January 2020

THE

January 2020 Decade Edition

St. Mary’s Central High School | 5802 Ridgeland Dr. Bismarck, ND 58503

January 2020

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader,

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hope you entered the year of 2020 with excitement of new opportunities and very few mistakes of writing the wrong year when you sign the date. However, with all the promises that 2020 has to offer, we do not want you to forget the decade full of memories that recently ended. Your crew here at the Messenger would like to give you a miniature time capsule to remember some of the hottest headline topics and fun events over the years. From us to you, we wish you a pleasant reminiscing and a Happy New Year!!

Allyson Treiber Editor-in-Chief

OUR MISSION

OUR EDITORS ALLYSON TREIBER Editor-in-Chief

JULIA JARAMILLO Layout Editor

MEGHA BHARADWAJ Feature Editor Social Media Manager

ALLISON BRAUN Opinion Editor

ANNA BRAUN Entertainment Editor

KENDALL TIBOR Religion Editor

RYAN BROWN Sports Editor

JEFFREY SAVADEL Photography

ON THE COVER From royal weddings to new advances in technology, a lot happened this decade! Photo by Jeffrey Savadel

CONTACT US Instagram: SMMessenger Email: smmessenger@locstudents.org

OUR WRITERS Teagan Bauer Kyle Burns Maja Dojs Emma Fleischaker Soraida Pichardo Alyssa Fortney

Here at the Messenger, we love to see the groups of people huddled around our paper, the proud smile when students read articles about themselves, and the slight laughs as students make fun of our bad attempts at jokes. Our mission at the Messenger is to produce a quality newsletter that provides insight into SMCHS by featuring our own students and their accomplishments and goals.

Hannah Gardner Lilyanne Haag Meg Hepper Jordan Jacobson Margaret Kathol Hannah Koch

Eva Krebsbach Julianna Lengowski Eva Rykowsky Clare Tamisiea Ruby Tolstad

READ IT ONLINE https://issuu.com/smmessenger

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Table of Contents

The Capital of Unity p. 4

The Rise of Influence of Social Media p. 5

Decade of Films p. 6

Saints, Saints and More Saints! p. 4

Return of the Scrunchie p. 5

Technology: Pros and Cons p. 6 2

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[ ] February 7-23, 2014: Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia

May 2, 2011: Osama Bin Laden (mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and leader of Al-Qaeda) was killed after ten years of pursuit.

2011

2012

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2013

[ ] [ November 6, 2012: President Barack Obama won his second term in office against Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

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July 2013: The Black Lives

Matter started as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Michael Brown.

April 15, 2013 Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring hundreds in a terrorist attack coordinated by two brothers associated with radical Islam.

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Saints, Saints and More Saints!

April 2014:

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| Maja Dojs

Russia invaded the country of Ukraine.

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June 26, 2015: The Supreme Court

decided on Obergefell v. Hodges which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

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September 30, 2014:

First case of Ebola was verified in the United States; the virus had spread to 22,000 people and killed 9,000.

any saints have been canonized this past decade by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. A few of the most well-known saints are Pope Saint John Paul II, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and Saint Kateri Tekakwitha.

Pope Saint John Paul II was first called Karol Józef Wojtyła.

He was the Polish archbishop of Krakow before he became a much loved pope, and the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years. Wojtyła lived through the horrors of World War II and wrote many inspiring works on human rights and the theology of the body. He was canonized on April 27, 2014.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta joined the Sisters of Loretoand and received the name Sister Mary Teresa in September 1928. She heard God’s calling for her to start her own religious community, Missionaries of Charity, to serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. She did all she could with zeal and courage.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was canonized on September 4, 2016.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be canonized as a saint. She converted to Catholicism when she was 19 and was very unpopular among her adoptive family and neighbors. She was very devoted and made many sacrifices.

She was made a saint on October 21, 2012.

[ ] June, 2016:

The Brexit vote occurred and the UK decided to leave the EU.

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2015 September 22, 2015:

Pope Francis made his first visit to the United States. This was the first papal visit to the US since Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and only the fourth pope to ever visit the United States.

The Capital of Unity

2016

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| Ruby Tolstad

O

n February 12 of 2016, Pope Francis met with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time in nearly 1,000 years; the last time being in 1054 when the Great Schism shattered Christianity.

