Orion Spectrum by Kyle Nash

EDITOR’S NOTE

Essays

Dear Readers,

Rodney King and Oscar Grant by Dominic Jimenez

In the twelfth year of our school’s existence, we are happy to finally release the pilot issue of the Orion Spectrum literary magazine. At Orion Academy, students take pride in their work, and they have submitted some of their favorite essays and poetry from this past school year. We hope that you appreciate the dedication and passion exhibited by our peers in their written works. This issue of Spectrum is just another reason that our community is so strong. But don’t take our word for it; go ahead and read for yourself.

Utopia by Thomas Barber

Speech Communities by Eliana Gies

The Greek Economic Crisis by Gus Hardy

The Impact of Religion by Jake Block

The Hero’s Journey by Blaise Boegel

The Birth of Modern Theatre by Tristan Wemm

As the school year comes to a close, it is with great pleasure that we leave you with this reminder of our students’ brilliance with words and intellectual prowess. Warmest regards, Sarah VanEss & Eliana Ballen, coeditors 2012

Poetry What is a Poem by Devin Cory

Clockwork Transmundane by Henry Nanstad

Where I’m From by Tristan Wemm/ Think Back by Mia Wilensky

I’m Alive by Max Coulston/ Death by Amar Kshetrapal

Misleading Memories by Sarah VanEss/ Lost Communication by Eliana Ballen/ The End of an Era by Eliana Gies

Short Stories Tales of Travelers by Wesley Toma

A Woman Scorned by Ivan Gradjanksy

White Roses by Inge Sorensen

RODNEY KING AND OSCAR GRANT BY DOMINIC JIMENEZ

“THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE POLICE FORCE IS A COMPLICATED AND OFTEN TABOO SUBJECT.”

Cries of racism, brutality, and prejudice have been

community. Many people who saw the video claimed that King was

widespread for well over thirty years. The two incidents that most

a victim of police brutality and racial profiling. The four officers

commonly stand out in the majority of people’s minds is the 1992

present during the beating were all charged with assault with a

beating of Rodney King and the more recent 2009 shooting of Oscar

deadly weapon and excessive use of force. All four officers were

Grant. Both incidents concern the use of force by police against African

acquitted of all charges. The verdict enraged the African American

American males, and both sparked riots and outcry. Both of these

community. Many took to the streets in protest. It wasn’t long

occurrences have much in common, but at the same time there are

before it broke into full-scale riots. Shops were looted, buildings

several key differences, both of which are going to be explored in

were burned, and passing motorists were dragged out of their

depth.

vehicles and beaten, with one truck driver being beaten to near

Arguably one of the most widely known instances of police

death. Eventually the National Guard was called in to try to regain

brutality, the 1992 beating of Rodney King and the subsequent trials

control over L.A. After three days of rioting, fifty people were killed,

and riots had devastating effects on the city of Los Angeles. After a 115

dozens more injured, and the riots had caused nearly a billion

mph car chase, police were in the process of arresting a drunk and

dollars worth of property damage. Rodney King himself called for

seemingly intoxicated Rodney King. King managed to throw one officer

an end to the senseless violence with his now famous quote “Can

over his back and endured a taser shot to the chest. Seeing no other

we all get along?” Fearing more protests and riots the officers were

course of action, the police resorted to their batons. At that moment, a

tried for "willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop the

bystander who had heard the sirens decided to film the beating. After

unlawful assault" on King (Linder UMKC). Two officers were

submitting the tape to many different TV stations, it was finally aired by

acquitted, while the remaining two were sentenced to thirty months

KTLA (Deggans CNN). The results enraged the African American

in prison. The verdict was seen as a mixed compromise, with many

claiming that the sentence was too light, and they should have served for far longer. To this day, it remains one of the most widely reported instances of use of force by the police, and called into question their method against suspects, and whether or not race was involved. This would remain one of the most notorious cases of police force for many years. But almost twenty years later, a new incident had grabbed the attention of the nation. In the early hours of New Years Day 2009, a fight broke out on an Oakland BART station platform. Police attempted to regain control of the situation. While one suspect was lying on his stomach, an officer pulled out his weapon, and shot him once in the back. That officer was Johannes Mehserle, and the suspect he shot was Oscar Grant, and what followed became one of the most widely known events of police violence in recent years. What followed was a media firestorm. Cries of police brutality and racial profiling were widespread, some comparing it to the likes of the Rodney King beating so many years ago. Mehserle was eventually charged with involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison. Scores of people were outraged by the verdict, with many taking to the streets in protests. Chants of â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are Oscar Grantâ&#x20AC;? rang through the streets. While

not up to the scale of the Rodney King riots, several people (most of them from outside Oakland) began rioting. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, although some stores and businesses were vandalized. Many comparisons were made between this shooting and the police beating that happened so many years ago. And for the most part, there are noticeable similarities, as well as several key differences. When examining these incidents, it is easy to spot key similarities, those of which have contributed to their notoriety, and the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of them. Case in point, both events were caught on film by innocent bystanders. The videos offered a perspective different than seen on regular news reports. It showed what was thought to be the complete and honest truth, with no alterations. Both cases showed what the public perceived as police brutality. Questions were raised

by the people of Los Angeles on whether or not the force the police used on the suspects was going past necessary. Finally, probably the most sensitive issue in both of the events is the relationship between white police officers and African American suspects. In both affairs, the suspect was African American and the offending officers were all white.

Arguments were made that the only reason the police used the methods they used is because the suspect happened to be African American. While both episodes have several key similarities, it is important to note that in fact, both incidents are very different. The methods the police used, which are both viewed as excessive by many, are very different. While King was severely beaten, Grant actually lost his life, and the consequences for the officers responsible were very different as well. In addition, the reasons behind the police methods used also differ greatly. One of the reasons the police gave in response to the King beating was that they believed that they had no other course of option because according to them the suspect was out of control.

In the case of Oscar Grant, the officer responsible for his death claimed that he had never intended to shoot him with his service weapon; he had actually mistaken his gun for his taser. Finally, the behavior of the suspects in question also differs greatly from one another. King had led officers on a high-speed car chase, and appeared to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol, as well as resisting arrest. Grant was suspected of fighting, and at the time of the shooting, was lying on the ground. When examining these unfortunate situations, questions are often asked. Are the police

excessively violent? Were these people targeted because of their race? Or were the officers actually justified in their decisions? Did the media blow both events out of proportion? Did people overreact to these events? All of these questions have caused debate and split the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion. In the end, both of these events had major affects on the people of California. Questions on police brutality and race relations continue to be argued to this day. Hopefully there will be a time where both the police and the people they are sworn to protect can live together with peace, respect, and cooperation from both sides.

Utopia By: Thomas Barber

IT HAS BEEN WHISPERED INTO THE EARS OF MANY A PERSON. IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT IN A THOUSAND BOOKS, THE SUBJECT OF MANY FILMS, AND ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES. Every person desires it, yet none have a solid idea about how to obtain it. It is a place untouched by the ravages of time and of war, where peace reigns, where happiness is the most dominant emotion. A place where man can live in peace with his fellow man, where there is no need for suﬀering. It is a place known as utopia. Utopia isn’t exactly a place in the literal sense. It is an idea about a perfect, ideal state, where everyone is in harmony, and everything in the world has been designed for the benefit of a l l h u m a n k i n d . T h e te r m , “utopia,” was coined by a

Thomas More in 1516, and can be translated from Latin to the term, “no place,” a subtle comment on how the idea of utopia is so hard to realize in a physical sense. However, ideas for utopia have been generated for decades, and thus far, fall into certain categories. Ecological utopias are societies which are in harmony with nature, while economic utopias show a world where the economy is the driving force of society. Political utopias are worlds united by a global government meant for peace, and religious utopias are worlds

of true religious freedom. Te c h n o l o g i c a l u t o p i a s a r e societies where technology has made the lives of the people much easier. Utopia is a fragile balance between a state of peace and harmony and dystopia, a state of discord and turmoil. In order to understand utopia, it’s important to also view its counterpart dystopia. Dystopia is a state c h a r a c t e r i z e d b y m i s e r y, suffering, oppression, and squalor. When one thinks about utopia, they begin to wonder if i t ’s p o s s i b l e . B y e x p l o r i n g historical and fictional examples,

we can begin to compare the diﬀerences and begin to show what has worked in a utopian society, what hasn’t, and how even the best intentions can turn out for the worst. In the modern day, we often see utopian societies as the subject of books and films. However, there are instances where people have attempted to create utopian societies in the past, each with their own levels of success. These attempts were most common in America from 1790 to 1860. For example, many people in the United States attempted to build utopian communities, where peace and justice reigned. However, many of their attempts eventually fell apart for diﬀerent reasons.

