The Eagle's NestVALENTINE’S EDITION

WRESTLERS HEAD TO STATE PAGE 6

LOVE, ACTUALLY?PAGE 3

KEEPI NG THE S TUDE NTS OF RHEA COUNTY HIGH SCHO OL I NFORMED SI NCE 1996

VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4

By SARAH HEATHSARAH@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

By TYLER HUMPHREYTYLER@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

photo BY SARAh hEAth

photo BY mR. fERREll

Graphic Arts student Zach Taylor practices operating a printing press in preparation for the SkillsUSA competition.

Ms. Ballentine autographs a copy of her new poetry volume, Gathering Stones, for sophomore Stephanie Blank.

see BOOK page 2 see TAX page 3

Ms. Ballentine’s poetry published Tax increase defeated in polls

What got you started with po-etry?

Nobody I knew was teaching a specific poetry unit. So I bought some poetry exercises, and start-ed teaching it. Because I always make sure I can do each assign-ment that I give my students, I wound up writing some poetry myself, and came to really like it.

Your book is poetry about Ireland: why specifically Ireland?

One of the poetry groups I be-longed to was probably 98% Afri-can American. They were always writing poems about their heri-tage, and it got me thinking about my heritage.

I started digging into my fam-ily’s past and found my roots end-ed in Ireland and Scotland. It was kind of a backward way of falling into my family’s history.

Did you go to Ireland?

I’ve been there four or five times.

Aside from being a theatre arts, creative writing, and English teacher, Ms. Karie Ballentine has been particularly busy—recently, Ms. Ballentine’s book of poems entitled Gathering Stones was published. Victoria Dewitt spoke with her about the inspiration be-hind her book, and the pro-cess of getting it published.

Most of the times I was on a tour bus, sightseeing and such. How-ever one year I was accepted for a writing residency in Clare, Ire-land. I stayed with a woman there whose front yard was the backside of the Cliffs of Moore. It was really neat to walk the cliffs of Ireland.

When did you set out to write Gathering Stones?

Well, I never set out to write an Irish book per se, but it seemed like I just had a lot of poems about Ireland. When I started getting my MFA (Master of Fine Arts), I

had to do a thesis to graduate. As I started to get my thesis togeth-er, I saw that I had a big stack of Irish poems. I thought, you know I have enough poems for a book.So I finished my thesis, and then did this book.

How did you go about getting it published?

About ten years ago I was read-ing a book of Irish poems, and any time I’m inspired by a writer, painter, or any kind of artist—if there is a way to contact them, I do. I know what it’s like to think

TURNING 18? REGISTER! PAGE 3

On Monday, February 18, sev-en students from RCHS will be heading to McMinn County High School to compete in this years’ regional SkillsUSA competion.

Steve Patton was chosen to compete in the Carpentry divi-sion.

In the competition, Patton will frame a wall using wood and steel studs, cut and install common and hip and jack rafters, install drywall and baseboard moldings and window trim.

He will be judged on accu-racy, ability to read and interpret blueprints, workmanship and the proper use of tools and equip-ment.

The Cosmetology classes will be sending Brittany Ballard and Crystal Pilkey to compete.

Crystal will compete in the

Students prepare for SkillsUSA competitionJob Skill Demonstration competi-tion where she will demonstrate and explain a skill that she uses in Cosmetology.

Holly Carney will compete in the Nail Care competition. The purpose of this specific competi-tion is to evaluate each contestant’s preparation for employment and to recognize outstanding student’s excellence and professionalism in the field of nail technology.

The contest consists of six sep-arate segments; oral communica-tion skills, acrylic application, tip and wrap application, nail polish application, nail art and a written exam.

Holly Carney will be demon-strating her manicuring skills on Lacy Clingan.

Carrie Hood will compete in the job interview competition. This competition is divided into three phases: completion of em-

that nobody out there is appreci-ating what you do.

I wrote the author a letter, and said I really liked your book and have some questions for you.

Now, I did not know it at the time but the person’s book I was reading was actually a publisher. He wrote me back with all of the information I asked for, which was cool because people don’t al-ways write back.

Then, over the course of a few years, I kept running into him. I do open mic on Wednesday nights

On Super Tuesday, Febru-ary 5, a sales tax increase ap-peared on the ballots in Rhea County. The proposal would increase the tax by a half-cent on every dollar, and go to-wards building school expan-sions. If passed, it could have raised $500,000 to $600,000 for schools in the county.

However, the tax was de-feated by a narrow margin of less than one hundred votes.

But some citizens refuse to give up on it. Mrs. Fisher is one of these citizens. She is trying to get it put back on the ballot in November and is hoping to maybe even have it on a ballot by August.

According to Mrs. Fisher, the sales tax increase is very important, because the High School and Rhea Central El-ementary are both facing dif-ficulties with the increasing numbers of students they must accomodate.

The alternate method of raising the money for expan-sions, a property tax, isn’t as appealing.

