Category Archives: Forum

Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Seeing dancing at work

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By Danielle Sheally

By far, I think Dance Marathon is the most anticipated event of the year.

When our student body is dancing and having fun at FCDM our ears hear all these stories about the money we are raising to help out the individuals that benefit from Riley.  There are different outlets Riley participates in besides the Dance Marathon.  One of the outlets that I benefit from is Camp Riley.  Camp Riley is a place where children with a wide range of disabilities can go camping without their parents.

At Riley there is wide range of activities for kids to do while they are there.  Some of the activities are arts and crafts, archery, and nature walks.  At each activity the campers are encouraged to try to be as independent as possible but help is there if we need it.  I think what makes Camp Riley so different is that most of their counselors are medical students.  The counselors get handson practice with many different types of medical issues.  These in turn help them immensely with understanding their field of work.

For me, Riley is a place to get away from my parents.  This is definitely the biggest perk for me. Being at camp makes me realize that I am not the only one out  in the world that wants to experience opportunities that I usually would not be able to, because some are just too physically challenging.  We all struggle with the same obstacle at Riley, which is not being able to experience the things we want to.  Riley lets us see that we are not alone in our struggles.

When I was at Riley, my favorite activities were archery and talking to my counselors. The feeling of having a weapon in my hands was very liberating.  Also, occasionally, when I hit a target, I get excited too.  Archery made me feel empowered by the feeling of being able to sit down and shoot something that is extremely powerful.  Talking to counselors was hands down the most enjoyable thing.  When campers are there, we develop and grow relationships while at camp with the counselors because most of them are near our age.  I also enjoy our conversations because they let me know what college is like and what I need to expect.  So I guess you could say that not only are they mentors, but they are friends too.

Who ever thought a couple dance moves could could help so many people smile.

Cartoons, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Hunt for what you’re proud of

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By Danielle Shealy

Hunting for the perfect holiday bird is easy when you’re hunting ground is a big store with everything you need.

During Thanksgiving, we come together as different families celebrating what we are thankful for.  For me, thankfulness isn’t about who got you what. It isn’t about about who decorated the house the best. Those things are nice, but thankfulness should be about having someone or something in our life that makes everything better, even if we’re having a bad day.

I am thankful for so many things in my life.  I am thankful that I live in a country where I can get a free education. I appreciate that I can choose any job I want and not have to be told no because I have a disability or that I will get the beneifits I need when I turn 18. I appreciate that I have people in my life that keep me grounded and try to keep me on the right path.

Something that I am most thankful for is that I am able to speak my own mind.  So many children in my position don’t have the opportunity.  It hurts me to see that look in their eyes and how they want to communicate, but they can’t.  I am thankful that I can speak so eloquently that I am able to affect someone by just sharing my thoughts.

I am thankful that most of the time I am happy in my own skin.  I am thankful that I am able to go to bed at night and not wander where my next meal will come from.  I am thankful that people believe in me and will always be there to support me.  I am thankful for my friends that pick me up on the worst days and bring me back to reality.

I hope you are able to find a hunting ground as good as mine.

A&E, Columns

New book release prompts columnist remember actor River Phoenix

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By Isaac Mathewson
On Oct. 31, 1993 , Hollywood actor River Phoenix died of a massive drug overdose in Los Angeles. Since then, there have been many memoirs as well as songs and websites dedicated to his short but promising life. To me, he was a fantastic actor and a major role model in my life due to his achievements and his beliefs.
Now 20 years later, with the upcoming book Last Night at the Viper Room by journalist Gavin Edwards who witnessed his death, I have decided to tell the story of his life and explain why he was such an inspiration to me as well as many others.
River Jude Phoenix was born on Aug. 23, 1970 in Madras , Oregon. He was the oldest of five children, and his siblings’ names were brother Joaquin, who is also an acclaimed actor, and sisters Rain, Liberty , and Summer. During his early years, his family belonged to a cult called the ‘Children of God’ and they were missionaries in Venezuela. When he was eight, his family moved to the United States because they were encouraged by their cult to engage their children in sexual activity. His family were vegans and in his later years, he would become an animal rights activism. He was also an accomplished guitarist, as he and his siblings used to perform on the streets for money.
At his suggestion, the family took up professional acting to meet their needs. After acting in a number of T.V. shows and movies, he had his first major film role in the 1985 family film Explorers. However, it wasn’t until the 1986 film, Stand by Me, when his career really started to kick off. He starred in several minor hits such as The Mosquito Coast, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Running on Empty. He also played young Indiana Jones in the first 15 minutes of The Last Crusade, and in 1991, he gave his best performance in the independent hit My Own Private Idaho.
Despite his acclaim, Phoenix was unhappy. He did not like being the center of attention all the time and believed that the media should be focused more on serious issues. He also was an animal rights activist, as I said before, and he believed that the food industry should limit the amount of meat they produced.  He even bought 800 acres of rainforest in Costa Rica to be saved from deforestation.
Phoenix also had a major dark side to him. Ever since he was on the set of My Own Private Idaho, he had been struggling with a major drug problem as he had taken many to better his performance. He fought it for two years, and thanks to his reputation of healthy living, he appeared clean and normal. Even so, they still took a major hold over him.
On Oct. 30, 1993 , he had returned home from shooting the film Dark Blood, which to this day is unfinished. He went with Joaquin, Rain, and his girlfriend Samantha Mathis to Johnny Depp’s club ‘The Viper Room.’ He had planned on playing his guitar with Depp and his friends the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but he was told that there were too many people, much to his disappointment. While in the bathroom, he ran into his friend who gave him a ‘speedball,’ which is a mixture of heroine and cocaine. Half an hour after taking it, he felt sick and asked his friends to take him home. However, once outside, he collapsed on the sidewalk and began to have seizures. Although paramedics tried to resuscitate him, little could be done for the young actor. He was pronounced dead in the early hours of Halloween, 1993. He was 23.
What River Phoenix left behind was a great legacy. Apart from his films, he had also showed us a darker side to a fame few at that time knew about. He also became a symbol of what can happen to even the finest of artists.
Although he died three years before I was born, he continues to be an inspiration to me. Now that it has been 20 years since that tragic night, I think we should all take the time to recognize his talents as well as his story.
Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Kum Ba Ya during the holidays

