Political Instability

What’s happening in the government right now

Reilly

Johnson and Anna Beth Burleson, Staff Writers

Recently, there has been a lot of unrest in politics. The democratic speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, stepped down on January 3, 2023. She was in the role for two nonconsecutive terms(four years). Many told her to step down to let the next generation step up. People also claimed she was “too old” for such an important job. Now, at 82, she is passing the torch to Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy is a republican California senator who is 57 years old. He will hold the gavel for two years before the next election. The road to a new speaker was long and rough, but it finally came to an end. After 15 rounds of voting across four days, McCarthy secured 216 votes, his opponent with 212, and six republicans voting “present”. This means they were present for the vote but did not choose a named candidate. During the four days, new representatives could not be sworn in and bills could not be voted on. It caused a public uproar, people were posting rude tweets and videos showing their feelings about the indecisive votes.

The house will not have another election until 2024. However, the Sen- ate will have an election on November 7, 2023. Next year we have the 2024 presidential election as well. So far, Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have announced that they will be campaigning.

Trump, who is the leader of the “Make America Great Again” movement, announced his third presidential bid on Tuesday during a speech at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, home after having teased a bid since leaving office in 2021. “In order to make America great and glorious again. I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said Tuesday evening.

Biden claims to be running for reelection despite a recent controversy involving classified documents. The president was found to have more than 10 sensitive documents in his personal offices as well as his home. The premises were searched by the FBI and the documents were confiscated as well as handwritten letters from Biden’s vice-presidential years. The unrest in the government and the people is widespread but slowly calming down.

I Won’t Be Able to Buy a Home How will inflation affect us?

Alecia Scott, Staff Writer

Inflation is the highest it has been in forty years, and Gen Z and millennials are facing the full force of this catastrophe. It hits very hard in three places: gas, food, and rent. Rent of a two bedroom apartment has gone up by three percent since 2018. That may not seem like alot, but with all of the other rises in prices it is astronomical. Houses are also very expensive, even more expensive than what our parents had paid. A new home in 1990 cost $122,900; in 2022 the average price of a new home was $348,079. That price hike is insane. This seems like an ongoing scheme from earlier generations to keep us from ever buying a home. There are many reasons people cannot afford to buy a home. One of the biggest is the housing market as a whole. The housing market is on its way to crashing. This is a big deal for millennials. It is a little less of a big deal for earlier gen z people, but for us seniors, or possibly even juniors, and college students it can really affect us in the long run. It is said that this crash will solve itself in the next 15 years. That means I will be in my 30s before I can afford to buy a home. I know my dad had a home by the time he was 18. It is unfair.

Another big reason is just the overall cost of living. This includes food, rent/ mortgage, utilities, and others have all gone up due to inflation. People cannot afford to spend the down payment on a house, let alone the mortgage of said home. I know many adults in my generation who are forced to eat at work once a day because they cannott afford to buy groceries. It is implausible to have to pay for insurance, a $1200 month mortgage, running water, and other necessities. So instead we opt to pay $400-$500 a month on a small apartment or rental home.

The biggest reason of all that we can’t buy a home is because there are no houses to buy. Wealthy people in older generations, gen x and boomers, will bulk buy cheaper homes and will turn them into rental lots. We couldn’t even buy a home if we wanted to. Houses that are in our price range, $80,000-$100,000, are all bought up and are put up as rentals that charge as much as $2,800 a month. If you do the math, that house will be profitable in less than 3 years. If that house were for sale and we paid that much on a mortgage we would be home owners already.

This kind of payment isn’t exactly plausible either. Another reason we can’t afford a home is student debt. Many good jobs now-a-days are jobs that require a degree. Some jobs require a degree and then get paid less than what the degree costs. A lot of these jobs didn’t even require a degree, but now they do. That seems like a ploy, but that is a whole other article.

I will not be able to afford a house by myself until I am 30 years old. The average age of women having children is 27. This means that there is no way that I can live in a single-income household until I am well into my 40s. I couldn’t live a traditional lifestyle even if I wanted to. All because of this. I do not want to blame it on past generations, but it is a little bit of their fault. I don’t know what we are going to do, but we better do it soon if we want any chance of living a life of our choosing.

How Students Are Less Motivated Let’s face it, students have a lot on their plate Destiny-Faith White, Staff Writer

Motivation is a term used to describe intention, drive, or achievement, but do you really know what it means?

Motivation is brain chemistry. Whenever something good happens to us, we reach a goal, or believe we are on the right track to reach our goals, dopa- mine is released. The pleasure we get from dopamine is not from accomplishing our goals but through the process of achieving them. Essentially, in our minds, the path is more important than the destination. When released, dopamine causes our brain to want to continue in the same direction in hopes more dopamine will be released. Unfortunately, this feeling can be gone just as fast as it was gained, so what suddenly kills this feeling?

Many students struggle with depression or anxiety, which studies have shown are one of the biggest reasons students lose motivation. School can become so overwhelming to kids.

Personally, if I miss just a single day of school, I fall so far behind and it is really hard to get out of a slump when it feels like the work is continuing to pile on you. It can cause you immense anxiety and exhaustion which only adds on to the lack of motivation even more. Here’s some tips that help me get motivated that will hopefully help you as well:

1. Be gentle with yourself. Dont be too hard, it’ll be okay!

2. Ask. For. Help. I can’t stress this enough. Dont be afraid to talk to your teachers and ask for help. They will be more than happy to help you.

3. Reward yourself. Give yourself something to look forward to after you complete a task.