The problem raising the property tax, says Mrs. Fisher, is that only 47% of people own property and would be taxed,

ployment application; preliminary interviews with the receptionist; and in-depth interviews.

Hood will be evaluated on her understanding of employment procedures faced in applying for positions in the occupational area for which she is training.

Zach Taylor will compete in the action skills competition. He will present a five- to seven-minute demonstration to show his knowledge in the graphic arts field.

In this competition Taylor will take a written test, operate a print-ing press, and design a page lay-out. Taylor will also be competing the Job Interview competition.

SkillsUSA is a national non-profit organization that serves teachers and students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical, and skilled service oc-cupations.

2 The Eagle’s Nest • Valentine’s Edition • February 2008

Submit your FAFSA, if you haven’t already! Print the Free Ap-plication for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Worksheet available at www.fafsa.ed.gov. You can check the status of your filing online at the FAFSA web site, or call 1-800-433-3243.

On the Web. Take a look at the Early Financial Aid Estimator— www.act.org/fane/index.html

Job Shadowing. Job Shadowing day this year is Friday, February 22. All Juniors can participate, as can any Seniors who shadowed last year. Forms must be returned to Guidance by Wednesday, February 20.

The 4th Six Weeks ends on February 19, and grade cards will be given out on the following Wednesday.

Parent/Teacher Conferences will be Thursday, March 6 from 3:00 – 6:00 pm.

SENIORS

JUNIORS

EVERYONE

GUIDANCECORNER

at Barnes and Noble, and ran into him there a couple of times.

When I realized that I had enough poems for a book I thought of him because first of all he’s Irish, he is a publisher (Celtic kat publishing) and of course, I knew him.

So I e-mailed him and said hey, I’ve got a manuscript I’d like you to look at if you have the time, and he said sure!

Did you write all of it in Ireland? Or was it some here, some there...

I wrote the majority of it here. I thought that when I went to that residency that I would be able to be inspired and just sit and write it all down, but it didn’t work like that.

I would sit in the desk that she had for me, and nothing would

BOOKfrom Page 1

come to me, so I would go walk out on the cliffs, or do whatever. There was so much to see and so much to do, that I felt like I was wasting time by sitting there.

I just sort of stored the memo-ries, and then when I came back, I was relaxed and was able to go back in my head and remember what I had seen and felt.

What is Gathering Stones about?

The first part [A Time to Speak] is about folklore and fairies—that sort of thing; that idea that we have of Ireland.

The second part [A Time to Die] is mostly history, it explores the struggles for freedom, and the more recent Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The third part [A Time to Dance] focuses on the beauty of Ireland.

What advice would you give to stu-

dents who are aspiring writers?

Keep writing! Also, depending on what you want to do for a living, self-publishing may not be the best way to go. In some circles, if they find out a book is self-pub-lished, it’s almost like it was never published at all.

When you’re ready to get seri-ous, don’t publish it yourself be-cause you wanted it so badly that you didn’t want to take the time or put forth the effort in getting it published by someone.

[Ms. Ballentine’s book, Gathering Stones, can be purchased online at amazon.com, or from the pub-lisher, celticcatpublishing.com. It can also be found at the Chatta-nooga Barnes and Noble, or pur-chased from the author herself—Ms. Ballentine has a few copies. There’s also a copy in the RCHS Library.]

2,000

Huckabee

Clinton Obama Edwards

McCain Romney Paul Thompson Giuliani

1,500

1,000

500

0

2,250

1,500

750

0

2,026

1,577

1,053

418

17989

41

405

166

Rhea County Primary Election Results

Democrat 2,597 total votes

Republican 3,357 total votes

RESUlt DAtA fRom CNN.Com

Super Tuesday has come and gone, and it seems that we know only little more than we did be-fore the electionpalooza.

Hillary and Obama are still running neck and neck across the board, while McCain still leads the Republican party in delegates.

The only thing we can be sure of in these post-Super Tuesday days is that the national conven-tions are going to be interesting, if not a little controversial.

If you’re a little lost in all this election-season mayhem, don’t feel too bad. It can be confusing. Let me try to explain what’s hap-pening:

First off, this year is an election year. Come the Tuesday follow-ing the first Monday in Novem-ber, America will cast its vote for the next president of the United States.

The road to election day is a long one, however. As some of you may know, the road to the 2008 election began in early 2007 when candidates began to embark on the campaign trail, visiting various states across the nation, raising money, and rallying sup-port.

In the early stage of presiden-tial elections, candidates com-pete within their own parties for delegates to attend their national conventions. It is these delegates who will ultimately choose one candidate to represent their party on the presidential ballot.

Back in those early days, po-litical pundits tried to predict who would be the frontrunners for each party, the Democrats and the Republicans.

What those pundits foresaw was a race between John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clin-ton for the Democratic nomi-

nation and a race between Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani for the Republicans.

For the most part, these pre-dictions proved accurate, al-though a few dark horses have risen, some frontrunners have

fallen, and some candidates have died and come back to life.

Heading into the summer, many predicted that Clinton, Obama, and Edwards would split votes and end up with almost a three-way deadlock.

