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Holiday songs kindle that winter spirit
by Emily Pham SOCIAL JUSTICE WRITER
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ents. A poem, a candlelit dinner and the keys to a new Mercedes are only three of the many surprises he concocts. Only a song imbued with this much musical genius could get away with a chorus that consists of the same question repeated over and over again: “Doesn’t it feel like Christmas?” The answer is a resounding yes.
Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St Juliana and Justin Shilling. These are the names of the four students killed in a tragic shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Michigan on Tuesday, Dec. 2. Chaos broke out just before 1 p.m., when local authorities received a troubling call. Ethan Crumbley, a sophomore who attended Oxford High, had opened fire in the school. Police said he fired at least 30 rounds, shooting 11 people, before turning himself in within minutes. “I was mostly in denial, I saw a kid run down the hallway screaming that there was a shooter, however with all the prior threats and the insane year that we had already had, I mostly thought it was a joke or a false threat,” Hannah Chiu, a junior at Oxford High School, said. Hannah was, luckily, safe in lockdown with her classmates during the time of the shooting. On Wednesday Dec. 3, 15-yearold Crumbley was charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder. According to an article from the New York Times, “Prosecutors took the rare step of filing involuntary manslaughter charges against his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, saying that they had bought the semiautomatic handgun that he used to carry out the deadly rampage as a Christmas gift.” The Oxford community grieves the four students whose lives were taken too soon. Family and friends of the victims were traumatized, just as were fearful students all around the country. “I was devastated … It instilled fear in me that I thought I forgot about,” Richard Mongtomery senior Chad Boyd said. Incidents like the Oxford shooting continually spark debate about gun control and its controversy in the United States, especially on school grounds. To provide evidence for these claims, Education Week journalists began tracking school-related shootings. Based on their data the Oxford shooting was the deadliest of the 31 total that have occured this year so far. “Your learning environment shouldn’t be a place of terrorism,” Chiu said.
SONGS, cont. page 13
OXFORD, cont. page 7
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Five traditional and not-so-traditional songs to celebrate the holidays
Oxford HS grieves over students lost
by Naomi Scissors
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U Let it Snow! Let it CR GR NE AP H I N A I L C BY JU Snow! Let it Snow! - Dean Martin Dean Martin was not the first to sing this glorious song, nor will ed to the near pinnacle of holiday he be the last, but he has a way of songs with the hint of a love stosinging it that transports you to a ry. “If you really hold me tight,” time of formal dress and pianists Martin sings, “All the way home in hotel lobbies. And, of course, I’ll be warm.” It’s truly the height Christmas. With all of the ruck- of romance, with an earnestness us of modern day living, is there that will have you abandoning anything more idyllic than an eve- your coats to frolic in the snow. ning spent lolling by the fire complete with “corn for popping”? This portrait of contentment, 8 Days of Christmas - Destiny’s wonderful on its own, is elevat- Child
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All I Want For Christmas is You - Mariah Carey The gentle bells at the beginning of this iconic track, almost reminiscent of a nursery mobile, disguise the magnitude of the Christmas journey that the listener is about to embark on. However, as soon as Mariah sings the first “I,” all pretenses of an inferior Christmas tune are abandoned. The extensive intro keeps us waiting for as long as possible, as Mariah downplays the significance of her Christmas request. “I don’t care about the presents,” she claims, taking the admirable risk of alienating the younger demographics. When the moment arrives that her Christmas wish is revealed, all of the tension pays off tenfold. The drums come in, and the rapture begins. This song truly is Christmas, and the extent to which it harnesses Christmas magic is not to be taken lightly. Listen with caution— you may find yourself 4 transforming into Mariah Carey for the duration. If you are not careful, you may even find yourself becoming Santa himself.
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The 12 days of Christmas may be more familiar, but realistically, does your average listener even know what a partridge is? Destiny’s Child provides an updated version that brings Christmas romance to the modern era. While the original features the inexplicable gift of eight maids-amilking, the man described in “8 Days of Christmas” knows what he is doing when it comes to pres-
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