The first of three prominent examples is New Harmony, Indiana, founded by Robert Owen in 1825, which was meant to be a harmonious environment for the hardworking, but instead attracted radicals, work-shy theorists, and complete scoundrels, eventually falling to contradiction and confusion. Another is Brook Farm, founded in 1841 by twenty people, which prospered reasonably well until a communal building burned down, and eventually collapsed to debt and poverty. The Shakers, founded in the 1770’s were meant to create utopia, and attracted six thousand followers in 1840, which subsequently died out with no family, as their customs wouldn’t allow them to marry or have sexual relations. This nearly rendered them extinct by 1940. Finally, and perhaps most notably, the Oneida Community, founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes, was founded to be free of sin and in their own perfect world by eliminated all sources for jealousy by having people share the work and practice “complex marriage,” where everyone belonged to everyone. Eventually however, people that lived near

the Oneida Community began to consider some of the practices unorthodox. The practices were eventually dropped as the Oneida Community dissolved, later becoming a joint-stock company that was the leading manufacturer of silverware. What all these communities have in common was that they were attempts at a perfect society, which all eventually fell to various causes. Utopia was still an idea present in everyone’s minds, however, and there were further attempts at it. However, they were less successful at setting up a utopia, and instead became dystopian regimes. The most notable of these regimes were the Soviets of Russia, lead by Joseph Stalin, and The National Socialists of Germany, AKA Nazis, lead by Adolf Hitler. Both were attempts to realize a perfect world, but the people behind them were corrupted, leading to Dystopias of control and terror, with their legacies being remembered long after they fell apart.

In fiction, there is a trend where attempts at utopia lead to a dystopian environment more often then it does in real life examples. The book, Walden Two by BF Skinner, portrays a small utopian society that controls the behavior of its inhabitants, deleting any unnecessary behaviors so everyone can live at peace, meaning the people behind the government of Walden Two control the people under them. Another book, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, shows a world where people are genetically divided into castes, and too much order has been established. This leads to a world where the people are oppressed on a genetic level. Minority Report, directed by Stephen Spielberg, demonstrates a world where crime is oppressed by police oﬃcers directed by three precognitive psychics, capable of predicting murders before they can happen. The people cannot

commit crimes because they are too scared to even attempt it, as they fear the police will stop them. Even a satire of the Soviet Union, Animal Farm by George Orwell, portrays a world where animals attempt to make a peaceful society diﬀerent from that of man, only to fall to corruption and have the leaders of their society, pigs, become the very thing they hated, man. So many films and books show a society that appears perfect, only to be revealed to be the very opposite. Perhaps some authors are trying to show that man cannot create a perfect world for everyone, and that it’d be bad to live in a “nightmare of too little order,” (Huxley) or a world “of too much” (Huxley). But still, why is this a common occurrence, and how come utopias in the real world fall apart so easily? Could it be that utopia is impossible? Perhaps it is. Many times over, we’ve seen attempts of utopia in fact and in fiction, and they always inevitably fall apart quicker than an imperfect society, w i t h c i r c u m s t a n c e s l i ke m o n e y, p o w e r, a n d companionship. The name, “utopia,” literally

means “no place”. It may be possible that it means, “no place man can ever get to”, or “no place possible”. There may be no way humanity can ever reach a perfect society, as it is too flawed. Or is it? Recently, we’ve seen small utopian societies arise in Europe, like ZEGG, which practices ‘free love,’ and a small unnamed anarchist school run by adults and children, where children as young as seven resolve their problems with consensus meetings. With this new, recent insurgence of utopian societies, is it possible that we could all reach utopia someday? Perhaps the idea isn’t that far oﬀ from being possible today. Certainly, there’s no evidence that it isn’t possible, and so many people have attempted it. Even when fiction shows utopia could become dystopia, and real life shows that utopia doesn’t last forever, it is possible to create a utopia that reflects peace and acceptance. In fact, despite our flawed humanity, it’s possible that the utopia we’ve

been looking for all of civilization, can exist today, even if only temporarily. A world of peace, love, happiness, and acceptance can fall apart, but its values will be remembered throughout time.

Tomorrow’s a new day, so why not start looking for utopia now?

SPEECH COMMUNITIES BY ELIANA GIES

“Different people speak differently, but have you ever wondered why?” They probably have a different dialect or belong to different speech communities. In simplest terms a speech community is a group of people who all share in a specific variation of language. Speech communities are why parents sound so out of place when they call something “totally rad” around their kids and why American English and British English are so different (Roberts 2). A speech community can be defined in many ways. For a long time professionals thought that in order for a group of people to be part of the same speech community they had to also live in the same location and physically interact. However, more recently, that definition has had to be reconsidered. With the development of the internet, people can communicate over long distances more easily and be part of the same community without ever meeting each other face to face. An even broader definition of the term allows for people to be in the same speech community without ever having interacted at all. People that are part of the same generation can be part of the same speech community even if they live across the country from each other. The same can be said of people that work in a specific field. Two bioengineers that have never met could be considered part of the same speech community simply because of their profession (Roberts 3). Think of the entire human race as one speech community. Now imagine that each

language were a smaller one. People that speak English now belong to two communities: humanity and English speakers. Now we can break it down further, English speakers that live in America are a part of different speech communities than those that live in Australia or the UK. In America, we can get even more specific. People who know English as a first language are in one speech community. Those that live on the West Coast belong to another. We can continue with this process until we get as specific as people that attend Orion Academy (Roberts 4). People can also belong to more then one speech community at once. Someone might belong to one speech community because of their family and another because of their school. Because of this, they will speak differently at home than they do at school. At first they may not intend to speak differently at school but because of social pressure, are forced to change their way of speaking or face ridicule. Their peers teach them that they must speak one way but when they carry that language home to their parents, they are taught that it is wrong or strange. Because of this, they either purposefully or unconsciously change the way they talk based on their environment (Durant). A new speech community can form for three reasons: generational changes, the occurrence of a physical split, or the recognition or occurrence of a non-physical division. Generational

changes, as has been mentioned above, occur on a regular basis and are incredibly important as they split the population into two large chunks and are responsible for many of the classic words that come to mind when you think of “slang”. If a physical split occurs and one part of a preexisting community breaks off and moves away, the two communities will continue to develop language separately. They will not however develop at the same speed (Roberts 3). One might think the group that departed would develop faster because of the change in environment; however, as far as we know, the moving actually slows the development of language. After several generations the languages of the communities will have developed to the point where the members are no longer able to communicate effectively. This development is what allows for the change and creation of language (Aitchison 8). Languages are in a constant state of flux and flow. Although they change slowly, they never stop. One of the main factors that affect the change of a language is the development and change of the speech communities that exist within it. As speech communities grow and the variety of language they use becomes more popular, the entire language can change. You can see this happening on a regular basis by looking at each new edition of the dictionary.