What happened, however, was that Clinton and Obama split the votes, and Edwards won’t be in-vited to the Democratic National Convention.

As the Democrats buckled down at the beginning of 2008 to ride strong into the convention, Edwards, the former senator from South Carolina, couldn’t keep up with his two counterparts, and he dropped out of the race.

On the Republican side, the McCain, Romney, and Giuliani lead never really happened.

It’s true that Giuliani led the party all summer, but as 2008 approached, he slid down in the polls. Giuliani couldn’t regain momentum after repeatedly com-ing in fourth or fifth place in state primaries and caucuses, and he was forced to quit the race in Jan-uary 2008.

McCain, on the other hand,

was a frontrunner back in 2007 as well. As 2008 inched closer, however, he consistently slipped farther and farther down the can-didate list.

In November 2007, many Americans, including myself, had already counted Mac out. What the former POW pulled next was miraculous. Some have nick-named him the Phoenix, because he rose from his own ashes to soar again.

Although not winning the first caucus of the year (Iowa), a New Hampshire win gave McCain the spark that he desperately needed.

McCain continued to rise in the polls, and he currently ap-pears to have the nomination wrapped up.

A few other dark horses rose to the occasion as well, and one of these is now McCain’s only op-ponent en route to the Republican National Convention.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was hardly even mentioned in the original talk, but he became the Cinderella story of all the candidates, even though he appears to have lost the nomination.

Finally, Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachussetts, was predicted to lead the Republican party up until convention time, and he almost succeeded, but due to McCain’s hefty delegate lead, Romney dropped out of the race last week.

So what’s the deal with the del-egates? Here’s a brief explanation: Delegates are people involved with the major political parties of the United States, and they have the power to pledge their support to a candidate.

By supporting a candidate, the delegate pledges to vote for his or her candidate for the presdiden-

By ALEX GREENALEXG@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

“If you’re a little lost in all this election-season may-hem, don’t feel too bad. It can be confusing. Let me try to explain what’s hap-pening...

”

Making sense of elections Winners of Rhea County’s support on Super Tuesday

see ELECTION page 5

CoURtESY of RhEA CoUNtY ElECtIoN CommISSIoN

Student Life

When I think of Valentine’s Day, I picture some cupid guy shooting his love arrow into me, which would then some-how, by some love magic, show me my true love.

Well, my friends, this is entirely and completely false. No one should ever expect to find their true love on Valen-

tine’s Day. The rela-t ionships started on Valentine’s Day sim-ply do not last.

Valen-tine’s Day in high

school simply means that ev-ery guy in the school is going to try and be romantic that day...in school. I mean, how romantic can you be inside a school? What are you going to do, bring a couple of candles to the cafeteria and tell the teacher to dim the lights while you and your lady friend enjoy some nice cafeteria food?

Seems to me that all you guys out there would wait

I am walking through Target. Everything is red and pink. Hearts and half-naked bow-wielding cherubs are ev-erywhere. The holiday dread-ed by many will soon be here. Why must we put up with such a nightmare?

There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine’s

Day. Some b e l i e v e that it’s a h o l i d a y to honor Saint Val-entine, a R o m a n priest who r e f u s e d to give up

Christianity, or possibly, a Ro-man priest who ran around performing secret marriages for young couples caught in forbidden love. For others, it’s just a day we have to appreci-ate our loved ones.

You know how the saying goes, “There are those who makes things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what hap-pened.” Well, in this case, we

all wonder what happened. No one can really say for sure.

Since at least the Middle Ages, February has been a month for celebrating love with greet-ing cards, candy, f lowers , t h e w o r k s . It’s all so m u s h y a n d p o i n t -less. I don’t un-derstand why we have to set out one m o n t h , particularly one day, to show the ones we love how much we appreciate them. The holiday is completely fatuous.

I don’t have a “significant oth-er,” but even if I did, why on Earth would I want to buy him some-thing for a temporary “aww”? It’s rather sick. Who gets pleasure from stuff like that!? I like genuine feelings and real people.

You need to be aware that

no one really cares about candy, flowers, or any other nice gestures for Valentine’s Day. They last a few days and then “poof!”—the appre-

ciation is gone. Sure, they’ll smile. Who wouldn’t? I would smile just being graced by his pres-e n c e . Why can’t that be e n o u g h ? Why can’t we just treat our l o v e d o n e s w i t h k i n d -

ness and respect all year around? That definitely means much more to me than some cheesy little gift someone attempted to put thought into.

Unfortunately, we do have those who are oblivious to the ridiculous commercialism of this holiday. I asked my friend Hunter Green what Valentine’s Day meant

Valentine’s Day? Don’t buy it. K.I.S.S. on V-Dayto turn on the charm until school’s over, when you can ac-tually be a little romantic. Ask that girl out on a date. Take her out to dinner. When you pick her up from her house, that’s when you give her flowers.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t bring those little Valentine’s Day cards with a piece of candy to school. In fact, some of my best memo-ries of Valentine’s Day are back in grade school when my whole class would exchange the different little cartoon V-day cards, where each guy in class was ripping all the candy off the cards and then search-ing for a card that gave a clue to which girl liked him.