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By Danielle Sheally

Dec. 26th, the most unhappy day in the world.

During any big holiday, everybody help each other and it seems like all the people in the world turn into one big family.  We ask about your family, ask how we are doing in school, etc.  We take extra time out of our schedules to help the homeless, feed the hungry, and collect money for the sick. Maybe because we feel like if we do a couple good deeds during the holidays that we are good for the rest of the year?

If we’re being honest with ourselves no one volunteers as much as they should. I think volunteering isn’t really part of our nature so when the holidays come around we automatically think “Oh my gosh have I given enough of my spare time.” When that answer is no, we automatically go into the state of thinking that we need to volunteer 50 billion hours in one day. Personally, I believe volunteering is built on the basis of when we feel it in our heart, do it. Don’t do it just because a holiday rolled around.

Volunteering truly is fun. When we give a helping hand you get to see the gratitude spread across the faces of the people we’re helping. They could be totally down in the dumps but, when we help them it could turn their day sunny side up. Lending a hand doesn’t have to be manual, it can be as easy as just spending some time with an elderly person talking or picking a handful of trash so the custodians don’t have to clean so much.

I’m passionate about this because what if we actually did pay it forward. Imagine how much kinder people would be. Instead of being envious of others we could actually be happy for them when they achieve their goals. What if schools around the country had a National Volunteering Day and we cleaned the school in teams. We may miss a day of academics, but imagine the lessons of paying it forward we would learn.

What are you going to do when your hand is needed?

 

A&E, Columns, Forum

‘Carrie’ proves to be a decent remake

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By: Isaac Mathewson
While Stephen King has never been my favorite author of all time, I think “Carrie” is one of his best stories. There have been two film adaptations of it including the 1976 version by Brian De Palma which is considered a horror classic as well as the underrated 2002 TV movie. Now there is a third adaptation which is in many ways better than the others.
Many are familiar with the story, but for those who aren’t, I’ll fill you in. “Carrie” tells the story of a high school girl named Carrie White, played in this version by Chloe Moretz, who is harassed by her over religious mother, played by Julianne Moore, as well as her classmates. After having her first period in front of her classmates, one of the girls who took part in her harassment, Sue Snell, played by Gabrielle Wilde, feels guilty about having hurt her and decides to ask her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, played by Ansel Elgort, to invite her to prom. However, the fellow classmate, the sassy Chris Hargenson, played by Portia Doubleday, wants revenge on Carrie for making her miss prom, and her actions ultimately result in a night of fire, destruction, and sheer terror.
The film was directed by Kimberly Price who directed “Boys Don’t Cry” and her film is mostly faithful to the book. Everything is in there and many scenes and lines of dialogue are reminiscent of the De Palma version. With that said there are many points that this version did better than the De Palma version. There were points that the De Palma version left out and are explained better in this version such as Carrie discovering that she is not the only one with this power, and her reasons for wanting to wreak havoc on the prom in the first place. There is also a modern twist to the story as it takes place in the present day, and there is a subplot in which Chris films Carrie’s period on her smartphone, and puts it on YouTube.  
Perhaps the best quality about this film is the casting. Everyone looks and sounds his or her part. Moore is, in my opinion, a better mother than Piper Laurie from the De Palma version, as she is a lot less over-the-top and in many respects, this makes her more terrifying. The bullies are more believable in this version than they were in the De Palma version and the main teacher Miss Desjardin, played by Judy Greer, is also. However, the biggest deciding point is the main character herself. Moretz is a lot younger than her predecessors Sissy Spacek and Angela Bettis, and in many ways this makes her more realistic. However, I still believe Spacek was better as she was more sympathetic and in my opinion is a better actress, but Moretz is still very good.
While there are certain aspects that make this film better than the original classic, there are some aspects that this film used that were not as good. As I said before, many lines are recycled from the original and while it is nostalgic, many are outdated. Also, I think that the original is scarier and more memorable, and for the most part is acted better and is better written. These problems are not huge though, and they do not ruin this film.
While not entirely new, this version is still very well done and is enjoyable for horror fans or fans of the original classic. It is a story of revenge, horror, but above all, it is a coming-of-age story that shows the hardships of growing up as well as the corruption of youth, much like “Spring Breakers.” While it is not as good as the original, it is still worth seeing this Halloween season.
Motion Picture Rating: R
For language, violence, and disturbing images
My rating: A-