Each time they print a new one it contains new definitions for old words and new words all together. A good example is the word “cool”. Initially the word only defined a temperature, but over time, people began to use it differently. It started small probably with just a small group of people, but in the modern day it would be nearly impossible to find someone who speaks English and doesn’t know the secondary definition (Aitchison 8). A division in language can occur even if there is no physical split, however, and just like a physical division, a nonphysical one also affects the development of language (Roberts 3). A sudden change in the class system can cause new speech communities to develop as can any other factor that acts as a catalyst. A sudden change of any sort can be a catalyst as long as it changes the community and introduces or brings about a new form of language. The introduction of a new musical genre or political party can collect a following and develop new speech communities. Often times a catalyst will affect certain preexisting speech communities differently than others. For instance, a class change may affect the population of women differently than it affects men and may affect children in a different manner yet. One good example of a catalyst that affected the English language for a modern audience is the development of the internet. As technology developed into what we know it as today, language had to keep up with it. Terms like “hacker” and “bug” first came into use by the early developers of computers and internet and later, as the technology became more mainstream, the terms became more widely known. Today you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know the terms by their computer based definitions. The modern internet, however, has far more to offer to language than just a few new terms. With the development of instant chat rooms, message boards, and forums, entire communities have

formed where none of the participants ever see each other face to face. Because of this, speech communities are starting to be formed online. Some forums are based around interest but that isn’t the defining feature of an internet based speech community. Just like any speech community the emphasis is on community. And just like any other speech community they have their own community specific terms. However, online language tends to develop faster. Because of this, even during the relatively short time the Internet has been around, many distinct speech communities have been formed and have developed almost to the point of being impossible to understand by outsiders (Paolillo 3).

There are two things that make an Internet based speech community different from one that forms offline. The first is the aspect of anonymity: a person as they are portrayed on the internet may be entirely different from the person that’s controlling them. The other unique aspect is the existence of moderators. Nowhere else in the development of modern language has someone stood over the procedure deciding what can and cannot be said. These two aspects have led to some interesting developments. Anonymity allows people to talk without fear of being persecuted. No one knows who you are and therefore no one can punish you. The existence of moderators, however, means that certain types of language may not be permitted, and that the new fear of being banned takes the place of the old fear of social repercussions (Wellman). All in all, speech communities are an important part of language and its development. They affect everyone because everyone belongs to a speech community of some sort. There are many different speech communities, both very large and very small. Learning about the speech communities you’re part of can help you understand how to better your language and communication skills.

The Greek Economic Crisis

by: Gus Hardy In today’s chaotic economic news, the country Greece and its disastrous debt crisis continues to come up again and again. Stories consistently come out about how bad Greece’s economy is, not due to unfortunate circumstances, but rather due to the decadence and corruption of Greek society. Stories of early retirement ages and ridiculously high rates of tax cheating are always in the news, as well as the stories of the currently fluctuating economic situation in Greece that changes constantly even as this article is being written. Now stories also break out about the people of Greece being so unwilling to pay their taxes that they actually hold up their public services for the rest of the country. All of these factors make for a perfect economic storm of catastrophic proportions that is shaped to change the future of world economics. To understand the economic crisis in Greece, it is essential to have a sense of what the economy was like prior to the giant crash that it took. In Greece, the people actively sought out ways to make as much money as possible while getting around paying taxes. One of the most popular ways for the people of Greece to exploit their government was to deal with the country’s retirement age policy, which was extremely generous to say the least. For example, before the current crisis, it was possible to retire from your career if you worked in a hazardous environment at age 50 if you were a woman, and age 55 if you were a man. While that seems a reasonable proposal, people could get away with it for any kind of jobs from hairdressers (working with bleach) to radio announcers (bacteria on the microphones). Looking at this is both funny and horrifying at the same time. Where their retirement age was concerned, Greece was not acting responsibly in any way. Due to all of this, Greece owed tremendous amounts to the EU because they had to borrow a great number of Euros in order to help pay for all of these benefits for its citizens. Eventually, the countries that lent money to Greece stopped when they realized that they weren’t going to pay it back. On the subject of massive debt, Greece had actually had some problems with its debt prior to the crisis. In 2002, in order to enter the European Union, Greece had engaged in a complex financial transaction called a “cross-currency swap” through the bank Goldman Sachs.

This allowed the Greeks to mask their debt by borrowing foreign currency like Yen and US dollars at a lower rate, meaning that they were evading their debt in order to get into the EU. Obviously, Greece was running itself in a very fiscally irresponsible manner prior to the 2008 financial crisis. There was a great deal of camouflaging of debt going on, so that Greece went behind the backs of other countries in order to get into the EU and take care of their debt that way. Another reason that Greece’s economy was so bad prior to the crisis is that the country had then (and still has today) a large problem with income tax evasion. Greece’s “shadow economy” (the legal off-the-books business of a country) accounted for 28.2% of the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product—the total value of goods and services produced in the country during the year). Apparently, Greece’s officials were very easy to bribe (literally with small, unmarked envelopes of cash!). It wasn’t just the government of Greece that was acting fiscally irresponsible; it was the people of Greece. All of that under-the-table business meant that none of the people’s income could be given to the government and thus strengthen the economy. This unwillingness to pay debt was unfortunately aided by the Greek Tax system, which was insanely easy to find loopholes in to avoid paying taxes. Rich people were literally not taxed at all, doctors and athletes were given favorable rates, and some people were allowed to underreport their income. This leads into a cycle of people not paying their taxes, which makes others trust the system less and thus making them less likely to pay their taxes. With such vast amounts of unchecked money floating around the country, Greece was simply unprepared for when the crisis went down. The government’s laissez-faire role in finances meant that by the time of the crisis, Greece simply had no monetary reserves to fall back on. The government started to crank security up on taxes, but it was to no avail in the end. The people had been cheating on their taxes for so long that they did not want to start paying when the country cracked down. As a result, people just began buying and selling to each other of their own accord with off-the-book deals and minimal government regulation. “Greece’s tax problem was to blame for everything in the beginning. The people just didn’t want to pay, so they took their economy out of the

shops and off the books.” All that underground dealing meant that the government had no revenue from taxes, so they had to borrow, which in turn led to more debt. All these factors came together at the worst possible moment during the world financial crisis, when Greece unfortunately found itself in a compromising position. All of the reckless spending and accumulation of debt by Greece meant that eventually, they would be forced to stop, and forced they were. Greece’s massive problems with its economy became apparent when the US credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s issued a rating that downgraded Greek debt to “junk” status, meaning that investors who bought off Greece’s debt in the hopes that it would be paid back one day only had about a 30-50% chance of getting their money back in the event of a governmental default or restructure. Furthermore, according to statistics at the International Monetary Fund, the Greek crisis came to a head in 2009-2010 when the public debt reached 115% of the country’s GDP. The catastrophic debt of Greece was one of the key factors in the decision of Standard and Poor’s to downgrade it to a junk economy. Standard and Poor’s rating played a serious role in the Greek crisis. “As a result of the decision of S&P to downgrade the debt, Greece was not able to borrow any more cash from other countries in the EU, such as France.” This meant that Greece would have to look outside the EU for financial aid, such as the IMF, where the country eventually went. When the crisis struck Greece, the country’s financial records were examined to reveal the massive amounts of debt that Greece had kept hidden away. As a result, more concerns sprung up about how Greece had been spending the borrowed money on things other than retirement ages. It seems that Greece had also spent too much in terms of its defense budget. Greece had essentially been spending money as if the Cold War was going on and stated that their spending was designated “a state secret.” Not only had Greece spent its social budget irresponsibly, but the country’s military budget was also in a bad state of affairs as well. By the time that the IMF got to the sources of spending, they found that the debt totaled to 1.2 trillion dollars, an unimaginable sum for a country of that size. The US may have had a lot of debt, but by comparison, Greece was doomed. People in the US owe $45,000 as their share of debt. Doing the math, Greeks owe $250,000 per person, which is not a good figure no matter how you slice it. When all of this news about the true weight of the country’s debt came out, no country in its right mind would consider lending money to Greece. As a result of this massive exposure of fiscal irresponsibility, Greece wasn’t actually going to receive any help from anyone. The European Central Bank (which looks after the EU) stated that Greece’s problems would have to be dealt with without any aid. In response, the Socialist Party stated that they would solve the problems themselves by severe tax raises and spending cuts. Still, despite the massive cuts, the worst obstacles to the country’s stability were yet to come. Despite the massive wake-up call the country received, Greece simply couldn’t make up its massive debt alone. It needed to look for outside help, and so Greece found that it needed to turn to the