So take note ladies, the way to my heart is a piece of candy and a little square card with a cartoon character saying something that gives me a clue that you like me.

And all you romantic guys out there—save the smooching ‘till after school and we’ll all have a better Valentine’s Day. Everyone knows smooching’s better when done after hours anyway.

Just about any time you turn on the television these days, you meet a barrage of political com-mercials and election updates. This display of politics may en-courage you to register to vote in this election and have your voice heard.

It’s not a difficult task—you simply fill out a registration card and return it to the election com-mission office. In about thirty days you will receive your regis-tration card in the mail and will then be able to vote.

The next question is, where do I find this registration card, and

see VALENTINE page 5

Now’s the time to register to vote!By CORY SMITH

CORY@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG what do I need to have with me to fill it out?

Mrs. Brenda Dodson, the Administrator of Elections for Rhea County, said that this form is available at several places: the Public Library, the Department of Safety (where you go to get your license), and at the Election Com-mission office on Court Street in Dayton.

She added that all you need to bring to register is yourself—you don’t need a driver’s license, so-cial security number, or any other fancy documents to fill out the registration form.

Mrs. Dodson warned that registering does not immediately enable a person to vote. She cau-tioned that you must register thir-ty days before the election that you plan to vote in; this allows your registration card time to be processed.

LEFT: The Tennessee voter registra-tion form is simple and straightfor-ward. You must turn 18 before the next election to register, and submit your form at least 30 days before you intend to vote.

The Election Commission office is where you need to re-turn your application. It’s open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm.

The application can also be mailed to the office to be pro-cessed, but remember, mail the application with enough time to arrive and still fit inside the thirty day window. The forms can be mailed to: Rhea County Election Commission, P.O. Box 181, Dayton, TN.

Mrs. Dodson plans to come to the high school sometime in April to hold a voter registra-tion drive, as well.

LAUREN COLLINS

WILLGARRISON

so they would have to pay more to make up for the other 53%.

She also says that half-cent sales tax would hardly be notice-able, as opposed to an increase in property taxes.

Since the proposition was de-feated by such a small margin, RCHS seniors who are able to vote by August or November could be a deciding factor in the final out-come, if they get out and vote.

Students who can’t vote could also help by encouraging their parents to go to the polls as well.

TAX from Page 1

4 The Eagle’s Nest • Valentine’s Edition • February 2008

Admit it or not, there are those among us who find comfort in turning on their computers and double-clicking the big icon of a lime that sits nonchalantly on their desktop.

But what about those of us who are sick of missing album art, fake songs, and the plague of vi-ruses that follows if you download the wrong file? What about those of us who actually want to pay for music and support the artists we love?

Granted, there are always stores like the iTunes Store, but is it truly the best way: buying songs for 99¢ each, only to find out they won’t work with the new MP3 player you got for Christmas?

Luckily for us, the Amazon-gods heard our pleas and intro-duced the Amazon MP3 store in September of last year. The proj-ect is certainly ambitious. Striving to create a successful music store is no small feat, and yet Amazon pulled it off as smoothly as the re-cording industries would allow.

In all, their music database contains over 3.1 million songs from more than 270,000 artists, with most of these songs priced from 89¢ to 99¢. Additionally, most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99.

Amazon takes on iTunes Will Smith is legend

Yet perhaps the most excit-ing feature of Amazon? All of its songs are DRM free. What’s DRM, you ask? DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is the pesky set of restrictions which won’t let you burn your music to certain CDs, or limit which MP3 players and computers you can listen to your music on.

Music companies are finally starting to see the light, and songs downloaded from Amazon are playable on virtually any digital music-playing device.

This is a major benefit on Am-azon’s side, since you’ll never have to deal with upgrade woes again. Did I mention that in addition to all of the above, music download-ed from Amazon is higher qual-ity than almost every other online

music store?Ah, yet there must be a catch.

Darn those catches! Amazon re-quires you to install their special Amazon MP3 Downloader in or-der to, uh, download their songs.

Surprisingly, this isn’t as hor-rible as it sounds. Not only does the Downloader have a small file size (dial-up users rejoice), but it also has an extremely intuitive interface, so there isn’t much you can mess up. Amazon even tries to make up for the extra steps in-volved by being able to automati-cally add your new songs to Win-dows Media Player and iTunes.

The final conclusion? Pros for Amazon’s MP3 store far outweigh the cons, unless you’re someone who likes short-term convenience over the long-term outcome.

photo fRom AmAZoN.Com

photo CoURtESY of WARNER BRoS. pICtURES

Say goodbye to digital music limitations—MP3’s purchased from Amazon.com will play in iTunes, Windows Media Player, and on any device that can play digital files.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) faces the specter of a ruined New York City in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ sci-fi action adven-ture I Am Legend, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty is available in paperback from Random House Publishers.