When the two met in a VIP room at Havana’s José Martí International Airport, they obviously had a lot to catch up on. They embraced and kissed each other on the cheek three times before proceeding to sit down across from each other. They closed the door and had a two hour “personal conversation”, and when they were finished they signed a joint statement. The declaration stated that the pair were ready to “take all necessary measures to overcome their historical differences,” and said, “We are not competitors, but brothers.” It also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group. In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities.”

As they embraced again, Pope Francis said to Patriarch Kirill, “We

are brothers.” To which the patriarch responded, “Now things are easier.”

The pope then replied, “This is the will of God.” Pope Francis flew into Mexico to show fellowship with victims of drug violence, human trafficking, and discrimination in some of the country’s most violent and poor regions. The spot in Cuba was also chosen for a reason. It was away from the Catholic-Orthodox turf battles in Europe and it was a Catholic country which was familiar with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church but equally familiar to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Pope said, “If this continues, Cuba will become the capital of unity.”

Although this meeting was obviously very fruitful, Pope Francis went through a lot of criticism for the reunion. Some claim that Pope Francis was fundamentally letting himself be used by a Russian eager to assert the country in front of the world when Russia is continually growing more isolated from the western half of the world.

Hopefully there will continue to be meetings like this, reunite our faiths and bring peace to Christ’s world. There seems to be few opposers, so hopefully someday Cuba will be known as the capital of peace in Christianity and all other faiths.

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The Rise and Influence of Social Media | Julianna Lengowski

The creation of Instagram and Snapchat has created a new influence platform on the internet. They have provided a free way of communication regardless of distance between two people. Snapchat has led to many short-lived middle school relationships, but, it has also provided a platform for friends and couples to stay in touch outside of school. Snapchat and Instagram have also provided a platform for businesses and companies to sell and advertise their products. Social media has triggered negativity on the internet causing a spike in depression among younger users. Certain portrayals of body image on Instagram have caused young boys and girls to become even more self-conscious then they already were. Trends of social media have led to huge impacts such as the VSCO trend, attempting to reduce the plastic in the oceans by using reusable water bottles and metal straws. Other trends,

[ [

August 5-21, 2016: Summer

Olympics held in Rio De Janiero, Brazil

such as vaping, have led to serious consequences. The young viewers who see vaping on the internet may be conditioned to believe that vaping is “cool.” Social media has even influenced politics and political views.

Twitter is a breeding ground for debates behind a screen and may have caused participators or spectators of these arguments to change political views which is convenient for many government officials who attempt to gain support off various social media networking sites. The rise in social media has allowed young people to become more educated on certain matters such as climate change, but the information put out on the different social platforms is not monitored in a way that prevents false or bias information to be fed to impressionable minds. There are endless pros and cons of social media, but either way it has majorly shaped culture in the last decade.

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June 1, 2017: The US withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement.

2016

February 9-25, 2018: Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

2017

[ ] [ January 20, 2017:

Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States

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Marc

Protes and in for Ho

2018

October 2017: The Me Too Movement

began, meant to empower victims of sexual abuse.

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Return of the Scrunchie | Allison Braun

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n 2019, there is one thing a girl simply cannot live without: a scrunchie. In the 1980s the scrunchie was born and it took the fashion world by storm. You can look at almost any picture of your mom from that time and you will find big hair and the infamous scrunchie. Like anything in the fashion world, as soon as something is born, it will fade away within a few years and be replaced by the new “it” product and that is exactly what happened with the scrunchie. But in the mid 2010s, the scrunchie became popular again and now it is all the fashion craze. A device that will hold your hair back and in place without leaving a crease? Count all girls in. There are so many patterns and fabrics that having just one is not enough. Girls need one for every outfit because if it is not in her hair, it is on her wrist. They have become so popular that you see girls wearing scrunchies as often as you see girls wearing birkenstocks. The popularity of this product leaves us with one question: will the scrunchie stay around in the next decade, or will it be replaced by a newer and better product?

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Technology: Pros and Cons | Margaret Kathol

W

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ch 15, 2019:

sts for autonomy ncreased democracy ong Kong began.

[

e all heavily depend on technology to fulfill daily tasks.