IMF. For clarification, “the International Monetary Fund is a worldwide organization that tracks the financial paths of countries, provides advice for countries that are having fiscal troubles, and also provides financial aid to countries in dire need of it”. However, the IMF works just like a bank, meaning it doesn’t just hand out money for free. Countries need to prove that they can pay it back. Greece obviously sought out the IMF as a way to help pay off its tremendous debt, but in exchange, the IMF stated that the Greeks would have to cut back on the extravagant lifestyles that they had been living with their early retirements and sizeable benefits. The IMF managed to help organize a system of loans and bailouts in exchange for spending cuts and tax hikes, which are still going on as of the writing of this paper. “The first cuts that Greece had to make in order to get the approval of the IMF included many harsh measures such as 20% pay cuts, 23% taxes on all goods, and a 20% raise on gasoline prices” All of these measures were passed, much to the dismay of the people of Greece. Recently, Greece stated that it would have to severely raise property taxes to show that it’s worthy of the next installment of bailout money promised by the IMF. The new tax will be paid by raising electric bills, so people’s power will be shut off if they refuse to pay. In response, public transportation workers continued a strike in opposition of the new austerity measures, effectively shutting down the country’s means of traveling around. However, Greek citizens are unhappy with this, to say the least, and unions of bus workers and other public services have stated that they will continue to go on strike in protest. In recent polls, 92% of Greeks say that the proposed measures are unfair. All of this discouragement from the people towards the IMF’s plan shows that Greece clearly has a long way to go before it can get back on its feet economically. Without any trust in the IMF’s plan, the Greeks will continue to drive itself down economically and potentially default (be unable to pay back its loans and essentially declare bankruptcy). A default would result in severe financial disaster for the EU. “If Greece chooses to default on its debt, the banking sector of Greece would immediately proceed to collapse and lead to speculation as to other European countries with poor economies collapsing (such as Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain)”. The effect of this would most likely mean the world economy would take a very hard hit, much like when Lehman Brothers Banking went down and took many US banks down with it. That could happen on a worldwide scale. Overall, there’s a lot to be gathered from this crisis. Because Greece didn’t pay its fair share for so long, the country went down, is struggling to get back up, and the people of Greece don’t want to accept the only way to save the country because they’ve been living the high life for so long. Whatever the results, this crisis will shape the future of world economics as we know it, and eventually lead to vast changes in our financial system unlike anything we’ve seen yet.

The Impact of Religion

BY JAKE BLOCK

Religion has been around since the emergence of humankind, and yet it is still one of our most obscure concepts. The power that spirituality has on humanity is so immense and awesome; it can unlock our most primal and our most philosophical emotions. It can inspire nations to toss their weapons aside; it can motivate terrorist groups to commit unbearable atrocities, but how and why is any of this possible? First, we will look at how religion asserts great impact on us, as individuals, communities, and nations, and how that impact has lead to societal morals such as c harity, inter fait h, and nonviolence. Secondly, we will look at the conflicts that can arise from religion such as extremism and failed states. Lastly, we will see how and why religion has changed over the past few decades compared to how our societal

views have changed over the past few decades. “By pursuing peace people are doing God’s work, whatever their belief system might be.” This is what Abdesalam Najar, an elder at the Oasis of Peace, a Jewish-Muslim interfaith village in Israel, believes. The Oasis of Peace, or Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (The Hebrew/Arabic translation for Oasis of Peace), was founded 30 years ago by an Egyptian-born monk, Father Bruno Hussar (1911-1996). He wanted to create a village where people of any religion could live together in harmony and understanding (Lawton, Interfaith Village in Israel). The villagers of the Oasis of Peace emphasize the importance of interfaith; they resolve conflicts and get acquainted in dialogue groups. They have Hebrew/Arabic bilingual schools for both children and adults, so that they can help understand and resolve conflicts, religious or not, in a nonviolent way. As Abdesalam Najar puts it: “Why do we have a conflict? How can we influence the dynamics of this conflict and

change it for the dynamics of peace building?” Well, one way we can begin to answer those questions is to look at successes of groups and communities that advocate interfaith, such as the Oasis of Peace. The villagers of the Oasis of Peace agree that spirituality had a huge bearing on bringing peace. Peace is, after all, an enormous goal, something that in order to attain, we need to want it enough. Part of that power that religion has on us is its ability to awaken our desires for the qualities for a better world, such as freedom, justice, and peace. Religion may not be the only factor in what motivates a person to seek out these qualities, but the fact remains that it has inspired countless people to do many selfless deeds; whether it’s giving old clothes to their local church’s clothing drive or taking to the streets in the Middle East and protesting against their dictators despite being beaten and shot at. It cannot be explained as to why or how religion has this power on us, we may never know the answer, but this is by no means the

“Why do we have a conflict? How can we influence the dynamics of this conflict and change it for the dynamics of a peace building?” 13

extent of the power religion has. “All hu Akbar” is the term for “God is Great” in Islam and is a common saying in Islamic prayer, meant to praise Allah. Now most non-Muslims associate this phrase with extremists and radicals, as it has become a favorite saying of theirs right before they blow themselves up in the middle of a crowd of citizens, publicly execute their enemies, or commit other horrors “in the name of God.” We can probably conclude that these sorts of people have been brainwashed, essentially, filled with extremist propaganda, and stories of Western cruelty and imperialism. But, when it really comes down to sacrificing themselves for their cause, or killing innocents, religion motivates them to do it. Their idea of religion has become so warped and distorted that it no longer creates willingness in people to help each other but rather creates in them a deep hatred for whoever they see as enemies. It also severs their ability to think logically. Now, religion still retains its power, but its purpose is completely changed. An excellent example of this is Deobandism (King). In the 1860’s in British India, Muslims were under constant oppression and scrutiny from the occupying British forces. Eventually Islamic leaders rallied the Indian Muslim population to oppose the British as a whole. This movement was called Deobani, which gave rise to a sect of Islam, Deobandism, a set of beliefs based on hate, anger, and vengeance, as a result of years of oppression. Now, we may call that history and forgotten, but many have not forgotten, including the Taliban who are thought to have based their set of ideals from Deobandism. To them, nothing has changed since Deobandi, except their anger, which has grown over the century; an anger so strong that it has motivated them to commit terrorist attacks, ignore their people’s suffering and to view themselves as heroes of God for this. This is different from people who claim to be doing God’s work so that they can seize power like the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) (Profile: Lord’s Resistance Army) in Africa or Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Greed is disgusting and unfortunate, especially when it results in the suffering of others. But when someone justifies

murdering innocents by claiming to be doing God’s work, and they believe that, that is a whole different plane of evil and horror. Clearly, we can see what religion can do to us and we have answered part of Abdesalam Najar’s question: “Why do we have a conflict? How can we influence the dynamics of this conflict and change it for the dynamics of peace building?” Now we need to look at the next part of the question, we need to take a look at what we can do to religion. Think back and imagine yourself in the Middle Ages. We have no cars, no phones, no true science; we have farms, we have wars, we have religion. It starts to rain, more and more each minute, and then a lightning bolt flashes across the sky accompanied by a thunderous roar. How do we explain this a wesome occur rence? We ha ve no scientists, no electricity, but we do have this deity above us with an infinite amount of power. So it seems logical that these lightning bolts are a display of God, and now t hat we have witnessed t his phenomenon, our belief in him is further reinforced. But in the modern day we have science and explanations for these sorts of things (James 50. We can assume there is a logical scientific explanation for why something happens, and today we can even start up our computers and look it up on the internet. But science has not affected religion as much as culture. Let’s take another trip back in time, but we don’t have to go as far back as the Middle Ages this time. Let’s go back sixty or seventy years back to pre-World War II America. It’s the middle of the day in the week, the men are at work earning money and the women are working as secretaries or assistants or are at home taking care of the house, as was expected of a typical American family back then. This was also viewed by religion as the proper way each gender should be acting. Today, we consider this sexist and bigotry, and we take a negative view of people who still have this viewpoint. Obviously, religion can no longer advocate