TECH TOOLSby

Matthew Price

You may remember Will Smith from movies such as Bad Boys, The Pursuit of Hap-pyness or Independence Day. Well, Smith hits another box office hit in I am Legend,

which was released in Decem-ber 2007.

I am Legend is a sci-fi blockbuster with nocturnal vampire-like beings roam-ing the streets of New York City. Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist searching to find the cure for the cancer virus that has left him the sole survivor in New York.

The creatures are contami-nated with the virus and have

MOVIE REVIEW by

Nilam Patel

a hunger for human flesh. Hunt-ing deer during the day while bar-ricading himself from the zom-bies at night, Neville tries to live a normal life, with activities such as golf. Along with his German Shepard, Sam, Neville hopelessly tries to find the cure and search for other survivors.

For the most part of the mov-ie, Neville, is alone and is shown desperately searching for a cure.

Also, Neville deals with flash-backs in which he remembers his family and former life.

This movie is captivating and thought-provoking—especially the shots of an uninhabited New York City, covered in lush grass and abandoned cars. This movie is remotely related to sci-fi movies such as 28 Days Later, which can feel like déjà vu; however, Smith’s exceptional acting is captivating.

This movie is perfect to watch if you like thrillers or just love Will Smith’s performances.

At first glance, A Great and Terrible Beauty appears to be just another cliché book lurking in the Teens section, but if you take out the time to pick it up it’s actually worth a read.

Gemma is a girl stuck in the Victorian age with the unfor-tunate afliction of independent thought. After the suicide of her mother she is sent from her home in India to Spence, a boarding school for young ladies, where she has to deal with petty girls and the unwanted attention of an In-dian boy who followed her from home. She can also conjure a door of light that leads to a place called the Realms.

While there she finds out that she is descended from a line of priestesses that governed the mysterious Realms and is the only one who can restore their secret society called The Order. At every turn there is another reason to question who she trusts and more people waiting to thwart her ef-forts at harnessing the magic.

The book captures the struggle

of being a free-spirited woman in a time when society wanted your body and mind both corseted. It also manages to throw in a clas-sic batch of good versus evil in the form of ancient magic.

A decent introductory book into the Gemma Doyle trilogy, it’s followed up by Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. Both of which are much better than the first. It’s dark and angsty, so if you don’t do that sort of thing I would pass it by, but for all the rest of you...I would definitely go get myself a copy.

BOOK REVIEW by

Starr Houston

Great and Terrible Beauty more great than terrible

Music ReviewsBy KARISSA LINDAHLKARISSA@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

Of MontrealHissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Animal Collective Strawberry Jam

The Willowz Chautauqua

Bright Eyes Cassadaga

Air Pocket Symphony

Hissing Fauna, Are You The De-stroyer? is the eighth album re-lease for psychedelic disco indie rock masterminds Of Montreal.

A loose concept album detailing lead singer, Kevin Barnes’, transformation into alter-ego Georgie Fruit, Hissing Fauna details his life with melo-dramatic lyrics and an upbeat tempo.

The first half of the album sends you on a journey through the struggles of everyday life which eventually lead you into the “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”, the threshold which transcends you into the whimsi-cal world of Georgie Fruit.

Animal Collective brings a new element to their sound every album they release, and Straw-berry Jam is no exception.

This album is the most me-lodic and accessible release to date. Animal Collective are generally thrown into the freak-folk genre with artists such as Devendra Banhart or Joanna Newsom, but this album will completely change that notion.

A first time listener may be thrown off by all of the things going on in every track, there-fore multiple sit and listen ses-sions are required. If you can get past the overwhelming fac-tor, Strawberry Jam has mass potential.

The Wil-lowz’s 2007 r e l e a s e , C h a u -taqua, is exemplary

of their one-of-a-kind sound. Unusual music layered up

with deep lyrics and pure tal-ent make for what could easily be your favorite album of the year.

B r i g h t Eyes have r e l e a s e d their most innovative album yet

with Cassadaga. Conor Oberst’s beautiful lyrics blended into a country-folk background keep your ears on edge.

French duo Air’s fourth album re-lease Pock-et Sympho-ny is their

brightest and most song -ori-ented release to date. Spacious, moody, and fuzzy.

The Eagle’s Nest • Valentine’s Edition • February 2008 5

to him, and he replied, “I think it is a day of showing your ap-preciation for someone in your life by buying them really ex-pensive things.”

This poor child has obvi-ously been brain-washed by materialistic females seeking a kick to their self-esteem. Hunter! What are you think-ing? We are teenagers. We are broke teenagers with emotional stress! Don’t let girls throw this burden on you! Hey, it could save you a few bucks, too.

After a few minutes to calm down, I thought, “Well okay, I will give Hunter a second chance.” I asked if he thought

Saint Valentine’s Day was a good or bad holiday. Once again, he disappointed me. “I think it’s a good holiday to spend time with someone you have feelings for,” he said.

