March 21, 2003 - Volume 2, Issue 5

Staff Editorial: No War With Iraq

As war approaches, the people of New Trier speak their varied opinions. Even The Focus staff could not come to a complete agreement on this editorial. However, opinions must still be voiced despite disagreement. President George W. Bush is believed to be launching this war because of his own psychological fear, oil, and personal reasons. He fears that he will be known as the worst president in U.S. history. The President thinks that if he allowed the September 11, 2001 attacks to go unjustified and the Iraqi attack follow through, then he will be viewed differently compared to the other great presidents in the United States’ historical past. Also, his father had his own problems with Saddam Hussein and it is believed that he could be prompting his son for revenge on the assassination attempts of Bush Senior.

Mr. Kerry Hall of the Social Studies Department is very outspoken against the war. His website, linked to the New Trier homepage, has full details for those interested in the coming war and is updated every day. While national opinion has polarized on the issue of Iraq, The Focus is firmly against war at this point. Mr. Hall’s extensive research brought us to an interesting poll in the New York Times in February, asking whether people believed Saddam Hussein was behind the September 11 attacks. More than 40 percent believed that he was involved. Hall stated that, “42 percent of the country is wrong and heavily misinformed” when referring to those that believe the war is reasonable.

We agree completely with this and also believe that this misconception is result of Bush’s continuous pushing for the war. The people of the U.S. have drawn these conclusions based on inadequate information and could lead to unnecessary hatred and bloodshed. By the time this article is printed, we will probably be at war with Iraq. It is important to emphasize that this war is without the approval of the UN, the people of the United States, and the international community. This war has been prepared by a small group of unselected cabinet officials and given to Bush so he would begin this random masquerade, even if one of those officials is from New Trier.

The most pathetic part of all this is that the nation has so many better targets than Iraq, such as the Philippines, North Korea, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and an abandoned nation, Afghanistan, which we had promised to rebuild. All these locations have known terrorist organizations at large and are all against the United States. North Korea and Pakistan have nuclear weapons, and Iran is on the edge of acquiring them as well.

The last time we attacked Iraq, we attacked because they took over Kuwait, an independent nation. Now we plan to invade an independent nation for reasons unknown even to most high ranking officials. The actions taken by Cohn Powell and Donald Rummsfeld may be seen as warmongering, but another theory is that they are trying to get other countries to stop the war by insulting them. We could say that this is the beginning of the end, or the downfall of the U.S. as a super power.

Frosh Science Olympiads Shock Upperclassmen

by Amar Kelkar and David Stein

From the 2nd Tuesday in September 2002 until March 1, 2003, a group of more than 20 students have worked hard preparing for the Science Olympiad Tournament. The Freshman Science Olympiad team was admitted to a different regional competition in Illinois then that participated in by the Winnetka team. All high school Science Olympiad teams compete in the C Division, whereas Junior High schools participate in B Division and A Division is, at present, nonexistent.

Typically, Science Olympiad C Division is comprised of juniors and seniors with an occasional sophomore that gets admitted onto the 15-man roster. The C Division events ranged from Timed Gliders to Studying Fossils in preparation for a test to playing a homemade musical instrument. In total there were 23 events, and the Northfield Team medalled in 7 events. To medal, a team must be in one of the top 4 places out of 11 teams. Considering New Trier Northfield has an all freshman team, this is impressive. Mr. Robert Pasquesi, the assistant team coach commented, “The team did great … they were an all freshman team and did a great job.” He also said, “For an all-freshman team competing against 4-year schools, we did a great job.”

The team participated in all 23 of the events and medalled in Feathered Frenzy (Grace Chen and Keith McCammon), Sounds of Music (Grace Chen and Sean Chen), Dynamic Planet (David Stein and Varun Kaushik), Remote Sensing (David Stein and Mark Sokolowski), Fossils (Ed Tsai and Mark Sokolowski), Bottle Rockets (Andrew Chin and Steven Lawrence), Disease Detectives (Sean Chen and Tatsuya Oishi). The two events where our team really stood out in were Sounds of Music and Fossils. Our 2nd Place Finish in Fossils according to Mark Sokolowski, “… came at a complete shock to us.” Our 1st Place finish in Sounds of Music was no surprise as the event supervisor told the team after the event that our instruments were “The best I’ve seen all day.” Our 3rd Place finish in Bottle Rockets prompted shouts of “Who bribed the judges?” from team members. This came because the faulty launcher at the competition kept falling over and when the rocket stayed up less than seven seconds, they assumed the worst, as they were worried before the competition that they wouldn’t medal with a combined time for two rockets of 24 seconds.

With seven medals in hand, the team was ready to leave the award ceremony in the gym. They expected possibly and 8th or 9th place finish at best and would have to wait until the placement sheets were given to the team sponsors to find out. Going to state was not on the minds of the team and as the team awards were being announced, they contemplated who would be in the top five places and have the opportunity to go to state. Medals were being awarded to the top 6 teams in the C Division and the first High School read off the list was “6th Place … New Trier!” Everyone on the team were off their feet screaming as well as team coaches Mr. Wurth and Mr. McCrea. The team had missed Northfield’s first Science Olympiad visit to State by one place, but barely anyone was complaining. All of the Sponsors were shocked and extremely proud of the hard work put in by the students and were happy to bring home the medal to its new home at New Trier. Pasquesi attributes the team success to the fact that “We were able to put enough time in to compete in every single event, [and] we put a lot of time and effort in, with a few exceptions.”

In Winnetka, different phenomenon had taken place: New Trier had medalled in 22 of the 23 events at their regional and were going to State. Medalling in 22 out of 23 events was not only a great feat, but a new record. Though the two campuses will not do battle at State, both teams have been invited to be honored at a Board Meeting some time in April. Also, 10 of the freshman team members were asked to come to State to help set up events, but when funding didn’t come through, the excursion was cancelled. Now all of New Trier is left to cheer the Winnetka team.