperarousal. Those classified with intrusive have
    memories or thoughts that interfere with normal
    thought processes and social interaction. Avoidant
    is evident when one avoids social activities, emo­
    tions, and situations that relate in anyway to the
    trauma causing situation. Hyperarousal is the most
    extreme classification of PTSD. Explosive out­
    bursts, extreme vigilance, irritability, and sleep dis­
    turbance are all signs of Hyperarousal.
    Despite the different warning signs for
    PTSD, it is rather difficult to diagnose properly.
    Therefore, doctors have urged the military to try
    to identify, as early as possible, those soldiers who
    are more likely to end up with PTSD after their
    tour of duty.
    Since the war in Iraq began, all soldiers
    have been required to fill out a mental­health ques­
    tionnaire before demobilizing. The questions asked
    are mostly directed toward PTSD. Feeling emo­
    tionally numb or having insomnia, nightmares and
    flashbacks are all signs of PTSD that officials take
    into consideration. Those soldiers whose answers
    trigger a red­flag will have their return to Iraq de­
    layed. Since rates of PTSD tend to rise when sol­
    diers have been back home for three to six months,
    the military will soon be starting a program to re­
    view the mental health of these soldiers.
    PTSD is difficult to treat; the only way to
    truly understand what the soldier has gone going
    through is to have been there too. The best way to
    help someone who suffers from PTSD is to treat
    them normally and at the very least try to under­
    stand what they re going through.
    KendraShelters,Junior
    PTSDSTRIKES
    RETURNING
    SOLDIERS
    One of the greatest receivers of all time
    finally came to terms that he would be no better
    than the fourth receiver for the Denver Broncos.
    That would be no way for Jerry Rice to end his
    legacy, so he retired after twenty impressive sea­
    sons in the National Football League.
    Jerry Rice was a man devoted to his career
    and would make every sacrifice he could to con­
    tinue playing, but there comes a time where there
    is no dishonor in quitting.
    His legacy started when he was a first round
    draft pick out of Mis­
    sissippi Valley State
    in 1985. He spent his
    first sixteen seasons
    of his career with the
    San Francisco 49ers,
    where he mastered
    the West Coast of­
    fence and joined Joe
    Montana and Steve
    Young in three Super
    Bowl titles. Rice was
    the MVP of the
    49ers Super Bowl
    XXIII triumph over
    Cincinnati, catching
    11 passes for 215
    yards in a 20­16 vic­
    tory.
    At the start
    of his 17
    th
    year in the
    NFL, Jerry Rice went to the Oakland Raiders where
    he had three fairly productive seasons. Then a mid­
    season trade in 2004 sent him to Seattle to play in
    11 games, starting nine. Being a member of the
    NFC West­champion Seahawks, Rice recorded
    362 yards and three touchdowns on twenty­five
    catches.
    The 42­year­old receiver essentially walks
    away with ownership of almost every respectable
    pass­receiving record with 38 NFL records in to­
    tal, including the most career receptions (1,549),
    yards receiving (22,895) and touchdowns receiv­
    ing (197). All of which got him thirteen Pro Bowl
    invitations.
    Now that he s acknowledged it s really over,
    Rice can be truly grateful for the past few years of
    his career and start the next phase in his life.
    1. The dot over the letter i is called a tittle.
    2. The spot on 7UP comes from its inventor who
    had red eyes. He was an albino.
    3. The numbers 172 can be found on the back of
    the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of
    the Lincoln Memorial. (New or old? Not sure. Prob­
    ably the old one.)
    4. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on
    Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant
    in the Berlin Zoo.
    5. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie
    Chaplin look­alike contest.
    6. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
    (As noted by a reader:
    The reason a goldfish
    swims back and forth and back and forth
    across the fish bowl all day long everyday is
    because by the time it gets to one side of the
    bowl it forgets what s on the other side of the
    bowl. Every trip is a new adventure! (Hey, I
    wonder what s over there Hey! I wonder
    what s over THERE!)
    Some of Our Features
    Some of Our Features
    Some of Our Features
    Some of Our Features
    Some of Our Features
    Useless Trivia
    Brian Ocque, Senior
    Jerry Rice Steps Away
    From the Game
    Stephie Brink, Sophomore
    Making the Event Work...
    Danielle loves independent films and religiously
    watches IFC and Sundance. She s a video game ad­
    dict; currently obsessed with the Silent Hill series,
    which thoroughly satisfies her phobophilia (The love
    of fear) and gives her something to inspire the darker
    side of her art and writing (yep, she s an artist and
    amateur author too). She dabbles in the electric gui­
    tar, using her father s Schecter Diamond Series to fool around every now and then. She loves
    all kinds of music and will listen to almost anything. Her monthly rants are fueled by her pet
    peeves: ignorance, mostly, along with what she sometimes calls
    social parasites
    people
    who seem to feed of f others misfortune in order to maintain their own, undeserved reputa­
    tion; and her music and movie reviews are simply so due to her love of them.
    Without
    music and film, I d probably go insane.

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