We use it in medicines, entertainment, communication, education, transportation, etc. If electricity was suddenly vapourized, the entire world wouldn’t know what to do! Even though technology is such a huge part in our lives, there are both good things and bad things about it.

The main thing about technology is that it makes things easier and saves time. We have heaps of information right at our fingertips. All you have to do is type a word in the search bar, and there are 3 million results waiting for you. People can see the news, research for school, or simply learn about something new; there’s no limits.

We’ve ditched snail mail. Now you can talk on the phone, send messages in a second, and share images and videos on social media. Within an instant, you can talk to someone halfway across the world. Communication technology also gives people with disabilities the ability to communicate and become less dependent on others. Speech generating devices can assist people who can’t speak or have speech impairments. Wheelchairs now give people who can’t walk the ability to move on their own by moving a stick.

Our medical abilities are definitely much more improved than they ever have been. Patients now have access to cutting-edge precision and a myriad of medicines which can save tons of lives, reduce pain, and provide faster healing.

Through scientific research we have more cures and means of surgery. Technology also gives people the chance to restore themselves, such as artificial limbs and hearing aids.

Learning is made easier through tools and software. Smart boards in all of our classrooms at Saint Mary’s, computers,

calculators, and more are some examples. We can also manage money much better. Instead have all of our money in cash, we can keep it in a bank and use digital money.

While technology is a huge part of our society, there can also be downsides. We have become so dependent on technology that if the crutch it has become was swiped away from underneath us, we would be lost. We have limited resources so eventually we aren’t going to have enough resources to support the world we’ve built. Almost everything depends on electricity; our lights, heating, internet, transportation, medical equipment, etc. Sixty years ago, the world could probably go on thriving without electricity. Now, there isn’t a very good chance.

Technology also reduces human effort. If we make machines do everything we can do, what is our purpose?

Most of us don’t even know how technology works for us. If your computer broke down, high chance would be that you don’t know how to fix it. This ties into being dependent on technology to fix things for us.

By communicating more online than face to face, its causing social disconnect. This can cause isolation and emotional problems. Mental illnesses are increasing because we aren’t having enough contact with one another. This increase in detachment can destroy relationships.

There are also dark sides of the internet. Anything can be hacked and security can be breached. People’s information can be stolen or used for bad purposes.

One thing to keep in mind is that technology is neither good nor bad, it just depends on how we use it. A way to eliminate some of the dependence on technology is striving to communicate with people more, instead of scrolling through Instagram when you could be having a conversation with the person sitting across from you. It’s your choice on how you use technology.

2019

April 2019: Advengers: Endgame

] [ ]

became the highest grossing film of the decade and the highest grossing film ever!

A Decade of Films | Julianna Lengowski

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he past decade has provided an outburst in new technology used for creating films. There have been hundreds of movies from the past decade that have seriously influenced the industry and have brought in billions of dollars. A surprising amount of these movies have been in the sci-fi category due to many innovations in CGI technology. Popular films such as Interstellar, Gravity, Inception, and several Star Wars movies have shaped the sci-fi category in the past decade. Disney has greatly expanded their range of movies, having released 132 films in the past decade. Ten years ago, the iconic movie, UP, was released and has been a must-see movie for children and adults alike. Four out of five Twilight movies, A Star is Born, Five Feet Apart, and Fault in Our Stars have been extremely popular romance movies in the past ten years. IT Chapter 1 and 2 were extremely popular book-to-movie adaptations of the horror novel by Stephen King. The Jurassic Park saga was continued with two additions to the franchise. Avengers: Endgame was one of the most popular movies in the last 10 years and set the worldwide record for highest-grossing movie of all time. These popular movies will be loved by many generations to come and helped shape our decade.

May 2019: Several States

passed Heartbeat Bills, which makes abortions illegal if there is a detectable heartbeat.

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December 18, 2019: US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump, the third President to be impeached

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Timeline events by Margaret Kathol and Eva Rykowsky Information and Pictures from CNN.com

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THANK YOU TO OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS:

Our Corporate Sponsorship program provides tuition assistance for Light of Christ Catholic Schools students.

If you or your company are interested in this unique sponsorship opportunity, please call or text: Toby Schweitzer: 701-220-1507 tschweitzer@lightofchristschools.org Jon Herold: 701-955-0115 jonherold@lightofchristschools.org