Listen kids, take it from some-one who has learned the hard way: if you really care about someone, why not set out a day in each month, or however often you prefer, with that lucky guy or girl. Set the day aside just for them with no interruptions. Make an attempt to fix them dinner, hang out at your place, or do whatever you two enjoy as long as you let it come from your heart. Unless, of course, you’re heartless like I am. I would just tell them to go make their own dinner.

Back to the point, though,

VALENTINEfrom Page 3

ELECTION from Page 2

Jimmy Dean is back, and this is a tough one, kids! Consider

your answer carefully...

Same as before, squint your eyes and try to identify the

pixelated location shown in the photo above. Make your

guess, then submit your answer to the drop box in the library,

using one of the entry slips provided. (It’s on top of the card

catalog--you remember...that things with all the trays of little

cards that have book titles on them? Yeah, that.)

The deadline for entries is Friday, February 29th.

One entry, drawn at random from all the

correct entries received, will win a

$15 iTunes Music Store

gift card!

you don’t need to spend money on someone to let them know you care. If you don’t agree with me, you better tell them to hit the road. I will leave you with a few words of advice. If you absolutely insist on celebrating Saint Valen-tine’s Day, do it with care.

If you must give your signifi-cant other a gift, I recommend burning a CD or even giving him or her memorable photos. Those things always mean a lot, and they stay with you for as long as you want them to.

Please, let me repeat this: stay away from those horrid stuffed bears. I swear, those things come alive when you are sleeping. If you must get them a stuffed animal, do not get them a bear! Be creative. How about a nice stuffed centaur?

tial pary nomination. For the Democrats, a can-

didate must receive the votes of 2,025 delegates to win the party nomination.

That makes this year very interesting, because according to CNN.com, Clintion cur-rently has 1,148 delegate votes, and Obama has 1,121.

As of right now, either of the two could win the nomina-tion.

The reason the candidates are so close is that the Demo-cratic party splits the delegates in each state according to the popular votes that each candi-date receives.

So, for instance, if Hillary wins 55% of the popular vote in state X and Obama wins 45% in the same state, and the state offers ten del-egates, the two candidates would each receieve five delegates.

The Republicans have a dif-ferent system, however. The Re-publicans use a winner-take-all system, much like the electoral college. That’s how McCain has such a dominant lead.

In the same state X, if McCain wins 51% of the popular vote, and Huckabee wins 49%, McCain wins all ten delegates. In this system, a frontrunner is revealed early in the election year.

Now that we’ve endured Su-per Tuesday, things in the politi-cal world have become somewhat clearer, at least for the Republi-cans.

The primaries are not, howev-er, over. Over the next five to six months, there will still be many state primaries, and the candi-dates will be working harder than ever to bring in the votes.

The most unpredictable and chaotic part of the race is over, though. From here, we can at least focus on four candidates instead of fifteen to twenty.

And make no mistake, you will hear about these four can-didates in the coming months. Political pundits everywhere will continue to tell us who will top his or her respective party, and how that candidate will do in the gen-eral election in November.

But whether anyone knows how this will play out, I doubt it—especially if you’re a Democrat.

Sports

Seven Golden Eagle wrestlers managed to finish high enough at last weeks’ region tournament to qualify for the state tournament. This is a new school record, and Rhea County head coach Zac Brown couldn’t be more proud of his team.

Brown, who predicted prior to the region tournament that the team could send six or seven Eagles to state if they wrestled to their full potential, said, “I’m ex-

photo SUBmIttED

A record seven wrestlers placed high enough in the region tournament last week to advance to the state level. ABOVE, FROM LEFT: Coach Head, Nic Fuller, Logan Henley, Quinton Carter, Jacob Henley, Kevin Revis, Cody Graves, and Coach Brown.

Seven wrestlers state-bound

2008 track season prospects are hopeful

By RYAN SMITHRYAN@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

By BROOKE SMITHBROOKE@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

By ROCHELLE NORDYKEROCHELLE@RCHSEAGLESNEST.ORG

tremely proud of the guys’ effort and hard work. Having seven state qualifiers shows what hard work and determination can do.”

For three RCHS seniors, this is not the first trip to the state tournament.

Jacob Henley finished second in the state last year, and hopes to perform well again this year. The one-hundred-and-thirty-pound-er managed to finish the regular season with a record of 20-2.

When asked his thoughts on his senior season, Henley said,

“The regular season has been a little disappointing for me be-cause of being injured, but I’m very much looking forward to dominating the state tourna-ment.”

His fellow seniors, Cody Graves and Hunter Daniel also made trips to the state last year. Graves finished the regular sea-son with a record of 25-8, while Daniel finished at 27-4.

The other four state qualifiers are Nic Fuller, who finished 27-9 in the 103-pound weight class,

Logan Henley, who finished 13-5 in the 112-pound weight class, Quinton Carter, who finished 23-13 in the 119-pound class, and Kevin Revis, who finished 26-9 in the heavyweight division.

