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September 2005 Edition 6

Volume 40

The Mane Event

of Lyons Jr Sr. High School

THIS IS YOUR MANE EVENT

The Editor’s Head

Editor in Chief, Brian Ocque

I do believe I have the prime

rib of political articles to write

about this month. I recently watched

a report on CNN about a Bush/Sol­

dier press conference in Washing­

ton D.C. It was a typical confer­

ence about how things are running

in Iraq and how the President plans

to fix things up a bit. Everything

was fine and dandy, rather normal

actually, except for one startling

piece of video; one of the

President’s White House aides was

shown on tape rehearsing with the

soldiers what they are to say and

do while addressing the President.

A little startling to me, but is

it routine for them?

It was supposed to look like

a routine conference between the

soldiers in Iraq and the President

to the normal American eye, but

sources from

Good Morning America

state that there was a choreographed

session that took place instead.

White House Press Secretary Scott

McClellan suggested that choreog­

raphy is needed in order to over­

come technical difficulties when

doing a satellite feed. He went on

to say:

I think all they

were doing was talking to the

troops and letting them know

what to expect.

I would also expect this from

an analyst at the White House.

All in all, there may be some

sort of staging going on here. It

may be in order to restore the faith

that people have lost in this war

or to ensure some sort of security

in our President’s job. Either way,

I would hope that our beloved Presi­

dent Bush would be able to tell

the truth when the moment of truth

came.

The point I’m making in the

first place is why are they lying

to us? Are they trying to glamor­

ize the war, make people feel bet­

ter about it? I think not, mainly

because recent polls suggest that

over half of the country does not

care for the way Bush is handling

this war. Whatever the reason is,

it won’t look pretty when it all

blows over.

Hurricane Katrina. It was seen originally as

a powerful hurricane coming off of the Gulf of Mexico.

It ended up being a huge disaster for one of the big­

gest cities in the southern United States. Hurricane

Rita was a slightly less powerful hurricane that hit

more­or­less the same place less than a month later.

Besides the hurricanes themselves, who is to blame

for the mass loss of lives all over the area.

First, I will put this out in the open: The United

States government is not to blame for the mass loss

of life due to the flooding of the New Orleans area. It

is to blame for the mass loss of life due to the after

effects of the New Orleans flood; however, I am get­

ting ahead of myself. It was totally and fully the state

of Louisiana’s duty to evacuate the city before Katrina

hit. The fact that state government didn’t force the

residents to evacuate is the reason for the overall

problems the area suffered.

Let me explain this: The Louisiana state gov­

ernment had a full 2­3 days to evacuate the city of

New Orleans. They didn’t even try. What is their

excuse? According to the governess, it was because

she didn’t think many people would leave. So what?

You are still obligated to try. Yet the state govern­

ment did nothing. They didn’t even help people that

wanted to leave. The fact that they never prepared

an escape plan proves this.

Now, this may seem rather harsh, especially

to people expecting the full Bush­bashing treatment,

but it is the truth. One example leads to the city’s

geography. It is so far under water (the whole city is

8 to 20 feet below sea level) that they have break

walls (levees) surrounding the city. Break walls, in

case you don’t know, keep flood waters from en­

tering a city. They are basically watertight, ten feet

tall highway dividers. The ones surrounding New

Orleans were Category 3 break walls, meaning they

would survive a Category 3 hurricane and the re­

sulting flood. It was a known fact among the engi­

neers who built the break walls that

THEY

WOULD NOT LAST THROUGH A CAT­

EGORY 5 HURRICAINE!

Katrina was a Cat­

egory 5, and the walls didn’t last. They were not

designed to due so; therefore, they wouldn’t, and

they didn’t. In fact, the previously mentioned engi­

neers asked for more state funding to make them

Category 5 break walls but were repeatedly de­

nied the funding because politicians called it a

“Non­

Issue”

. Since the state obviously didn’t care about

New Orleans, why did the state not force the city

to evacuate?

The Center of Disagreement

Logan “T” King

When you hear the word construction, nor­

mally you think positively; a new change will occur,

one that would be more beneficial or better suited

for your living. Within our school a multitude of

changes has come about. The question to ask, how­

ever, would be whether or not these new renova­

tions affect our ability as students to learn; does it go

deeper than the surface?

What was supposed to be completed a while

ago is now an ongoing event. The construction, as

we all know, started towards the end of last year.

Major changes have come about and are great, but

why is it that when we are sitting within our class­

room that we are interrupted by the sporadic sounds

of a drill or hammer echoing about the halls? We are

told that a school is a learning environment, and the

purpose of it is to educate the people within. The

thing, however, is that we cannot learn if we are un­

able to concentrate on our work or hear what the

teacher is saying. It is important to me to be sur­

rounded by a nice environment, and when it is done

it will be, but it is more important to receive a proper

education.

What I don’t get is how a disorderly and dis­

ruptive student can be thrown out of class when they

are making less noise than many of the construction

workers themselves. The disorderly student may af­

fect the one classroom that he/she is in, but that is

only one of many. The construction taking place dis­

rupts plenty more. Shouldn’t rules apply to all? On

the other hand, though, I can honestly say that they

are only doing their jobs. If I may comment, their

doing a great job at that. Our hallways look much

better than previous years, and they must have had a

miracle when renovating the cafeteria. I am only try­

ing to do my job as well, however, and learn what is

being taught to me. Now what we have to do is

decide whose interest will come first, the interest of

the student or that of a construction worker?

They are paid to make our school a better

place, to fix that which may be wrong. I used to

complain of how

“ghetto”

our school looked and

hoped that it would change. Now that it is starting

to change and looks halfway decent, I am still com­

plaining. Even though the tiles make a big difference

and brighten up the halls, the carpet looks newer,

and the cafeteria for once actually looks like one,

the distraction of the noises don’t help what I actu­

ally come to school to do.

I can be sitting in my eighth period class,

taking my test and rudely be interrupted by a noise

which sounds as if it is gnawing at the concrete be­

neath me. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I can’t

seem to think of the correct answer to the question

that I just knew the answer to two seconds before

hand. I eventually will figure it out, but the point is

that my grade on it could be altered because of that.

Some people consider a grade just a grade,

but in reality it is far from just a grade. That one

grade is your life because if you allow yourself to fail

that one time, you will become that failure in life in

general as you will be come accustomed to failing. I

come to school to learn, no one HAS to, but I come

to be me, to succeed in something that I do. With all

this on going construction, how are we expected to

do our work?

Continued on page 4

Construction or

Disruption

LaChanda Mills, Sophomore

By the time you actually read

this article, the construction

should be done. The work

being done was annoying at

times, but hopefully we all

now agree it was worth it.