these gender roles, so as culture progressed to give women more rights, we also altered religion to meet societal norms. Now, this is not to say that religion was ever against women’s rights, it’s more like people thought it was strange that women wanted to work. But as time progressed, people understood why. You can see the challenges religion has faced in order to evolve over the centuries, but what happens if it fails to do so? A decrease in belief would be an obvious conflict, but that is just the beginning. The Taliban’s religion still sees the home as the rightful place for the women. They impose strict rules as to what women should do, wear, and go, creating great hostilities with nations who are more open-minded (like the U.S. believing the Taliban’s religion never “evolved”). Going back to Abdesalam’s question, we need to figure out how we can use this to f u r t h e r p e a c e . We t e a c h p e o p l e t h e importance of interfaith, and of freedom of religion, something that would have been considered heretical a few hundred years ago. Other parts of the world are starting to evolve and accept interfaith. Examples include Saudi Arabia granting women the right to vote (Women’s Right to vote in Saudi Arabia), peace talks taking place for the Israelis and Palestinians, and South Sudan being finally est ablished. We need t o continue t o emphasize the importance of this so that other religions accept it and that ultimately the world accepts it. We need to continue this, and show the world we are tired of religious intolerance. We need to make it an international expectation, not just a cultural expectation, to accept others’ beliefs. This will not bring world peace or end all wars, because there will be conflicts with or without religion, but we can reduce the number of needless conflicts. Religion has immeasurable power on mankind. On some its hold is not so strong, to others it

It causes peace and it causes conflict; ask yourself, does one outweigh the other? dictates their life.

THE HERO’S JOURNEY

By Blaise Boegel Stories have always been a fundamental part of a culture, defining their belief systems and often their way of life. There are thousands of stories in the world, and each society has its own. However, many of these stories seem to follow a similar basic narrative arc, even when the people who tell these stories live on the other side of the world from one another. This is due to an archetype known as the monomyth or the Hero’s Journey. This monomyth is a fundamental, undeniable fact in the tales of many groups of people. The Hero’s Journey has been with humanity since it first began, mirroring the lives of ordinary people, and is still with us even now, showing itself in the modern day stories, just as it will be until the end of time. The idea of archetypes and the Hero’s Journey have been with humanity since our beginning, and their effects on our culture can be easily noticed. The man to first call attention to archetypes to a great extent was the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. He put forward the idea that archetypes are recurring traits in

characters and situations. “Archetypes create myths, religions, and philosophical ideas that influence and set their stamp on whole nations and epochs” (Jung). Jung suggested that archetypes are parts of a “collective unconscious,” a part of the human mind that existed since our evolution, and connects every individual. As a psychologist, he used archetypes to analyze the dreams of his patients, in order to understand what their afflictions might be and to help them through it. While Carl Jung is well known as the man who created the modern image of archetypes, it was Joseph Campbell, an American writer and comparative anthropologist, who used the idea of recurring archetypes in stories to develop the overarching archetype of the Hero’s Journey. Rather than try to use archetypes to understand people’s consciousness, Campbell was more interested in how the monomyth could be used to understand how different cultures developed similar stories in order to explain the place of the individual in the world around them. “In other words, this Monomyth is common to

all humanity and is written in the way we think and understand ourselves” (Milum). The Hero’s Journey, or monomyth, is an archetype, a recurring pattern of traits or events that exist within narratives, as well as the human mind. Stories that follow the blueprint of the Hero’s Journey normally follow the adventure of a single hero as they undertake an adventure and face the challenges that it presents. The

monomyth is typically broken into three phases of the journey: Departure, Initiation, and Return. These

phases are further broken down into around eleven steps, and while stories may not always have some of the steps in the same order, or even include all of them, the different phases can be clearly recognized by the trained eye. T h e D e p a r t u re p h a s e o f t h e Monomyth is the very first that the hero must endure. In this phase, the hero is shown to be living in the Ordinary World, a familiar place where he or she began their life, and where the hero often has

influence over. The hero will receive a Call to Adventure, signaling the beginning of his or her trials, introducing the conflict they will become a part of and the quest they must undertake. The hero may or may not Refuse the Call, drawing attention to the very real possibility of failure and even death for the hero. Whether this stage is met or not, the hero will eventually encounter a Mentor, a person who will teach them how to overcome the trials of the Special World, the place that the hero must venture into and overcome. Once

the hero has learned everything they can from the mentor, they will leave the Ordinary World and Cross the Threshold into the Special World, signifying the true beginning of the adventure, where the stakes will be higher than ever before. With the entrance into the Special World, the hero begins the Initiation phase of his journey. This is the phase where the hero will encounter and overcome the majority of their obstacles, and the hero will be prepared for the final phase. Once the Initiation begins, the hero will encounter Tests, Allies, and Enemies. It is in this step that the hero will face the difficulties of the Special World, assisted by their friends and hindered by their enemies. Once the hero has found friends, made enemies, and overcome many obstacles, they will begin the Approach to the Inmost Cave. It is here that, just before the last test, the hero will reflect on what has happened to them, and they will prepare for what is to come. Once the hero is ready, they will face the Ordeal. This will be by far the greatest challenge the hero will have faced, the climax of the story.

With this, the final phase of the journey, the Return, will begin, and the hero will begin the end of their adventure. After the ordeal has been overcome and the reward obtained, the hero will embark upon the Road Back to the Ordinary World. Once again, the stakes have been raised, and there may be an outside force sending them back, just as there was at the beginning. As their journey winds to an end, the hero will face the final and greatest ordeal of their lives, the Resurrection. It is here the hero is cleansed and reborn, in mind or body, and overcomes the last obstacle. With this, the hero can Return with the Elixir, and the reward is used to save the day and the hero has completed their journey and become whole. While the monomyth seems fantastic, with the proper understanding, it can be analyzed and the observer will realize why so many wildly different cultures have similar stories; it is because the Hero’s Journey is a tool used to better understand ourselves. In the hero, we see ourselves, and in their fantastic and amazing trials, we see the struggles in our own life. By

using the monomyth, we realize what is possible, and it The only way for the hero to inspires us to dream of what s u r v ive i s t o e x p e r i e n c e we may one day achieve. What’s more, the cyclical nature of the “death,” whether it is an actual death Hero’s Journey helps us to not only of a friend or of himself or herself, or a metaphorical death, such as the loss of innocence or another realization. Once the hero has overcome their ordeal and experienced death, they may claim the Reward. The reward may be a person, a sword, knowledge, or many other forms, but it will always be the goal of the hero’s quest to find and bring back to the Ordinary World.