When asked about what he expects out of his wrestlers in the state tournament, Coach brown said, “Henley and Daniel are both returning state medal-ist, and Cody is a returning state qualifier. I expect all three to leave Chattanooga as 2008 state medalists”

Runners, take your marks! Pre-season has already begun for the RCHS Track Team.

Coach Mitchell has high ex-pectations for the distance teams this year, having so many return-ing letterman.

The boys distance team cur-rently consists of Jacob Henley, Tim Cook, Tyler Tallent, Artemio Pasquel, Levi Coxy, Zac Barnes, and Arron Patton.

The girls distance team is composed of Alyssa Lindsey, Mary-Beth Dyer, Grace Henley, Rochelle Nordyke, Amy Newport, Mallory Dyer, Leanne Patton, and Katie Arnold.

The boys and girls 4x8 teams are expected to break the record this year. Tyler Tallent and Tim Cook are anticipated to break the open 8. Tim Cook is also likely to

break the 1 mile. According to coach Mitchell,

if Jacob Henley stays healthy, he and Zac Barnes will make their presence known.

He is still looking for a girls 1-mile runner and 2-mile runner as well.

Brandon McLeoroy is going to be a strong force in the discus and shot; Dillon Peak, Tripp Graham, Ryan Smith and Adam Brown will be throwing as well.

Hannah Travis and Chris Rob-erts will lead the sprinters and be joined by McKayla Gillespi, Brit-tany Rothfolk, Catron Matthews, and a few crossovers.

The coaches are hoping for more freshmen and upperclass-men to decide to come out and join the team. If you are interest-ed in track, official practice began this week. Practice is held every day on the track after school.

Tennis season has begun at Rhea County High School! Both teams are gearing up to face stiff competition this sea-son.

This years’ lineup for the girls team consists of Julie Gil-lette, Brooke Smith, Lindsey Catlett, Ashley Ellis, Ashley Stewart, Destiny Congioloso, Kelci Frederick, Caylee Co-chran, and Hailee Gordon.

This talented team has al-ready begun their annual prac-tices at the Racquet Club in Chattanooga and are working hard to make this the best sea-son yet.

Coach Lil Andrews has high expectations for her team and is working hard to accomplish her goals for a potentially win-ning season. “If we play up to our full potential, we should be among the top in the district,” says Coach Andrews.

This years’ mens team consists of Kelly Lane, Billy Whisman, Michael Cooper, Nick Tuttle, Matthew Keylon, Stephen Webb, Adam Roddy, Brandon Riggle, Mitchell Barry, Wesley Sanders, Dylan Coulter, Justin Nation, and Jacob Rick-etts.

Coach Micah Ruehling also has high expectations and says, “I’m excited about the possibili-ties for the upcoming season.

We have enough depth and leadership to make a run at the district title.” Hopefully the coaches’ and players’ high expectations for this year will become a reality.

Good luck to both teams!

Eagle tennis team begins season prep

Ryan Smith and Brandon McLeroy work on their shot-put technique at a recent track practice.photo BY jUlIUS SmIth

Opinion

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Enemy of Democracy? Probably not.

We all have our differencesThroughout life, we as human

beings pass judgement on those around us. Often, we harshly cri-tique our peers. Even more often, we do so without truly knowing who this person is. Unfortunately this often harms both the judge and those being judged.

The obvi-ous harm is to the judged, but the judge is also harmed. The judge may take one shred of knowledge about his sub-ject and auto-matically ap-

ply many more labels and faults to this person even though they may not be true.

This application may keep the judge from seeing the good in the person being judged and keep both in a place of ignorance, bit-terness and harm.

Throughout history this fault of human nature has harmed or murdered millions of good men and women. During the African American civil rights movement, misconceptions and quickly-drawn conclusions caused riots nationwide that both mentally and physically hurt people.

The Communist and Fascist states of Europe in the early twen-tieth century murdered and per-secuted millions upon millions because their victims didn’t fit a certain standard of “perfection.”

During the religious crusades

PersPective:

PersPective:

in the Middle East, religious intolerance killed good men, women and children all be-cause they didn’t belong to a particular faith. The same oc-curred during the Spanish In-quisition.

Even more recently, there has been a constant struggle between religious factions and those who don’t uphold the ex-act tenants of a particular faith: homosexuals, single mothers, Muslims, divorced families, and anyone else who doesn’t agree.

As Americans, we should be able to hold to a higher sense of right, beyond that of reli-gious difference, beyond that of political difference. Ameri-cans should be compassionate enough to follow the golden rule of treating others the way you wish to be treated.

We should be intelligent enough to look beyond labels and find the true nature of our fellow man. Americans should be able to look beyond a faith, a sexual orientation, a political view, or a circumstance to see that the man or woman stand-ing next to them is a human being, just like they are.

So, I challenge you: The next time you talk to a person who you have misconceptions about, really talk to them. Find out who they really are. You just may find that they aren’t much different that you.