The Hero’s Journey helps us to learn of our place in the world, but it also has a much deeper, more personal reflection of the human life cycle. The Ordinary World of the hero’s origin can be seen, from a metaphorical standpoint, to represent our childhood in the home of our parents, where we are cared for and everything makes sense. We receive the call to adventure as we become more mature, and we begin to realize how big the world really is and what our part to play in it might be. Setting out on the journey of life and adulthood can be a truly frightening thing, and many may at first refuse their call, afraid of the difficulties and potential failures they might face. However, we have our own mentors, our parents who have already completed their journeys, and are here to help us on ours. As we enter into adulthood and begin to make our own way in life, we cross the threshold and we truly begin to face the challenges ahead of us. Just as a hero would, once in the Special World, we begin to meet the people who will help us along our journeys, those who will try to hinder us, and the many challenges of day to day life that we will face, great and small. Our approach to the inmost cave may be harder to put into terms of the human lifecycle, but it can be interpreted as when we begin to consider having a family, settling down, and entering into the last phase of our life. Since the ultimate point of life, both human and nonhuman, is to create the following generation, the ordeal we face can be the time in our lives when we truly do start a family, and the death and rebirth we experience is the final passing in our lives from children to true adults. Continuing the metaphor, the reward itself is the opportunity to even have a family. By this time, a human will have encountered and overcome many obstacles, but there will be many more that will be even greater, and it will be necessary to use everything that has been learned to emerge victorious. For a human, the road back is the raising of children itself. Like in the stories, it can be one of the hardest parts of our lives, and we may need a little push to actually begin it. Once again, we will be seeing the family life of the Ordinary World, only this time; we will be seeing it from the eyes of our parents. As we

understand our own lives, but the life of the entire world around us, and our place in it. With the hero’s quest to save the world, we not only see the hero’s life, death, and rebirth, but that of society as well. The world is placed in danger, saved, settle down and raise our and will eventually approach disaster again children, a part of our life until a new hero arises to save it. As the heroes of our own journeys, it becomes ends, and we begin the next necessary for us as humans to facilitate the chapter. We have stopped living entirely for ourselves, and instead we live it for the death and rebirth of our world. benefit of those who come after us. For

humans such as ourselves, our ultimate reward in life is the knowledge that we have done everything we can for our children. The life and success of the following generations is the ultimate goal that we have been working for throughout our life. The chance to see our children succeed is our final and greatest triumph.

While only being established fairly recently, examples of the monomyth can be seen throughout stories, myth, and religion. One such example is the story

companions of young men who were searching for the same goal, thus entering into the phase of Tests, Allies, and Enemies. None of the doctrines he tried really worked for him, and Siddhartha spent a long time meditating on a new way to move beyond suffering. After many days, he achieved his Reward, and attained enlightenment and a way to end personal suffering. He spent the rest of his life teaching others how to reach the same level of peace as himself, embarking on The Road Back. While the monomyth has existed since humanity has been old enough to tell stories, it is still in use today. This is the most obvious in the widely celebrated movie, Star Wars: A New Hope, written by George Lucas. Lucas himself has

of how Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, attained enlightenment and spread his teachings. Siddhartha was born and raised inside of a palace, in what would later become Nepal. The blissful stated that he: state in which he lived can be seen as his Had already written two Ordinary World, as he had no knowledge of the pain commonly encountered in the drafts of “Star Wars” when he rest of the world. One day, he told his r e d i s c o v e r e d J o s e p h charioteer he desired to take a ride in the Campbell's The Hero With a country, and over the next few days, he T h o u s a n d Fa c e s i n 1 9 7 5 encountered an old man, a sick man, a (having read it years before in dead man, and a wandering ascetic. These encounters served as Siddhartha’s Call to college). This blueprint for Adventure, allowing him to realize the true "The Hero's Journey" gave nature of the world around him. Late at Lucas the focus he needed to night, he left his family and his palace in draw his sprawling imaginary order to search for way to end suffering, universe into a single story thus Crossing the Threshold. He spent (Star Wars Origins). several years practicing several different In the beginning of the movie, Luke religious doctrines, and made traveling Skywalker lives with his aunt and uncle on

the planet Tatooine, his Ordinary World. He finds the emergency message from Princess Leia, thus receiving a Call to Adventure. He later meets his Mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi. His home is destroyed, and Luke must venture forth with Obi Wan to rescue Leia, Crossing the Threshold. From there, the story proceeds and Luke encounters Tests, Allies, and Enemies. When he and his friends enter into the Death Star, Luke Enters the Inmost Cave. He is able to rescue Leia, obtaining the Reward, but he faces an Ordeal when Darth Vader kills Obi Wan. Later on, Luke proceeds with his Resurrection, using the Force, rather than his computer, to guide him in destroying the Death Star. After saving his new friends from the Empire, Luke meets them back at the rebel base, Returning with the Elixir. The Hero’s Journey has existed with humans for as long as we have been able to form stories about the world around us. Ancient cultures, modern religions, and even movies make use of the monomyth in order to help us understand ourselves as well as our place in the world. Men like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have also contributed to this understanding by allowing ordinary people to better comprehend how these stories and archetypes reflect our own minds. For as

long as we’ve told one another stories, the Hero’s Journey has existed, and it will continue to exist with us until the end of time.

THE BIRTH OF MODERN THEATRE BY TRISTAN WEMM

“Theater is a well-known part of modern entertainment. Be it television, movies, musicals, or just simple plays, the art of making performances for the enjoyment of others has a very long history.” It is so long, in fact, that it can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece, where it first began to take recognizable form around the year of 534 B.C. Throughout the fifth century B.C., a few great men would completely revolutionize what theater was, and would forever change it into a form very much like what we know it as today. Thespis, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes all had massive impacts on the evolution of theater, and with their continued innovations reshaped it into a new, modern form. The first known individual who wrote works that resemble modern theater was a Greek named Thespis. Thespis deviated from the thenstandard form of plays, which was to have the entire story narrated by a group of people called the chorus, by adding an actor, who would take on the role of an actual character from the story, in addition to the presence of the chorus. This actor would wear a heavy mask, long robes, and large shoes. These greatly restricted the actor’s movements, so he would only stand around in one place on the stage, and rather than speak truly in character, he would merely state his lines as if he were reading them. From a modern standpoint, these performances would likely be considered to be rather poor, with comparatively bad acting; but at the time it was a revolutionary new element in theater, and thus Thespis’s ingenuity opened the floodgates for many more playwrights ahead of him.One of these playwrights was a man known as Aeschylus, a person who is considered to be one of the three great writers of Greek Tragedy.

He was not always a playwright; by his own account, he was one day sleeping underneath a tree, when a vision of the god Dionysus appeared to him and instructed him to shift his focus to the dramatic arts. When he awoke, he did just that. While it did take him until the age of 41 to win his first prize for his works and truly begin his career, he is often regarded as being on par with many modern dramatists, a distinction that is possessed only by him in not only his age alone, but in all ages throughout history. Much like Thespis, Aeschylus had a profound impact on Greek theater. While Thespis introduced the first actor, Aeschylus took that idea and improved it, by introducing a second. Actors were now able to interact with each other, allowing narratives to begin to be conveyed in new manners, rather than have every event simply being narrated by the chorus. His works also likely paved the way for many future playwrights as well; it is highly likely that many Greeks were inspired by the works of Aeschylus to become playwrights themselves and to follow in his footsteps. Seeing as even now he is considered one of the greatest playwrights of all time, it seems reasonable to assume that the model he created and popularized helped form a core part of modern theater’s development. While Thespis may have brought the beginnings of modern theater into existence, Aeschylus was the one who firmly cemented them into place.

Aeschylus would not go unrivaled, however. In 468 B.C., in the yearly City Dionysia, a festival honoring the Greek god Dionysus during which new plays were presented, Aeschylus was shocked when he found himself lose the Dionysia. But he did not lose to just any regular Greek, but to a young man at the age of 27 named Sophocles. Sophocles quickly grew in fame, and despite his youth was often thought of on the same level as the much older and more experienced Aeschylus, ultimately going down in history as the second of the great Greek Tragedians. Sophocles also had some significant impact of the development of theater, although not in the same ways as Aeschylus had. Much as Aeschylus had introduced a second actor, Sophocles introduced a third actor to scenes. He also abolished the old style of writing tragedies in trilogies, which is telling a whole story in three parts. Instead, each of his plays was an individual, self-contained story. A result of this

change was having to pack a great deal of action into a shorter timeframe, thus enabling more dramatic possibilities as events could unfold faster than they could if they were spread across three times the performance length. These changes continued to reshape the way people saw theater, and the things that people would later do with it. Another Greek playwright, Euripides contributed to theater in a somewhat different way than Aeschylus and Sophocles had. Where the two other playwrights added actors, Euripides instead added the elements of character and intrigue. Many of his plays contained strong female characters, whose psychological motivations were explained, likely forming the basis for what became the modern psychological tragedy. His plays were also somewhat unique as far as tragedy was concerned, as his style did not entirely match that of tragedy. Many elements of his

While Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides all wrote tragedy, Aristophanes wrote a different kind of play: comedy. He wrote during the Old Comedy era, a time from which very few works survive. In fact, of all of the Old Comedy playwrights, only Aristophanes’ works survive. Luckily, then, that Aristophanes happened to be considered by his contemporaries as one of the greatest writers of Old Comedy. While he was not a writer of tragedy, Aristophanes still had some notable contributions to Greek theater. First and foremost was

that after the deaths of Sophocles and Euripides, the art of tragedy ceased to continue development, whereas Aristophanes lived long enough to help usher comedy into a completely new age. While Aristophanes is most notable for writing during the Old Comedy era, he was able to usher in New Comedy as well, as some of his final plays contained elements that would become standard in the new form. Despite all the changes that these playwrights introduced, there still remain many differences between their performances and those of modern times. Most notably, the chorus still existed, even if its role was diminished. Modern works do not have a chorus; instead they rely solely on the characters within, or occasionally a narrator. Modern works also appear in many more different genres than those works of Ancient Greece, and have much more varied plots and underlying concepts. However, even so, there are also many key similarities that emerged during these times. Most notable is of the existence of actors in the first place, which had never even been thought of before Thespis introduced the first one. In fact, actors today can be referred to as “thespians”. In addition, there was the shift into focusing less on narration, and more on character driven story, like what we see today. And finally, there were the beginnings of greater focus into who characters were, what motivated them, and why. It is quite clear that modern theater owes much of its existence to the old Greek tragedies and comedies. By the time of Aeschylus,

plays resembled more something that one would see in the style of Greek New Comedy, a style that had not yet emerged to replace the style of Old Comedy, and in fact theater had already begun to evolve from the standard did not emerge until after the death of Euripides. However, choral narration format into a form much like that of it is highly likely that his works were a large influence on the birth of the modern theater; after all, if Aeschylus can still be held style. to the same standards as those of modern plays, it is Despite writing a great deal of plays, and having such apparent influence, Euripides only won five awards, one of which was awarded quite clear that the Greeks had a major hand in theater’s posthumously. Yet, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest development and growth as an art form. Other changes, like tragedy writers of his time; even some of his contemporaries considered him to be this, putting him on the level of Aeschylus and Sophocles, cementing his place as the third of the great trio of Greek Tragedy writers. Why, then, did he gather so little attention during his life? The reason for this confusing dissonance is likely due to Euripides’ radical views. Many of these opinions managed to work their way into his plays, and in many cases the only things that prevented him from being arrested or otherwise detained was due to his statement that it was not him making these statements, but his characters. Despite this, his plays were still somewhat unpopular because of these views, and he ultimately did not have that large of an influence in Greek society. However, even with his apparent lack of popularity, Euripides was still popular enough to end up appearing as a character in several plays written by another playwright, Aristophanes.

the removal of the trilogy format and deeper character analysis also date back to the Greeks as well. If not for the changes introduced by these playwrights, modern theater, if it existed at all, may have looked very, very different. So in the end, it can be seen in many ways that the fifth century B.C. playwrights had a critical hand in the birth and development of modern theater. These five men forever changed the art of performance and how it was perceived. They delved into new ideas and concepts. They crafted new intricacies for audiences to enjoy. But finally, and most importantly, they helped give birth to an incredibly expressive form of storytelling that remains prominently featured in modern culture to this very day.

What is a Poem? By Devin Cory What is a poem? Is it words or is it meaning? Is it a story or is it a feeling? Does it rhyme or flow Is it high or low Or is it a beat? A sick lick of rhythm Given name by philosophy A hundred years ago Or so. Does it stray oďŹ&#x20AC; the path, Or does it stay back Behind the track To elaborate on what seems to be there? Is it fact or fiction, True or false, Yes or no, Light or dark, Yin or yang? Does it end in the right place? Or does it keep on going Like a

Clockwork Transmundane Henry Nanstad Transmundane: Ex!ting or exten"ng beyond # physical/natural world

A hammer, a suit, Two brothers salute The clock today strikes 3. Begin the rhyme that tells the time For that is what you’ll see. Tick tock, tick tock, the clocks keep on turning Tick tock, spins the clock, through time the mind keeps learning. Tick tock, broken clock, time will still not start Tick tock, fix the clock, look deep down in its heart Shiny shiny oh so bright, gears and gold within How it broke I do not know but now it won't begin Tick tock, wind the clock, to make it tick away Tick tock, start the clock, to tell the time of day Shiny shiny plate of gold, upon a pancake lies. His clock won’t end because he chose A path of poisoned cries. If you would take a bit of time to Look north where it snows You’ll see the place I come from Where the icy cold wind blows.

These things are merely distant thoughts With time things start to rust The school; The trees; The parks; The house, all turn to sand and dust

That was a long time ago And that past is said and done Now I look toward the future For my clock has now begun. The time is set so we begin On a road of frozen flesh This path of frozen tears it calls To hunt the meat so fresh Yes, you may find those words sick Revolting and offensive too But for every waking second I waste more time for you Tick tock, spins the clock, the days go by and by Tick tock, watch the clock, 'till the day you die

You’ll watch the school of previous years You’ll see a ghostly trace Of memories found in pines so old In that long forgotten place. 21

Where Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m From by: Tristan Wemm Where am I from? I'm from a two-story house high on a hill, that we only really use one floor of; from a long hallway cluttered with boxes that have been sitting there for a year; from a kitchen back door that doesn't close right, no matter how much we try. But where am I from?

Think Back by: Mia Wilensky

I'm from Chicago, where I first found out that I had Aspergers; from Australia, having gone back after years had passed to visit my grandmother; from Mexico, where I tried as hard as I could to not learn Spanish. But where am I from? I'm from a dad whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so playful, that he plays pranks on me with my phone; from that friendly old lady at BART I started talking to in the mornings, because we took the same train; from all the friends I've made, both those close and barely known. But where am I from? I'm from moving many, many times, whenever we finally settle in somewhere; from struggling in public school to finally get the chance to shine at Orion; from performing Phantom of the Opera and having the time of my life. But... where am I from? I'm from many places. My experiences shaped who I was, who I am, who I will be. I'm from everywhere I've been, everyone I've known, and everything I've done. I'm from the world. 22

Think back to the time When war was a game Where mother was god And dad was the man you would marry Think back to the time When your world was perfect And the worst that could happen was An early bedtime Think back to the time When your brother was born And you got to choose the name Life seemed so simple And then we grew up

And started all over again

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Alive by: Max Coulston Get away! All these shadows in my mind. Try to hide, try to fight. For too much my eyes go blind. All these hopes, all these tears. All those never-ending fears. Still I'm here, still I fight. Still I feel, I'm alive! See me stumble, see me fall, been so close to lose it all. All these times that I cried, where's the angel by my side. Countless thoughts fill my head, would they vanish feel so sad. Still there's light, still I fight, still I feel, I'm alive!

Death by: Amar Kshetrapal He waits for you in the shadows Black scythe in hand He does not care whether you are rich or poor Whether you are a saint or a reincarnation of the devil himself When your time has come he will be there Whether you embrace him Or try to delay his advance He will come for you He will come for all No one shall escape him In time his arrival will become evident He will claim those you love Than he will claim you The blood drips down the mans throat His life flashes before his eyes Than he is claimed He will come for us all He does not discriminate Whether you want him to take you or not To enter the dark of the inferno Or the light of the clouds He will come for you 23 His name is Death

Misleading Memories by: Sarah Van Ness

I am drawn to you like a curse,

End of an Era

And it only makes things worse. Am I the only one who sees all these misleading

Like a word let out to soon by a careless tong?e

memories?

Like a chord st@?ck on a harA half-‐st@?ng Thought follows thought follows thought follows

I used to think that what we had was good,

thought

But we’d told lies that no one ever should.

Till thoughts are sore Dom songs unsung

We’d have such f?n when we’d sneak oﬀ Dom

And ﬁngers are bloody and love is hung

school,

Alongside youth

But then you tOisted my words, and I looked like

When the bells are r?ng

a fool.

To bring in the new year What’s leﬅ now? I can see it in you: Anger and hate, the need to be through. But for you, I will still fall. It seems that won’t ever change at all.

Lost Communication

Now, I’ve come to hate myself.

by: Eliana Ballen

You are a threat to my mental health.

An hour later her screen is still blank.

Thoughts of you come and go like a breeze.

Three hours go by t?rSing into 8, which t?rS into 24.

They’re all misleading memories.

Still nothing. She reaches out but nothing is ret?rSed. 4 days t?rS into a week and then another. Her child said her ﬁrst word She asks questions everY day A blank screen is her only answer. 24

Tales of Travelers By Wesley Toma The story takes place in a world of Fantasy and Magic. Felosial and Thamior are Elf nobility and brother and sister who have training in swords and bows respectively. Thamior, the older brother, is trying to convince his sister to leave the castle and explore the world beyond it to become heroes. The italics mean they're speaking in Elven. Also, Elves age much slower than humans do (e.g. 140 is about 20 and 55 is about 7 1/2).

kill small threats such as a Goblin Tribe or something. Then as we get more powerful, we can do such great things as defeating a dragon, and overthrowing evil empires."

Felosial put her hand on her face and sighed, “Those are merely legends brother, when will you learn to differentiate between fact and fiction? It’s time for you to grow up, we can’t just be the great heroes like those in the legend.”

Felosial sighed again with her hand still firmly planted on her face, she knew her brother when he was like this, he would keep going on about these stories and try to run away to be a hero, but it’d never work and he would always get bored of it or get so hurt he would have to run back home. She swore that even though he was 140 years old, he acted like he was 55. “I suppose there’s no convincing you otherwise, is there?” Felosial asked.

“Who says we can’t?” Thamior asked. “Did you not hear of Navardo the Paladin who single handedly defeated the Black Dragon that was attacking the capital city of Parthina just a few years back?” “Yes, but we are not that hero, we never will be.” "Who says we aren't? We are both perfectly confident fighters."

“Well I’m heading out for sure, it’s your call on if you want to go or not.”

"We can fight against kobolds, goblin, orcs, and maybe a somewhat powerful wizard, but not dragons, and nonexistent evil empires." "Ah! But that's how all stories of great heroes go. They start out traveling the land helping people with small things, and

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t die a slow and painful death, and I’ve got nothing better to do, so sure.” Felosial casually said. “Might as well get my swords and such.”

A Woman Scorned By Ivan Gradjansky The drums boomed like a wyvern’s call. The man’s eyes grew wide with terror, his heart in his throat for he knew what was to come. He closed his eyes and jumped. He felt the wind rushing past his face, the cold air a thousand needles. What had he done? Was this the better of two ends, would it be painless? He did not know, but he remembered from within, an old saying lost in the midst of times: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And scorned a woman he had indeed.

The songbirds sing of a time, A time where man and beast together lived A time of peace and harmony That was an old time A time broken As the tower of Babel was sundered Strife reigned upon that day But my love shall never sunder Even to my grave my love shall hold If I were to cause your death It shall be a righteous death, A just death it shall be, You shall not hang in gallows, Where rain will sweep away your life, A blade shall take your life, A blade will follow you, To the gravestone I shall follow to, If raise my hand to you I shall, Offer penance with my life, Just as you would do, For me.

The ground came closer towards him and he waited for oblivion but it would not give readily as he was lurched skywards. He felt as if he were falling forever until he crashed onto the cliff. Again he jumped, but oblivion would not come. The drumming sounded closer; he cried out to the heavens, “I have done nothing! It was but an accident.” A hand closed on his neck and he was lifted upwards. The woman in front of him hissed at him and then whispered, “I am sorry my husband, but you overstepped your line,” as a knife plunged into his chest. He staggered backwards, teetering on the edge. He looked down and watched his satin tunic turn crimson. She turned her back to him and walked. The drumming grew somber, the last sound he would hear.

The man lay on the ground, his grin, ghastly, one that bore into all who looked at him. The woman walked towards him at a solemn pace wavering ever so slightly. Snatching the blade from the man’s white claw-like hand she speared herself and she fell, her face composed with a hint of a smile.

Sinking to his knees he gurgled and sputtered, pleading for her to come back. She smiled, “My dear I love you, but I had to do this.” He groaned and crawled towards her, his arms trembling as dust was kicked up by his attempts. “Sing to me please my dear,” the man said as he looked into her eyes. She nodded, it was his dying wish and she would honor it.

White Roses

By Inge Sorensen

Prologue “How did we ever get stuck in the middle of one of the Carolinas? I don’t remember or care if it’s the north or the south one, and I had to be stuck with you Sada, or Seed as I should say,” Maelianna complained as she walked to the gas station surrounded by snow with her foster daughter Sophia.

300 miles in any direction someone might turn. Her long, straight, and gorgeous hair like the moonless night’s sky hung down her shoulders like the gift of nature’s waterfall. Her bluish-gray, or grayish-blue eyes seemed to lighten anything her sight saw, and her lips were as red as roses or blood itself. Her skin was smooth, fair, silky, and light like milk and honey or snow even. Except for her cheeks, for Sophia’s cheeks were rosy, and filled delight in anyone’s face, or almost anyone’s face that is.

“You couldn’t back out of it, the only other meeting the foster care system held was even farther from your house.” Sophia said as she walked closely behind the woman who gave her somewhat of a home.

The aging woman yanked the darling youth over to the counter and rang the bell annoyed. A man with a notepad turned around to face them. He had shortblonde hair and a large European-style mustache that clashed with his hair color. But his voice was even more mismatched with his appearance when he spoke. “Yes ma’am? Anything needed?” he asked. The man spoke with a strong southern accent that dragged out every vowel in every one of his words.

“I can’t believe I even joined the system in the first place,” Maelianna complained. “It was either that or bail costs,” Sophia murmured to herself. Maelianna yanked Sophia’s arm to her side. “Just shut up and keep close. One more peep out of you, and you’ll be eating leftovers for another week.” She threw her cigarette butt on the gas station’s ice pavement.

“My car broke down outside, the blue sedan, I think you know the rest,” said Maelianna.

The gas station’s convenience store’s bell rang as Maelianna pulled Sophia who seemed much too slow to make it through the sliding doors on her own. The store was empty besides them two entering and the one man behind the counter. The woman holding her foster daughter’s arm looked worn-out and used. Anyone would assume her to be carrying a package of cigarettes in her pocket or purse, or taking pills behind the doctor’s back. Her long and unkempt dark hair was fading; her skin and flesh was filling with brown wrinkles and crow’s feet, and her clothes were wrinkled and almost appeared to just be thrown on after sitting in an old suitcase. It seemed like this woman, Maelianna, if she was ever once beautiful, had long lost it to unknown causes, perhaps under the influence of others, or over-pitting herself far too much.

“I’ll be right on it ma’am, just let me get my gloves,” said the counter man as he bent over the counter. “Can you let go of me now?” asked Sophia annoyed. “You’ll walk off and grab candy like all the youth in your age group do. You’re not leaving for two minutes,” said Maelianna. “You mean I get one, for once?” asked Sophia almost smiling. “You’re hilarious, just like his irritating and overused southern voice,” said Maelianna. The man turned to face them again. “As if I don’t hear voices like yours on the TV everyday,” he said. Then he headed outside the convenience store. The rolling of eyes shortly occurred afterward.

The young girl, or woman, whichever she was, next to Maelianna however, was quite the contrary to her. She must have been the most beautiful girl in the last 27

Contact: Orion Academy 350 Rheem Blvd Moraga, CA 94556 925.377.0789