CORY SMITH

ALEX GREEN

Every Monday through Thursday, I stay up to watch A

Daily Show and the Col-bert Report on Comedy Central from eleven to twelve. I en-joy watching Jon Stewart, in his arro-gant, sarcastic

delivery, dismantle the biggest news of the day while poking fun at any politician who happens to be in the spotlight at the time.

Following Stewart, Colbert’s program airs, and he tells the news from his point of view, which is narrow-minded and far to the right.

The thing about Stephen Col-bert, though, is that he plays the host of the Colbert Report.

In an interview with Morley Sayer on 60 Minutes, Colbert ad-mits that the character he plays is a “a well-intentioned, poorly in-formed, hight-status idiot.”

Stewart, on the other hand, does not play a character, but he doesn’t claim to present the hard news either.

In an interview with Bill Moyer of PBS, Stewart said, “I

can assure [the viewers] they’re not getting any journalism from us. I do believe [The Daily Show] function[s] as a sort of editorial cartoon.”

Stewart clearly states here that he does not intend to come off as a news anchor.

So why do many accuse him of poisoning his young viewers by making them cynical and apa-thetic toward the political pro-cess?

At East Carolina University, two political science professors polled student reaction to cov-erage of the 2004 presidential race by CBS News and The Daily Show.

What they found was that Daily Show watchers were more cynical about candidates, cam-paigns, the electoral system and the news media than the network news viewers were.

The Washington Post had a field day with this data, using it to attack The Daily Show and label Stewart an “Enemy of De-mocracy.”

What the Post failed to men-tion, though, was that the Stew-art watchers also felt “more con-fident about their own ability to understand politics,” thus mak-ing them more likely to get in-

volved in the voting process. Being one of these viewers,

I’d like to give my input: I watch The Daily Show because it’s enter-taining, and I do not rely on Jon Stewart for my news.

Sure, he presents news, but just as he says, he doesn’t report on it.

I actually had no interest in politics until I started watching Stewart and Colbert. I would tune in at night to watch them do their shows and make their jokes, but often I didn’t appreciate the raw humor in the statements.

As I watched increasingly more late night television, I de-veloped a desire for knowledge about the issues presented on the Daily Show and Colbert Report.

To acquire this knowledge, I turned to true news networks. I began to watch the news and take note of what was going on in the political world, and now that I’ve done that, I have a desire to get involved and make a difference.

So does watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report make me more cynical about the government and politics? I don’t really think so. I think it makes me want to know what’s really going on, and in today’s world, is that really such a bad thing?

Just for FunRUDOLPH VALINTIN...OH.A REGULAR

A comic adventure by will garrison, tyler humphrey, and Eric Bailey. PHotography by JAY MADDUX. WIth special guest star brittany conley and the RCHS DRAMA CLUB Make-up head.

V N H G A T H E R I N G S T O N E S A GW M F E E G J B K W L A L Y M S Q F J MJ Y A C D O A W Q B P I K S N C M J U FA L K R A K R B R D M I J M E G L E W XY F E E C R E G M W R V T A M A Z O N IB B G M B H T D I G I T A L R I G H T SR X Z W J U H O X E N L V A W D Q A D TQ M B O V C I Q O R F K Y M J X M L I UR V L H H K R O J N I R W I N E N F G FM U K N Q A T V M O V U U H U G V C F FT E X N A B Y L A P B I C I G E O E H EG I Y X O E S E U Q K S C R T M F N M DB J U Y Q E K P B Y O D H F F M Y T A CG B H Y N C I X X K O T W A U A I E X EP U T U E Q L E I R E L A N D D T Y M NJ V M F W L L I R S G Y I Q J O Z A C TO Z A Z Y W S X N I E X Q U Z Y W S Q AI S D Q O C U T H T P V Y H X L L I C UQ B Y W R R S L V G O A E S W E J H N RQ D W N K Y A R H J K N W N Y O U L K GEa

gle’

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1. Month for Parent/Teacher conferences: __ __ __ __ __2. Days to process a voter registration form: __ __ __ __ __ __3. Title of Ms. Ballentine’s book: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __4. Company competing with iTunes for online music sales: __ __ __ __ __ __5. Number of RCHS wrestlers competing in the state tournament: __ __ __ __ __6. Lauren Collins’ approved Valentine’s gift: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __7. Ms. Ballentine travelled to this country before she wrote her book: __ __ __ __ __ __ __8. Amount of the proposed sales tax increase for school improvements: __ __ __ __ - __ __ __ __9. Alter-ego on Of Montreal’s album: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __10. Juniors will be doing this next Friday: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __11. Will Garrison’s favorite Valentine cards have one of these on them: __ __ __ __ __ __ __12. Democratic candidate who won the majority of votes in Rhea County’s primary election: __ __ __ __ __ __ __13. Heroine in A Great and Terrible Beauty: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __14. Republican candidate who won the majority of votes in Rhea County’s primary election: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __15. Vocational organization holding competitions this month: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

INSTRUCTIONS: Scour the pages of this issue of The Eagle’s Nest for answers to the clues. Then see if you can find them in the puzzle!